BORIS bikes will be available for anyone to hire from tomorrow, despite the mayor’s transport adviser Kulveer Ranger having credit card problems at the launch this morning.

Mr Ranger was at a Barclay’s Cycle Hire station in central London this morning demonstrating how people from tomorrow can use their credit cards to hire one of Mr Johnson’s bikes.

But he ran into difficulty when the machine refused to accept his card, even trying a second one, but said it kinks would be ironed out ready for casual users tomorrow (Friday).

From tomorrow anyone with a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card will be able to go to their nearest docking station and follow the on screen instructions at the terminal to release a bike.

The bikes are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and once the user has purchased their access period - for either 24 hours or seven days - the first 30 minutes of any journey will be free of usage charges.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said; “It is fantastic that the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme has not only proved incredibly popular but the system has shown itself to be rigorous and robust.

“Now it has been thoroughly tried and tested by more than a hundred thousand members we are ready for the next stage where anyone who fancies taking to two wheels can do so in an instant with a simple swipe of their card.”

Becoming a Barclays Cycle Hire member still remains the fastest way to access a bike with no queuing at the on street terminals. UK residents can start using the cycle hire scheme as a member for just �4 – the cost of buying the membership key (�3) and their first 24 hour access period (�1). Currently the scheme has more than 100,000 members who have already made over 1.7 million journeys.

Additional security anti-skimming devices will be fitted to all Barclays Cycle Hire terminals to ensure card readers are not tampered with in any way.