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Spain Gets All the Cool Stuff, Like Hertz's Rental Electric Bicycles

This seems crazy, but leave it to Hertz to figure out more ways to rent things that move to travelers when they just don't need cars. We're talking about electric bicycles, which have now entered Hertz's rental fleets in London and—the newest—all over Spain, including Granada, Almería, Alicante, Valencia, Pontevedra, Álava and Barcelona. Even the islands of Mallorca and Formentera haven't been left out; Hertz has brought their nine different types of Swiss Flyer electric bikes off the mainland.

We'd probably most likely use these on an island; it's already on our to-do list now for Palma.

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Miami's DecoBikes: The Best Way to Pedal Around South Beach (with a Case of Corona)

The preferred mode of transportation in Miami Beach is a Bentley. But if you don't want to risk getting yours rained on—and don't mind getting caught in a rain shower yourself—DecoBike is the best way to zoom up and down the beach.

Sure, there's walking (narrow sidewalks, crazy people on Washington Ave., tourists on Collins and Ocean) or catching the South Beach Local bus, which costs a mere quarter. But if you want that magical combo of control, convenience and the feel of the sea breeze in your hair, you've gotta go Deco.

We first told you about this bike rental program a year ago but then, like a new hotel with the best intentions, it got delayed and only made its debut this March. We've been getting our Deco on here and there ever since, and can tell you that it totally lives up to its promise.

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Tweet of the Week: A New York Times Writer Takes on Cross-Country Cycling

We love Tuesdays. Why, you ask? Because the day brings many travel tips and quips as "Travel Tuesday" on Twitter, and we're going to share our favorite with you. Got an avid travel twitterer we should follow? Let us know.

There is a man out there right now, biking cross-country not on a motorcycle but on a regular road bike. Yes, we know people do this all the time, but this instance is special. The man is Bruce Weber (@NYTBruceWeber) and as you can probably tell from his Twitter handle, he's a writer at the New York Times.

His usual area of expertise at the NYT is obituaries, as we can see from his online archive, but lately he's been pursuing his passion of cycling (and writing about it) and making the long journey for the second time in his life.

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Talk About an Airport That Knows Its Demographic...

What's the first thing you think about when you think Portland, Oregon? Is it Mt. Hood? Maybe it's clean, crisp Pacific Northwest air or coffee snobs. For many however, Portland is a bicycling haven, a dreamworld where bike lanes are spacious and chatting up a stranger with talk of U-locks isn't lame at all.

From the moment a travelers arrives at Portland International Airport—more popularly referred to by its airport code PDX—the biped influence is immediate. Signs lead arriving passengers down to baggage claim, to the oversized luggage claim area and finally out to a sea of airport bike racks, complete with a bike assembly area.

This surprise amenity isn't necessarily just for Portland locals, who've traced elsewhere with their bikes. It's for tourists too, who head out this way with their trusty 10-speeds to test the environment.

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No Sweat in the City If You Rent an Electric Bike from Hertz London

We know that there's plenty of spots to score a rental bike, rental car, or electric rental car, but there really haven't been too many options when it comes to finding and borrowing an electric rental bike. Hertz is about to change that, as they're moving from providing four-wheeled transportation options to two-wheeled as well.

In response to London's mission to turn the city into one of the leading electric vehicle destinations in the world, Hertz has begun to offer up some electric bikes for one and all from their Marble Arch branch in the city. Just £20 will get you access to a bike for the whole day, and not having to pedal your way around the city will probably be quite handy during the warm summer months.

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Get Nude in New York During the 'World Naked Bike Ride' This Saturday

It's an event that's as sacred to the city as the No Pants Subway Ride or PillowFight Day—this Saturday is the infamous event known as World Naked Bike Ride. As the name hints, this gathering of nudists, cyclists, and nudes on cycles does happen in other cities around the world, but as with all things, it's so much better when it happens in the Big Apple.

The official rules are thus: ride a bike and "wear what you wish." And yes, there will be girls as well as guys, enjoying the feel of a sun-heated bicycle seat on their bare bits. Join the group or gawk, starting at 3pm under the Williamsburg Bridge, at 99 South 6th Street, to do some creative body painting and then head out across the city. This is a peaceful ride, a kind of hunger strike-turned-clothing-strike to draw attention to pollution, the environment and cyclist rights.

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Bixi Bike Share Arrives in Toronto Just in Time for Summer

We can’t get enough of different cities and their bike sharing programs. London and Boston are just two of the latest towns to get their two-wheeled act together in the last couple of years, and earlier this month Toronto joined the pedal powered party.

Canada’s largest city added around 1,000 bikes thanks to a little bit of assistance from around 80 different stations in and about the downtown area. The Public Bike System Company is behind the city’s new shipment of velocipedes, but for those looking to simply score a cheap ride it’s better known as Bixi. This is the same kind of system that’s already in use in spots like Montreal and Washington, DC, so it might look kind of similar—and that’s a good thing.

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Boston Breaks Out Bike Sharing This Summer with 'Hubway'

No need to hit up Paris or London this summer to ride around in pay-per-ride bicycles, as another city here at home is getting ready for a two-wheel test. Boston is just about ready to unleash its public bike sharing system on the masses, so get ready for a wicked fun time.

Things are moving full speed ahead, and if all goes as planned, the new system—it's called Hubway—could begin as early as July. They’ll start with just 600 or so bikes at around 60 stations around the city, but they’re already thinking about explaining. Eventually the plan is to have like 5,000 bikes all over the greater metropolitan area including spots like Brookline and Cambridge.

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Paris' Vélib Bike Sharing Celebrates Four Years, Raises Prices

If you’ve been to Paris in the last few years, you’ve probably seen all those Vélib bicycles ready for tourists and locals alike to take them for a spin. We’ve even had the pleasure of pedaling one with a baguette in our basket, so it’s with great pleasure that we wish them well on their fourth anniversary this summer.

However, it’s pricey to keep all those seats nice and cushy, and it looks like the bike sharing program is going to cost everyone a few more euros and cents. Starting at the beginning of May—that’s like this week—prices will rise by around 70 cents. Now one-day tickets will set you back €1.70, where things were previously just €1—that’s roughly $2.50 for those of us that have credit cards based in the nifty fifty.

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Travel Channel's New Adrenaline-Pumping TV Show 'Triple Rush' Premieres Tonight

Tonight at 10pm EST, the Travel Channel premieres what it hopes will be its next big, addictive TV show. It's called Triple Rush, and the hour-long episodes document life as a bike messenger in the big city, New York City.

It's basically like the Travel Channel's answer to Discovery's Deadliest Catch, except where the fisherman of Catch face-off against natural forces and risk their lives to bring home the big bucks, Triple Rush depicts those who battle against the manmade obstacles of the city, just to bring in whatever cash they can. Ah, but then there's the adrenaline...

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Cheap Bike Sharing Hits London, Thanks to Barclays

We’ve been following public bike sharing around the globe for quite some time, and we even got to test out the famous Vélib bikes in Paris not too long ago. The latest city to join the craze is London, and we’re sure that the Barclays Cycle Hire will only get bigger and better with the royal wedding just a few months away, not to mention the Olympics in 2012.

Things kicked off last summer, but the real fun began last month when things were opened up to the general public with fewer restrictions and no specific membership requirements. London’s bike rental program works pretty similar to others, so all you need to do is find a bike rack, throw down a few bucks—Pounds Sterling in this case—and then start pedaling.

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An Unexpected City Sight: Bike Parking Spots

What's one of the last things you expect to see in one of the most overly crowded cities in the world, where space is at a premium? Perhaps space used thoughtfully...say for these official bicycle parking spots in the Tsukishima district of Tokyo, maybe?

Tokyo may be stacked with sleek (and not-so-sleek) high-rise apartment buildings and the most artfully shaped houses that fit on the most impossibly small plots of land, but the city is very respectful of its citizens needs, and shows it in small and much-appreciated ways like this. Notice that many of the bikes aren't even locked up, even though we were just off of Monja-dori, a popular restaurant strip that serves up Okonomiyaki and Monjayaki specialties to loads of locals and tourists every evening.

Now just imagine if every major city had been as thoughtful about such things; it wouldn't be so difficult to find places for bike sharing programs, then.

[Photo: Jaunted]