Re #342 "continuous gearing": perhaps the one you got was slightly broken. I took a free trip on Citi bike today with a gift code from Citibank . I picked the new design. The gear does click into 1, 2, 3. It turns smoothly but does click, and there is no in-between gear if the shifter is turned halfway.

I kept looking at my left hand during the ride, as if there was a mirror

IMG_5051 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr
The TWO Types of shifters, Sturmey Archer ABOVE, Shimano Nexus BELOW
IMG_5050 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

IMG_5048 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr
OLD and NEW
IMG_5047 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

NOTE: I was unable to find any bike with a NuVinci CVT Hub, I looked up and down at every bike at the dock.
IMG_5049 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

So far, the CVT hub is just a rumor. I'll believe it when I see it. They're expensive. I can't see how it can be justified on a rental bike unless it is much more rugged than a 3-speed, and I doubt it is.

Are the new model bikes (with Sturmey Archer hubs) rarer now? It seems so.

Saw two city bikes chained to a public bike rack on 181st and Cabrini yesterday, miles from any docking racks.

I've seen Citi Bike bikes locked up a few times, too. The most generous guess is that they were locked up by the legitimate renters briefly and were returned to docks. Once you get near 181st St, you must be paying overtime. I'm surprised when I see them near 145th St. Maybe some don't mind paying extra. It seems strange to me.

I saw one locked to a fence the last time I was in the NYC, 06/12/16. Maybe when someone returned it it didn't lock into the dock and the person didn't notice or care. Then someone else came along and saw it and thought 'free bike!'. Not the first bike i'd steal, but some folks would take anything.
So if Citibike sees one of their bikes locked up, can they cut the lock and take the bike?

Now I wish I had taken a picture. Hand on heart, I saw it, and rode it. No, it wasn't a busted Sturmey Archer. I guess they put out a few test bikes. I can't see them becoming standard either, due to cost, and they're also odd to use, if cool, and probably not appropriate for a lowest common denominator sort of bike.

It's hard to say, but my impression is that the new style bikes are coming back, and there have been more of them in the last few weeks. It seems they've done some work to overhaul them. The hand grips and shifters are a bit different, and I haven't run into gear issues lately.

OK, if you say so, I believe you. It's plausible as a test.

I'm glad the new models are on their way back. Perhaps they have a handle on the common problems.

I recently rode an old model, and the chain was badly worn and noisy, and the chain tensioner sounded misaligned. Often when I get a bike that doesn't work well, I forget to press the mechanic button. Well, that's better than leaving my cargo in the basket, and thank goodness, I haven't done that yet.

Picked up what I thought was a new model but it turned out to be the old model with a new model seat post installed. As it was the only one left in the rack I rode it home. ANd while it was squeaky as hell and could probably use service it was rideable so I just left it for the next rider. Too many times I've seen bikes locked out and wondered if they were really that bad

Setting aside the CVT version which I've yet to see - at this time there are 3 versions out there.

1 - Old style with Shimano Nexus shifter. These are still the most common.
2 - Sturmey Archer v1.0 - these have black carbon fiber seat posts, plastic fenders, improved led lighting front and rear, and black rubber hand grips similar to those on the "old style" - similar in the sense that they get gummy and sticky. v1.0 also has a well secured front cargo basket.
3. Sturmey Archer v2.0 - these have silver metal seat posts, plastic fenders, improved led lighting front and rear and hard grey rubber/plastic hand grips that don't get gummy (yea!). The front cargo basket on these seems to be a pain point for v2.0 in that many have baskets that rattle and I've seen at least 6 bikes where the baskets had fallen completely off.

Of the three I seek out the Sturmey Archer 2.0 since the hand grips are NOT the sticky/gummy kind. If the front basket is loose I toss my messenger bag over my shoulder.

I ride these daily and the Sturmey Archer versions are geared much more to my liking. I cracked 28mph (phone gps) coming off the Brooklyn Bridge the other day (early morning with little to no foot/bike traffic).

I was searching for some news on the new bikes and stumbled on this. This might explain the 2 variants of the Sturmey Archer bikes that seem to be out there.

Gothamist On Problems With New Citibikes

The Citi Bike 2.0, which debuted last June, is designed by Ben Serotta, an Olympic racing bike designer. Until recently, all of his bikes were manufactured and assembled overseas, in China. The company recently opened an assembly operation in Detroit, and a Motivate spokeswoman said bikes assembled domestically have been rotated into NYC's fleet in the last few weeks.

The new sturmey archer has "made in usa" logo painted on the downtube (easy to spot, the logo is white) , and the seat has a hole in it. I always look for those before settle for an old sturmey or nexus. Never seen the rumored one yet.

The easiest way to spot the newer models (for me) is to find the bikes with the tail light on the fender rather than the two little tail lights integrated in the seat stay near the rear axle. There are many clues, but I like this one the best.

Bike share was made for Pride Day. I rode 13 miles yesterday, just getting around town. First, I rode to church from the Lower East Side to the West Village. From there, rode up to E. 41st St. Tried, and failed, to find the Gay Asian group, so went back home downtown for a respite. Then back up to 41st St. and found Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, so marched with them to 21st St. Then back up to 41st St. and found the Episcopalians (yeah, I swing multi-culty and interfaith that way), and marched with them all the way downtown, back to church and Pride Evensong (which I missed, because everything ran so late). And finally, from there, back home again. Taking my own bike would have been impossible, forget about a car, and public transit would have been impossibly slow, so I couldn't have managed a day like yesterday without the blue bikes.

Valet Parking Service, on 31st Street, Between 8th and 9th Avenues, -near Penn Station:
IMG_5688 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

[MENTION=75266]hotbike[/MENTION], that's brilliant. Where exactly is this? I see them balancing the bikes with trucks, and it's hard for them to keep up, so this is an innovation that will probably help.

Come to think of it, one Friday or Saturday night, I saw one of the trucks sitting there for hours collecting bikes as people came and docked them. This was on E 7 St right near Avenue A. Rider docks bike, worker moves bike into truck, repeat, repeat. I guess it's a station that fills up a lot on date night.

Summer Valet Schedule ? Citi Bike | Blog

Locations show up as giant stations on the Citi Bike app. I have yet to try it.

Super, and that list includes the E 7 St station. Who knew it would be so busy?

The East Village is pretty much ground zero of cycling in Manhattan. Wide swaths of it are devoid of bikes during the day, and dock blocked at night.

Of course I should have realized this. Here in the West Village it's pretty bike-intensive, too.

Met a woman over the weekend who drives a pedicab moving bikes for citibike on the LES

That Valet Parking is on 31st, between 8th and 9th, it's a loading dock on the side of the Farley Post Office (Zip Code 10001).