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Love it or loathe it, you can’t deny that the Lime bike has become a modern London icon. It’s hard to say when this happened – perhaps it was during Brat summer, or when Timothée Chalamet (well before everyone started to get a bit cheesed off with him) rode into the premiere of A Complete Unknown atop his green stallion. In any case, Liming – yes, it’s a verb – is here to stay.
And like any icon, the e-bike is proving to be a master of reinvention. Well, perhaps ‘master’ is overselling it, but its new model is being rolled out this month and, in a stroke of marketing genius, has been subtly rebranded as LimeBike. And the closing of the gap between ‘Lime’ and ‘bike’ isn’t the only exciting change that’s been made to the controversial transport don.
Londoners have long expressed annoyance at seeing the discarded bikes scattered over the streets, but Lime promises that their new and improved model features ‘upgraded on-board technology to improve location recognition accuracy, helping riders more easily find designated parking spots’. While most current Limes have 26-inch wheels, the new fleet packs 20-inchers.
There’ll also be ‘portrait orientated, secure phone holders to make navigation a breeze’ and ‘ergonomic hand grips to provide comfort for longer rides’. When Time Out visited the Lime biggest European warehouse, located in Tottenham, we learned about the repurposing of broken models to create fully working Frankenbikes. Now, the Lime Bike – sorry, LimeBike – boasts ‘modular design and replaceable components to reduce waste and extend the vehicle’s lifespan’.
As you’ll see from the photos, they’ve also been slightly redesigned, with the frame lower and the battery moved to the back for a sleeker look. The new models are being rolled out in Nottingham, the West Midlands, Milton Keynes and Oxford, too, with the lucky people of the latter city being treated a test batch of Limes with ‘rear cargo storage’.
According to Lime, a recent study found that e-bikes accounted for at least one in 10 cycling trips in London last year. That might not sound like loads, but consider that there were an estimated 1.5 million daily cycling trips in the capital in 2025 and it starts to look a whole lot more impressive.
No wonder Lime’s chief technology officer Jon Jenkins sounds chuffed. ‘The UK has a newfound love of cycling,’ he said, ‘from the daily commute to weekend rides and all the journeys in-between. We wanted to build a bike that matches that passion. We’ve listened to everything our riders told us across the world, and built something that combines smart connectivity, easy handling and sharp performance.’
Your move, Chalamet.
Last week, we brought you the news that Lime bikes could soon be banned in another London borough
Plus: What’s with the click-clacking Lime bikes all over London right now?
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