Borrowing an e-cargo bike
In using the library you will receive email from ‘BANZAI Bikes’ from both ‘donotreply@myturn.com’ and ‘banzaibikelibrary@gmail.com’. Check your Spam folder if necessary.
Our cargo bikes are available for the community to borrow for free. They are a great alternative to cars for transporting children, groceries and other medium-sized loads within the city. By using a cargo bike, you are helping to decarbonise transport as well as making the city more liveable.
We currently have a Tern Quick Haul Long and a Riese & Müller Packster 70 available for loans. For more information on joining the library and reserving a bike, go to our BANZAI Bikes Inventory page.
If you’re interested in using the bike library, please help us develop it in the best way possible by also filling in our short Introductory Survey.
What’s involved?
So that we can keep track of who is borrowing which bike, we need you register as a member of the bike library. This is a one-off process, but involves a few steps. After you have entered your account information, you will receive more information via an email, and that will take you to a point where you can reserve a bike.
In the first instance, we’re offering loans of up to a day, 7 days a week. Our current storage location restricts our ability to offer loans in the evenings. However, we want to be flexible, so if you’d like a longer loan, or a later return, please email us on banzaibikelibrary@gmail.com and we can have a chat.
Absolutely! Both the Packster and the Tern will carry up to two children. On the Tern, younger children will need to use a child seat and adaptor which we can provide.
Our insurance only covers the bike itself. If you want accident insurance for yourself, this is something you will have to take care of, for example via Cycling UK.
Assuming it’s just a one day loan, we’ll charge the battery for you.
Please specify the time you would like for collection and drop off in the request ‘Notes’ when you make a reservation. Then we’ll get in touch with you to confirm the time and exact central Bruntsfield location for pickup and drop-off. The default pickup location is at the top of Leamington Terrace, by the side of the SimplyFixIt / Ideal Computing shop (on the corner with Bruntsfield Place).
The first time you borrow one of the bikes we will give you an induction session of 30 minutes or so, and only send you off with it when you feel confident.
We’re funded by the City of Edinburgh Community Grants Fund and the Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network (ECCAN) GreenLight Fund. We are also very grateful to Cargo Bike Movement for their ongoing support and advice, and to Porty Community Energy for inspiration.