I've also found them to be wobbly. I tried riding over the Manhattan Bridge on them a few times now and I've always regretted it. By the time I get to Atlantic Avenue I'm drenched with sweat. You really need that low gear to lug that thing up the incline.

I generally just keep to a slow steady unrushed pace on them. You get where you are going almost as fast anyway. I've always found that it doesn't matter how fast you go in NYC, you get there the same time anyway.

When I was in Copenhagen (seems to be a theme lately with me) I took one of their bikes out for a ride and was even slower. You just couldn't move on it. They were an older design, and maybe they've learned something from that. I also tried in Milan, but theirs are the same as Citibikes. Montreal, Paris, London all seem the same too but I didn't try them.