Barcelona Tips

Hmm... seems you can hire with a 1 Euro charge for the week, and your credit card.

You have to go to a counter and purchase the card.

Details here:
http://www.barcelonayellow.com/content/view/78/1/
http://www.barcelonayellow.com/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,602/Itemid,26/

The joys of the interwebs... Wish I'd known that when I was there in September, the locals told me I'd have to wait!

Next time...

Edited to add

• More seriously, in mid-June Avui reported that the owners of several bike rental businesses were taking Bicing to court, accusing the Ajuntament of going into direct competition with them.
  
  

However, a couple of months down the line, the city's bike rental industry appears relaxed about the existence of Bicing. Scott Haynes, the American owner of Fat Tire Bike Tours, told Metropolitan that his business had not been affected by the launch of Bicing. “We've had no problems so far, although I'm still kind of wary. If they make it easy for tourists to use then obviously that'll be a problem. At the moment it can even work to our advantage—it plants a seed in tourists' minds.”

He said that he had not been involved in any court process, but had sought legal advice. “When we first heard about Bicing, a group of rental companies spoke to a lawyer in order to influence the system and process, and voice our concerns. We were trying to make a system that wasn't for tourists, and from my understanding it would be difficult for a tourist to gain access to.”

Bicing spokesman Ramon Ferreiro declined to comment on whether there was a court case pending, but stressed that Bicing is not designed for tourists, and is difficult for tourists to access.
In fact, he said, problems have been minimal and the transport authority was very pleased and “a little surprised” with the scheme's progress so far, but that more work is still needed. “We're going to make some modifications—that's not to say that there are problems: we've only been going for four months and it's always necessary to tweak the system.”
http://www.barcelona-metropolitan.com/Article.aspx?TabID=2&MenuID=2&ArticleID=767

*Evidently the tourist option hadn't been going on that long in September...