What are the best Rent-a-Bicycle Apps? Free Yellow One?

Hi Everyone,

I just moved back to Beijing city center.

I always loved riding a bicycle. I usually use those renting ones, like MoBike or Yellow Bike.

1. Given all these bikes now (Yellow, Orange, Blue, etc.) which one is the best?

2. I currently only have an app for the Yellow company. I heard there was an app that unlocks that bike for free. Is there one?

When those shared bikes began, I tried to get photos of each model from each company.  Then they became so numerous that I gave up.  I do know some well liked companies either went under or at least pulled out of my city.

Your best bet would to to ask around among your friends, colleagues, or students to get recommendations about which one has the best maintained bikes, best rates, etc.  If there's a general consensus on one or two good ones in Bejing, post an update here so anyone else looking for one in BJ can find it.

If that fails, try a few bikes from each one yourself and leave an update on which were best and which were worst.

I heard people hacked into the Yellow bikes.

This supposed app lets anyone use it, and get free Yellow Bikes in Beijing.

Where can I find info about that?

I've got no clue.  In the overall scheme of things, hacking a bike is very low on the priority list, but consider this - if a foreigner is caught breaking ANY law, even a minor one, the low end punishment is to not allow renewal of residence permit (accompanied by a reentry ban ranging from a few years to eternity.  The option above this is a free ride to the nearest international airport where you'll have to buy a one-way international plane ticket.

I'd also like to point out that software designed to do something against regulations often comes with extra security issues (like trying to hijack confirmation messages from your bank, etc.).  After all, who's going to file a report that begins with "I was using malware to steal free access to bikes and the malware did something malicious to me!" down at the local PSB.  If some does this, they can finish writing their report about how they got some instant karma from inside their administrative detention holding cell.

Bike rentals are cheap. Is it really worth risking your ability to live here to save a few kuai?  Also, if enough people do this, the company offering the Yellow Bikes will end up going out of business since it won't be able to pay for maintenance and for new bikes.