Milwaukee’s Bublr Bikes Now Available In Winter

Bublr Bikes are about to take on Milwaukee winters. The company just made the decision to keep the bike stations open year-round after hearing from riders who were disappointed they couldn’t use the bikes last winter.

“They said, gosh, we’ve been relying on this to get from point A to point B, but now we have to make different choices,” Bublr Bikes Executive Director Kevin Hardman explained.

John Buehler was one of those riders. He lives in Chicago and takes the train to Milwaukee for work. He then jumps on a Bublr Bike and rides it to Manpower downtown.

“When I walk out of the station, the Bublr rack is right there and I looked at it all winter long thinking I could be riding today,” Buehler explained.

The bike-sharing system launched in Milwaukee in August of 2014, but the company shut down its stations for a three month period last winter.

“I’d much rather ride for seven minutes in the freezing cold than walk for 25 minutes in the freezing cold,” Buehler said.

Now he’ll be able to just that.

The company didn’t have to do anything to winterize the bikes. Hardman says they can easily handle the salt and slush. In fact, he calls them “Milwaukee tough.”

“The bikes are specifically designed to take a beating and be in all sorts of weather conditions. The components are internal. They take special tools to take apart and we have a full-time crew that's working every single day of the week to maintain the bikes, to locate bikes that may have a flat tire or another issue, and we're also proactively maintaining the bikes,” Hardman said.

The company will shut down the bike stations if there’s a snow emergency in the city. They want all riders to stay safe.