BIKETOWNpdx User Reviews

What users say

Top reviews

Awfully unfair

I find a bike in an area outside the green zone just on the sidewalk- as I scan I’m not warned that it will ACTIVELY fight me as I bike it back to a station. Essentially I returned an abandoned bike as it actively fought me AND IT CHARGES 17 dollars? ARE YOU INSANE? I’ll just uber next time. #### Lift and BIKETOWN
Show more

Terrible customer support, lime resolved same issue with no lip service

Even though I prefer the functionality of Biketown scooters over Lime scooters, I will always choose Lime over Biketown because their customer support near-instantly resolved a problem Biketown would not fix.

Biketown support refused to end my ride or acknowledge that I was in a parking zone when my location in the app was inaccurate, even after sending a photo of the scooter locked in front of the biketown/lime parking sign. They kept telling me things like “move closer to the parking zone” when I couldn’t possibly get any closer, and the app showed me 20 feet over in the street. They said they couldn’t remotely end my ride and it’d automatically end after 25 hours. This was unacceptable because I was supposed to be leaving on a camping trip with no cell service. I had to ride the scooter about half a mile away to park it and walk back, turning a 10-minute ride into a 45-minute ordeal. I nearly missed the trip as a result.

A week later, I ran into the same issue with Lime, and after I messaged support my ride was ended near-instantly with zero back-and-forth.

Additionally, there is no simple way to report being unable to start a ride and I was charged to unlock a non-functioning scooter. Lime makes it easy to report this issue.

I was also forced to walk a mile at 1am after the app wouldn’t load scooter locations or scan scooters directly in front of me despite my internet working perfectly.
Show more

Not working two days, nor customer service

App not working, tried everything included reinstalling. Now disappeared from Home Screen. No help available. Had grown used to it now unusable.

Needs a lot more bike racks

I find it ridiculous they charge you for parking it on a public bike rack if it isn’t a BIKETOWN station. They don’t mention that part until you’ve already unlocked the bike. Either put in a lot more stations or get rid of this fee . I understand needing to keep people from ditching the bikes in random places but there are better ways to do it
Show more

Charged for Errors A LOT

Sometimes when I hit the resume button on my app the app ends the ride instead, charging me for parking. This has happened several times including today, and customer service refuses to do anything about it. They just say sorry. Don’t waste your time getting sneakily charged.

This is a dangerous scooter

I love using e-scooters to get around. Lime was frustrating at first but ended up working great.

-You are charged for ALL the reservation time, even if you got to the scooter within the time limit.

- You can never not have a $1 parking fee, even if you park in their "designated" areas that are shown on the map.

-BIKETOWN uses all fees possible to try and get the most money from you while claiming to be 2¢ cheaper per minute.

- Rides are consistently $2-$2.50 more expensive than Lime rides for the same short route.

- The scooters are extremely wobbly and unstable. The handlebars are way too close to your torso, which causes unbalance.

-The forced braking when going down hills is straight up dangerous. If my scooter is going too fast the braking needs to be gentle. Not a hard stop going down a hill at who knows how fast.

All that said I will be going out of my way to not use this product.
Show more

Awful scooter experience

In a <1 mile ride, my scooter was fully stopped twice in the middle of the street due to bad geolocation placing me in a park that I wasn’t in. Then charged an extra $1 for out of station parking on a scooter. Why anyone would choose this over lime is beyond me, I certainly won’t again.

Completely unreliable, worst bikeshare

I’ve had a yearly membership and this will be my last year. 80% of the experience has been unlocking a bike that then runs out of batteries in 3 blocks, leaving you to either stop and try to find another station and another bike, or try to ride this monstrosity of a bike to your destination which is an insane amount of energy if you’ve ever tried to ride a dead e-bike. Then there is no place in the app to report that the bike battery is dead so you inevitably subject the next person to a dead bike battery too, and you’ve paid $5 for the luxury of being late to whatever you’re going to or arriving in a sweaty disgusting mess because you decided to ride a dead bike. It’s insane that they don’t disable bikes that are out or extremely low on battery and everyone I’ve talked to who has tried Biketown has had the same experience. Too bad!
Show more

Ok

It’s adequate

Motor inconsistent

I used a BIKETOWN e-bike in Portland. The motor assist quit suddenly twice while climbing hills. And then it flipped on strong unexpectedly on a mild ascent. I did not feel safe based on these incidents. And when I tried to report it on the app, the only five options for naming the problem did not include motor malfunction. Very disappointed, especially because it’s an expensive rental at 30 cents a minute.
Show more

Hidden fines

Horrible service. You can be charged $25 for parking ‘incorrectly’. Rude customer service. Many bikes are in poor condition and hardly roadworthy. Vandalised bikes are common. Not worth your time.

great service

App works very well. Would love to see HealthKit integration.

Not City Wide

I seen a bunch of these in Beaverton. Yet they are not showing on the app. Specifically at Millikan Max station stop.

icodyp

This app saved me from homelessness. I was able to get approved for the biketown for ALL program and I used the bike for door dash and made enough money to rent a car and take door dash to the next level and eventually I got into a room for rent after a couple of weeks. Seriously you guys at Lyft ARE THE GOOD GUYS. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I AM FOREVER GRATEFUL. Once I get my own car I’ll definitely be driving for Lyft again. #teamlyft💪🏼
Show more

This is a scam! Keeps charging 25$ fines

Nice idea, but everytime you pause your ride, it locks your bike and then charges you a 25$ fine for “leaving it in the wrong place”!
Horrible UX!

There’s a glitch when looking at train and bus.

It won’t stay on the train and bus part of the app. It shows it for approximately 5 seconds and goes back to Nike bikes.

75%

When it works it’s great. That’s about 3 out of 4 times… with the 4th being after a five mile ride and then it won’t unlock.

Doesn’t work

I’ve had a problem for weeks now where I receive an error message saying “please try again later” whether trying to scan the bike QR or reserve online. I’ve tried contacting customer service about this, but every time I do I get forwarded to a new person who clearly hasn’t read my email and just states that I should already do what I’ve been doing. At this point I’m just exhausted with trying the non-functioning app and typing out the issue explanation for your “help” group to not read, really terrible customer service and overall experience.
Show more

Doesn’t work

This app consistently fails to find stations and bikes. Won’t connect on WiFi or cellular. Needs to be deleted and reinstalled before each use. Do not rely on this for a commute.

What a blast!

Super fun! I haven't ridden a bike for years, but for 2 bucks I was compelled to hop on. I logged a 2.36 mile bike ride in 30 minutes. Felt great! Cons: Because of the newness, be prepared to answer lots of questions by people on the street (and to be polite, you can't say "sorry, I'm paying for this bike by the minute, can't talk!" Also you can't rent 2 bikes at once on one person's app. My husband's minutes were ticking away as I had to pull out my own phone to download the app, set up my own account, enter credit card, etc. That was a drag!
Show more