I recently noticed someone with a citibike along with others that had regular bikes in the Fort Totten area in northeast Queens. I was going to look and ask the person about it but I was on foot and they rode away. Given the nearest dock is on the other end of the borough, I was wondering if the free membership to frontline workers means they could just take the bike out for extended period of time without penalty? Or did that person just grab one off the street and is riding it w/o fear of repercussion.

Also, with this stay at home directive, are they going to refund the amount where we are unable to use, or allow us to pause the membership? It might be only a few months, but my employer is talking about wfh until the fall.

The bikes are still in the racks for your use if you choose. I've used them a few times to get to my chiropractor appointments. I think of it sort of like a gym membership. You pay up front. It's up to you to make use of it. I rode my own bike yesterday, but I saw plenty of people out on Citibkes. And a lot were in use on the westside greenway over the weekend.

I live outside of manhattan, so I can't get to the city to ride the bikes. I was going to do that when we were told to wfh and I had 20 days of my monthly train pass left. But soon after that, the whole city was told to stay at home, and i am stuck in the outer borough with no way to get to the city. My gym closed. but they are suspeding our membership for the duration they closed.

The difference is your gym is closed. Citibikes are still operational.

The trains are still running , on holiday schedule.

Yeah, I had the rest of my monthly pass, which I could have taken to they city in order to ride the citibike, but Hizonnor told everyone to shelter at home and only essential workers come out. I don't think he meant for people to travel in the open for 10 miles just to get some exercise...except for himself.

Don't worry about Mayor de Blah Blah. Cycling is fine as long as you keep a distance from others and wear a mask when you can't. If you take Citi Bike, bring sanitizing wipes and wash your hands when you get home.

I've been out a bunch of times on my own bikes, but it still doesn't feel right. Prospect Park is usually crowded, but riding the streets seemed better until I ended up in Williamsburg. It was also crowded there. Manhattan felt like a ghost town though.

Long Island City has been packed with people. It's simply absurd. Very few people are practicing appropriate social distancing, and it is far more crowded here now than it ever was during "normal" times. There are also a lot of people riding citibikes and regular bikes, many of them in the part where it isn't really appropriate or feasible. There are also many people trying to exercise (riding bikes, running, doing stationary exercises) in areas where they do not have enough space to do so without putting others at risk. I regularly see joggers weaving in and out of people walking in the park or on the sidewalks, exhaling heavily as they squeeze by people. It's enough to drive you insane...

THats crazy. They should close streets to motor traffic as they are doing elsewhere.

LIC wasn't so bad when I went through last week on a ride, but Williamsburg was crazy. And then there is south Williamsburg where the Satmar Hasidim are. They either don't wear masks at all or have them only covering their mouth, not nose. And then they never look when they cross either, once one of the big family starts there is a whole stream of them coming behind, and this is across the bike lanes on Kent Ave which is always busy.

New Citibike Seatpost Clamp
 

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At least it's new to me. Riding around, I scanned Citibike docks when I passed 'em and I saw no clamps like this. In the past, when Citibike introduced something (e.g.: the plastic cargo tray) and they wanted comments from users, they sent a follow-up email. Thus far: silence.

Quick summary — This clamp is an excellent example of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

A few details — Not clearly evident in my one pic: there's a knurled adjustment opposite my position at the rear partly hidden by the seatpost. There are cams on both sides of the clamp. From my one experience: for the clamp to tighten smoothly, both cams must be closely in synch. Casually actuating the clamp: it doesn't tighten smoothly. That said, helping out at various bike clinics over the years, I've been surprised at how many folks don't find the conventional clamp handle to be intuitive. Maybe this will help some users.

I had to instruct my son on how to tighten a wheel quick release. He was complaining that after he switched skewers to use the bike on a trainer he couldn't get the wheel to stay. He was just spinning it to tighten even though he had to have used the lever to remove the old one.

Okay, you know I’ve been an advocate of the NuVinci hub, I love it and I never had a problem with it until now. It was working when I left 31st and 8th. Then there was a detour at Columbus Circle. The statue is under heavy guard, etc.
8th was blocked off , and a police officer told me it was only two blocks, it opened again at 62nd. So I was on Broadway when I had to downshift, and after that it was stuck in low gear. I docked the bike at west 63rd & Broadway. But then I walked to 8th and 68th, because I didn’t want to take the last bike. I did not earn an angel point for that..
Anyway, I was going to write down the problem, but before I could find a piece of paper, CitiBike emailed me to ask what the problem was.
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Email from CitiBike. I pressed the red button on the dock to report a problem.

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Repair questionnaire from the CitiBike app.

I could see what had happened. The shifter cable was coming unwound at the grip-shifter. Either cable lube went dry, or the return spring fouled at the hub.
I answered by checking “gearing” and “grips”.
I spotted at least 5 protests . I went to Harlem, and as far south as WSP. Also protests on the lawns of Central Park.
PS-The water fountains are on in Central Park, so you can refill your bottle.

Agreed: when a choice of Citibikes is available, I always choose one with a NuVinci hub. And yes, very rarely I experienced the same failure mode you describe. Also very rarely, the high end of the shifting range isn't available. Comparing the NuVinci, Sturmey Archer, and Shimano hubs, the Shimano is my least favorite, but of the three hubs, the Shimano is the only one that - for me - has been 100% trouble-free.

I encountered quite a few of those during the extremely cold winter days, and the S/A bikes were not available.

I almost always pick a S/A bike if it is available. I remember when spring was coming, the S/A bikes almost all disappeared. Almost all the NuVinci I get don't have the overdrive. I don't know how it is now, since this shelter in place, I have been WFH in away from the city so I have not ridden a citibike for 3 months.

Just got an email. Yearly membership is going up to $179

Alas, as the thread starter I have decided to drop my Citibike membership. I retired last August and have only taken one ride since. I live in Brooklyn outside the coverage zone, and I'm almost never in Manhattan where I might need a bike. Either I have my car (yea, I have a car) or I'm on my own bike. It just doesn't make any sense to renew. As it was, I mostly used it when I left work and rode either downtown or into Brooklyn to take the subway. Every now and then I might use it to go somewhere else. The last trip I can remember like that was when I took the Italians that I worked with to Hometown BBQ in Red Hook, and I went home by taking a bike to Park Slope for the subway. Trips like that were few though. Even if I were in the zone I probably wouldn't renew. I even offered my key to my daughter and she didn't think she'd use it.

Have fun using it. And don't close this thread! It is still the longest running thread I've ever started on any bulletin board.

I almost dropped my membership. I’m thinking about it. I only use CitiBike six or seven times a year, I live on Long Island and I take the LIRR in.
Recently I’ve added enough LED tail lights to my own bikes that I’ve been able to ride into
Jamaica , Queens , via Jericho Turnpike.
But last time I did, I brought my bike home from Jamaica on an LIRR train, and if I had been 5 minutes later, I would have had to wait 5 hours... the railroad only allows bikes on “off peak” , or non-rush-hour trains.
I’m thinking of buying a folding bike.
Or maybe I will just use my credit card to pay for single rides...

I am thinking whether I will renew my membership after this one expires (although I still got a few gift memberships yet to be used). I've been working from home far from where there are citibike docks since the shelter in place directive and I don't think we will be heading back to the office until sept. Before that, I use to ride around 30-40 miles/day on citibike to and from LIRR to Path in WTC. Now with staying at home, I dug up a 20" mtn bike sitting around and jigged on a 40cm seatpost and spd pedals and get my exercise that way...although at 60 gear inches, it is hard to sustain it above 17mph. My wife also wanted a bike to ride since she found out the breeze from riding is much more comfortable than jogging in the heat. I was going to get a road bike for her, but doesn't like the near time trial position of my little mtn bike and wanted a 20 inch folding bike.


I figured if the post pandemic office schedule is to show up to the office only a few times a week, I mind as well forgo the LIRR monthly ticket and ride the bike all the way to the city, if its with my bike, lock it up in our NYC office and head to Jersey City via PATH. If I use the folding bike, take it with me on the PATH via any of the stations, depending if I want to do a workout once I am in the city. The issue is how do I get there. I live off Northern blvd and could take that all the way to Queensboro bridge, but there is no bike lane there. Although I use to commute to the city down Northern in my heydays, pedaling as hard as I can on my Italian steel so I catch every green light, then riding rock steady as if I am in a pack on the very edge of the car lane across the bridge. Nowadays, I would prefer to concentrate on riding instead of constantly focusing on accident avoidance (which is still part of riding the citibike in the city, but I quickly head to the hudson river path and do most of the riding there). Queens Blvd is quite a bit away.

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First Snow Storm of the Season

Just received a notification from CitiBike. Will close down tonight due to heavy snow.

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Enjoy!

Streetsblog is reporting on the Sanitation Dept's lack of snow removal in the bike lanes. I bet they plow in the docks too. I wouldn't know since I've barely left my house since the snow.

2020 year in review


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Be careful what you wish for.

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