My preference is to ride a road bike because road bikes are light, and I like to lean forward, at least a little. So these fleet bikes are quite annoying to me, though I concede that they are the right bike for the job. I don't mind riding Citi Bike for up to three miles, but I find it annoying to ride it more. Sometimes I ride it five or six miles, and it's a chore. Maybe I should reduce my effort.

Measuring the travel time may be meaningful, but for some reason, the effort seems to vary a lot. Also, I think I'm more sensitive to winds than other people. That might make sense since I'm thin and light. I notice the wind affects my travel time all the time as well as the level of effort. The west side path is the best place in NYC to ride, even though the winds can be horrific, so I tolerate the winds to get the freedom from stupid motor drivers.

arbee, could the higher effort on the Shimano bike be from the lower gearing? Those gears are ridiculously low.

They seem to have fixed the no-top-gear problem on the SA bikes.

And they have not fixed the no-top-range on the Nuvinci problem!