New cycling app Biko offers you free stuff the farther you ride
App arrives in Toronto after getting its start in Colombia then moving to Vancouver
Free coffee and a six-pack of beer, just for racking up kilometres on your bike? Now that sounds like a sweet deal for the city's cycling community.
It's the promise of Biko, a new app recently launched in Toronto.
"We don't want to make the rewards unattainable," said the app's Canadian manager, Molly Millar. "You can start getting free coffee from Jimmy's by biking to work tomorrow."
Millar says in the first 48 hours, 4,000 users in Toronto signed up for the free app.
The concept is fairly simple: the app uses GPS to track a cyclist's kilometres. One kilometre equals one "Biko point."
It started in Bogota, Colombia in 2015, before riding into Medellín, Mexico City, and Vancouver last fall.
"Toronto, for example, blew Vancouver's numbers out of the water," said Millar. "We know Toronto is bigger but all signs points to success here."
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Long-time Toronto cyclist Sam Perry is already reaping the rewards.
"I was a little skeptical at first," said Perry, 32. "It seemed gimmicky. There's a lot of great reasons to ride a bike — it's green and healthy."
But within weeks of clocking his rides to work, school and grocery shopping, he's already picked up a free helmet and a six-pack of his favourite beer.
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