Forget riding your friend’s handlebars as he blindly navigates a
crowded city street — unless you’re into that sort of thing. Thanks to a
new peer-to-peer bike-sharing website called Spinlister, you may soon be able to rent a bike almost anywhere.
The brainchild of co-founders Will Dennis and Jeff Noh, a pair of 20-somethings living in New York City, Spinlister is like peer-to-per car-sharing services
such as RelayRides, only for bikes. Bike owners snap photos of their
two-wheeled trophies and post them to Spinlister’s online marketplace,
along with the type of bike, the price per day, and the pick-up
location. For those in search of a rental, it’s as simple as punching in
their location, selecting the ride they want, making an online
payment/reservation via credit card, and coordinating a meet-up time
with the bike owner.
In addition to individual listers, Spinlister also works with bike
rental shops. And while right now the service itself is only online in
San Francisco and the Big Apple, Dennis says there will soon be nearly
1,000 bikes available for rent. And that’s just in the barely two weeks’
time since the official launch on April 1.
