I'll have to try this again the next time the weather is nice in the evening, and I don't already have my own bike.

This is my 5000th post!!! I figured I'd do it in my longest running thread.

Yesterday I was riding in Prospect Park on my roadie, but I was noticing how many people were on Citibikes now that they've expanded down that way. I'll have to try doing the loop on one, especially the hill. Maybe I'll do it while my wife is running in the park, training for the Marathon, and see who can do it faster. Or maybe to make it a little fairer, race against one of the faster runners in her group. ;)

With the further expansion in Manhattan I took a bike from the Lincoln Center Area to E97th. I rode through Central Park and my ascent up cat hill was slow but doable. What didn't help was the fact that it was one of the hottest most humid days of the year. I arrived soaked in sweat.

FWIW I have seen kids doing wheelies on citibikes!

I did get to ride one in Prospect Park, but not the full loop. The other day I took one from 43rd St near my office and rode to 15th ST/PPW entrance, with a switch of bikes at Atlantic Ave as I was running out of time. I did the last stretch inside the park. This is the farthest into my end of Brooklyn that they go.

It felt strange to be on a Citibike in Park Slope as I've always just used them in Manhattan, except to cross the bridge and dock it at Dekalb Ave.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5497/3...62565eac_z.jpgWhite Citi Bike by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

I rode this special Promotional Citi Bike from 31st and 8th, up to 45th and 6th... I can't find any info about it:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5565/3...9179d174_z.jpgWhite Citi Bike by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5566/3...2203933c_z.jpgWhite Citi Bike by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5497/3...a75790ec_z.jpgIMG_7108 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

Anyone know more about this? How many of these white bikes are there? Sparse information on Google leads me to believe this promo occurred in May, 2016...

Getting the white bike is an honour approximately equivalent to being the recipient of Bob and Ray's lucky phone call.


(Go to 1:11. This site doesn't play nice with the embedded time codes!)

I'd rather be riding the bike than get the "lucky phone call"...

From a Daily News article:

DOT head Polly Trottenberg has said that there is no current plan to expand Citi Bike into the Bronx or Staten Island, because doing so would present challenges. Well, duh. But we could surmount them, and it would provide a well appreciated service. I wrote to her asking her to make a plan.

Please write to her and your city councilperson, using this link.

But Citi Bike has already expanded into Jersey City. Staten Island shouldn't be much more difficult.

Good point. The funny thing about it is that the demand might well be lower on Staten Island because nearly the whole island is suburban, and no one would want to ride between another borough and Staten Island on Citi Bike. The ferry ride would make you exceed your time limit. You can't ride on the Verrazano Bridge on any bike. And I don't think you would ride over the Bayonne Bridge and to Jersey City. So it's self contained, which would contain the balancing problem onto Staten Island as it is in Jersey City. (You're not allowed to cross the Hudson with a bike.)

The Bronx could be more challenging to keep balanced etc, but I'm sure demand would be higher. Not everyone in the Bronx leaves the Bronx, so there would be plenty of intra-borough trips.

I read that in Paris, they give (or gave) incentives to ride uphill, since so many bikes left the hilltop at Monmartre. I don't remember if you get a free ride for starting at the bottom and ending at the top or if they actually put money in your account, but I gather it worked somewhat. I wonder if they would do that in the Bronx which has some very hilly parts.

I'll leave it to you to ride up to Riverdale on a Citibike.

I rode the San Francisco version when I was there but stayed on flat Market St. I wasn't going to try those hills either, but at least the SF bikes have 8 speeds.

I've gotten up Cat Hill in Central Park on one, I haven't had a need to try Harlem Hill yet. I have seen tourists there on them. FWIW I rode one Monday morning in some high gusty winds. Opted to take a bus later that same day.

Citi Bike Under Pressure to Expand to Low-Income Neighborhoods, NY Times

Here's another bit of discussion about Citi Bike expansion, from the street advocate types.

The Bike-Share Map NYC Should Be Aiming For | Streetsblog New York City

Citi Bike Sets Records in 2016, Sees 40 Percent Increase in Ridership - New York City, NY Patch

Citi Bike Sets Records in 2016, Sees 40 Percent Increase in Ridership
Citi Bike broke its 2015 ridership record by more than 4 million rides due to expansion efforts that added 2,000 bikes to its fleet.

By Brendan Krisel (Patch National Staff) - December 29, 2016 11:37 am ET

Citibike NYC has a "bike angel" program where riders are entered into a drawing based on number of trips from low vacancy bike station to high vacancy bike station.

I just learned about this today and signed up. We will see how that works out. I can't see it paying substantially for moving bikes just for the sake of doing it. You have to do about six trips from full station to empty station to earn $6. I do often go against traffic, so I'll be rewarded just for having a different schedule from typical people. I can't see the point of making an effort unless I make it an exercise program for myself: Ride from Station A to Station B, jog from Station B to Station A, repeat. I'd get a bit of pedaling and a bit of jogging.

I saw this a while ago, but the program was closed at the time. An incentive program has been suggested various places as a way to help balancing problems, but I can't say it doing very much. I'm going where I'm going, and either there are bikes or not, or parking or not. Since balancing issues affect whole areas, a little adjustment in my travels won't change anything. I'll still start in an area with few or no bikes, unless I'm going against the flow anyway. Does it have to be a completely empty station and a completely full one? Mostly empty and mostly full don't count?

The Angels program designates stations as blue, red, and gray. Pick up from blue, and you get a point. Drop off at red, and you get another point. You can do only one of those two things if you want.

Here's the page explaining it all.

I see. I found the page and saw the map. I signed up. Why not? I might earn a point or two with my regular coming and going. I suspect that most of the people who earn points happen to go against the flow in any case.

The map is kind of interesting. As I suspected, the East Village, with the wide swath of gold and silver stations, is one of the worst neighborhoods for balancing issues. And the Upper East and West Sides are red both morning and evening. They need bikes all the time? Apparently, people leave and never come back.

I usually travel east to west and back and all my stations are red, as are the ones in midtown

I just got the following from Citi Bike:
So, rates are going up, though modestly. Overages go up too, at least for the first half hour.

Interesting. But wouldn't it be better to have on of these on the back rather than the front?

Nighttime Citi Bike Rides Are About to Get Brighter ? Streetsblog New York City

I recently also rode a citibike with the NuVinci CVT Hub, thought it was being deployed on new bikes, but found references to it here from last May. So it is not new, just extremely rare. But then a couple of weeks later, I got a bike and it had the same system again, and I thought, either I am extremely lucky or they are really being rolled out on a wider scale.

Here is a pix of it:

Anyway, as said previously, it has a wider range of gear, and a taller top gear. Not sure of the gear inches (not in front of a bike), but it seems that one turn on the crank rotates the rear roughly wheel 3 times. I wish it had some sort of micro ratcheting so I know when I actually turned it slightly instead of turning it back and forth slightly, especially when adjusting the gear out of the saddle.

Initially, I thought the reason the CVT hub was not adopted was due to reliability of the hub, given Nuvinci recently announced a hardened version called N330f suitable for bikeshare, but then who knows.

I can't post link, so remove copy/paste the link below and remove the extra space:

www .einnews.com/pr_news/370784717/nuvinci-r-cycling-gates-carbon-drive-tm-and-mobia-bikes-present-the-ultimate-bike-share-commercial-duty-bicycle-at-taipei-cycle

I guess it is useful when riding next to a vehicle, where they can spot the bicycle sign in sightline. The couple of times I had such bike, I usually shimmer the handlebar as I am passing another cyclist or jogger, so they take notice, otherwise, the stationary image that is in their sight for a split second does nothing, and by the time they noticed it, I have already passed them.