Is the ELECTRIC Citibike any good?
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
- We've done a lot of reviews on the different bikes that we sell in the shop but today we decided it would be a fun idea to make a review on a New York City electric Citibike! We'll go into the specific specs and details this bike has and how to operate and rent one.
Thanks for watching and let us know what else you would like to see more of in future videos!
#citibike #electriccitibike #ebikes #NYCbike
0:00 What Citibike is and how they came to be
2:30 Overview of electric citibike
3:00 Schwalbe marathon plus tire
3:40 Double reinforced rims and spokes
4:15 Drum brake and electric hub
5:00 Docking mechanism
5:20 36 Volt 400wH battery
5:55 Frame and seat post
7:30 Custom fenders integrated into the frame
7:55 Front rack Max weight load 25 lbs
8:30 Brakes and lack of electronic cut off switches
9:30 250Wh single speed motor
10:30 Chain
10:50 Roller brake
11:39 Front headlight and rear light activated by peddling
13:30 Bells and handlebars
14:10 Lack of gears on bike
14:35 How many electric citibikes are there?
16:52 How does it work? How do you rent a bike? - Věda a technologie
From the operator point of view, the charging system might be a challange. Charging them from the station or delivering batteries to meet the growing demand became hard. Two cities in Poland withdrawn from electric versions (Warsaw, Gdańsk) but Cracow continues to keep them.
Charging is the biggest challenge for these guys to overcome.
e-bikes are great! they make getting around NYC so efficient. They are really easy on the legs and getting uphill a breeze. Its better to go slower and ride defensively --they can hit a bump and lose balance if ur going fast. A real game changer for NYC :-)
Chris, this is a great video, and it introduces a subject, the importance of which is going to be enormous: to wit, getting cars out of the city. Pollution, congestion, traffic jams, parking, are all growing problems in the urban environment. To ensure a car free, person friendly, town, you've got to have means of transport, and bikes, together with buses and the metro provide these.
Furthermore, the idea of hiring your transport ( cars, bikes, yachts, planes ) when you need it, rather than owning it and having it just sitting there, doing nothing, for most of the time, is also a very important concept which will have to be considered in the near future.
The time is arriving when the entire interrelation of transportation, employment and housing will have to be re-evaluated. We are going to be living in even more interesting times, which is really saying something given the current state of affairs‼️🦬
Keep pushing those peddles.👍👍👍
I've been catching up on the comments, but you continue to impress. Lots of preparation for the new season and some exciting things to come. I hope you are doing well and staying safe! I agree that these bikes are an important form of transportation in the city. I'm glad they are here.
@@Propelbikes I must admit, Chris, I've fallen behind on your videos - shame on me‼️ However, I'm going to follow your sterling example and get bang up to date this evening. Prepare yourself for some of my soapbox rants🤬🤬🤬
Lmao! Love it! You’re in a judgement free zone 😎
I'm glad that you finally tried the electric-assist Citi Bikes and made this video. I was surprised that you mentioned you hadn't ridden them before. It does make sense considering you don't live in New York anymore. I'm glad to now know the actual electric specs on the motor and battery.
Riding the electric-assist Citi Bike whet my appetite for electric bikes and ultimately motivated me to move on purchase my own private ebike.
I discovered the massive improvement in quality of life ebikes can provide by renting through Citi Bike. After I realized this general potential of ebikes, the crappy experience of hunting down electric-assist Citi Bikes and frequently getting lemons with low charge batteries too often made me fed up. Eventually I realized that I needed to invest in my own ebike, ironically ultimately ditching Citi Bike.
I've had a Citi Bike membership for a few years now and used it often for last-mile trips in combination with the subway, but I began using Citi Bike non-electric and electric bikes massively to replace my subway trips entirely because of the pandemic. I couldn't stand being trapped in subway cars with people who didn't always wear masks. It felt like I was rolling the dice every time I took the subway, and I got stressed out every time I ended up in a car with a non-zero number of inevitable delinquents who didn't have masks or were not covering both their nose and mouth.
Anyway, earlier this summer, using the electric Citi Bikes was great for my commute between Brooklyn and Manhattan when I managed to find one close to me that had a decent charge and wasn't too banged up. The power, braking, maneuverability, comfort and utility of the rack are pleasantly acceptable. I think Motivate did a good job with the overall design.
Specifically, riding the electric Citi Bikes made the trip across the East River bridges (mostly the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge) much more manageable and less of a chore so I could get to work without being exhausted and sweaty. The electric bikes have just enough power to handle going up and over the bridges, which are essentially long gradual hills. The single speed gearing works well enough on the bridges and general NYC terrain, which for the most part is fairly flat. More gears would help, but the electric assist does help a lot to make up for the lack of gears. I think part of the decision to go single speed was to keep the top speed of riders down. The previous iteration had gears I believe and I admittedly went irresponsibly fast. I remember when they pulled those bikes, with notes about the brake system having issues. I sort of remember it being more likely to endo if I grabbed the brakes too hard while going top speed.
I actually take advantage of the dual bells on both grips. I ring both at the same time so it sounds like multiple bikes are coming to better get the attention of drivers, pedestrians and other cyclists who may be distracted or not watching where they are going. Increasing my audible footprint, if you will.
However, eventually I got tired of spending time hunting down an electric-assist Citi Bike. I had to look at the Citi Bike app which shows a map of available electric-assist bikes and their supposed charge level (not very reliable charge info in my experience) use a regular non-assist bike to go from station to station, then hope that the electric-assist bike had not been taken by the time I got there which happened a lot, and that the electric-assist was working properly and that there was enough charge to make it across the East River and several miles to work/home. I had to factor this time hunting for electric-assist bikes into my daily commute, which added 15-20 minutes sometimes when I was unlucky, and too often someone would nab the sparse electric-assist bikes before I got to the dock or the bike did not have the charge to actually get to my destination. That means I had to hunt down a different electric assist bike, all the while being charged a fee each time I undocked an electric assist bike, whether it had a useful charge or not. Shitty customer experience.
Eventually after 2 months I did the math and decided that the time to hunt down electric-assist bikes and the added money for the electric-assist option for the wasn't worth it. I was paying $125 each month in electric bike fees on top of my standard Citi Bike annual membership because of how often I was using the electric assist bikes. Instead of continuing to lose that much money every month I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a $1500 generic electric bike. I got a 36V 350W single speed belt drive rear hub motor bike (17.5 Ah/630 Wh battery) that looks like a normal bike, except for the Hailong battery on the downtube and the rear hub motor. In retrospect I would have enjoyed the acceleration of a 48v system more, but I definitely have enough power and range to easily manage my daily commute. I would have loved to get a bike from your store instead, but I'm not far along enough financially to pull that off. Hopefully someday soon I can shop at your store.
My commute is now more streamlined having my own private ebike, no longer hunting for bikes at docks every time I need to go somewhere, and I can customize my bike with specific handlebars, rear rack and rack bag, lights, etc to better suit my needs. The trade-off though is that I have to store my ebike inside my small Brooklyn apartment (I deliberately just moved to a first floor apartment to not have to carry bikes up and down flights of stairs), be on top of locking my bike securely to prevent theft, charging my battery everyday, and doing regular maintenance like adjusting brakes and replacing pads.
I do miss the convenience of docking a Citi Bike and not worrying about theft or maintenance, but that's the price I have to pay for a private ebike that I can use anytime anywhere without having to roll the dice and hunt down an electric-assist Citi Bike every time I have to go somewhere.
I could see if there were a lot more electric-assist bikes in the Citi Bike system that most people would be happy, but the state it is in now is pretty annoying. Battery swaps don't happen frequently enough. The problem is even worse now with winter temperatures cutting down usable battery capacity. Lately this winter, the rare occasion I don't use my personal ebike and try to use an electric-assist Citi Bike, I end up pulling a lemon out of the dock 50% of the time.
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! Your detailed comment will be helpful to many I'm sure!
love your in-depth review! I've been using citibike as a member for a few months now, beginning post pandemic, and I definitely agree renting them is a huge sigh of relief compared to taking the train. Especially in these times, I think it's a fair tradeoff dealing with a little stress with traffic and pedestrians on the citibikes, rather than playing russian roulette dealing with train bums and delays and general trainy things. Not to mention, I'm paying less for the citibikes than I was taking the train, and I use citi ebikes every work morning! This will vary of course for each person and how far they need to ride.
Thanks for sharing your struggles with finding the e-bikes, and props to you for putting up with that annoying situation for some time.
I appreciate the details thanks
I wonder how long these bikes will last on the streets? They seem well designed and having them being docked bikes should help prevent them from being dumped like the Jump and other dockless bikes suffered from. It would be great if you could set up an interview with one of the Citibike mechanics to learn more about these bikes.
We actually did some work with Citibike years ago so we ended up getting a lot of insight into how these things work. But I believe the bikes do usually last a while, but they definitely get abused pretty heavily. It's cool to see that they have had a lot of success with the Enviolo hub and it's allowed them to extend their service intervals pretty dramatically.
I can’t wait to ride one when I come back to New York for my birthday next month
“I’m not an expert on these bikes” hahaha. One glance at the bike and you probably know more than 99.8% of the population.
Lmao. You remember the days when this wasn't so. Thank you for all the knowledge you bestowed on me Jack.
I just tried the Citi e-bike last week for the first time...actually my first time trying a Citibike at all. I had an amazing time with my best friend! I had not been on a bike in almost 15 years, but guess all those years in dance/gynmastics still was in tune. And once I was on it...I was riding as if I were 12 again no issue with balance or even small tricks (no jumps) just fun balance stuff I used to do as a teen/adult with a sports background, and I am 50 Earth-Sun revolutions! I had been looking at many many reviews on e-bikes (esp the great ones here on Propel) and seeing the great expense they are (well at least the ones that I want) so figured lemme test out an e-bike as that seemed a great way to try an ebike. It was so much fun and even here in the Bronx where there are many areas with hills it came in with great assist which made it be even more fun to go up a hill. It was still workout but I was not DEAD by the time I got to the top of a hill or incline.
that's why I use them myself! i usually only need to bike a little over 2 miles up on my way to work in the upper parts of Manhattan in the morning, but compared to a classic citibike, I have determined that the pros outweigh the cons because at least i'm not dying from exhaustion lol
@@moisdawg yes yes well agreed !
I'm also in the Bronx and that's exactly why I'm considering picking up a citibike membership for this summer. I have my own bike, but we have some rough hills I just can't get past on my commuter bike. Plus, it's nice to have a citibike and just dock it near my destination, rather than worrying about locking my bike up and hoping it's there when i return haha
@@miguelm6307 Yes well agreed. Also I am so glad there are more stations in the Bronx now. The other day finally they are near Bedford Park - near me yaaay and other locations going north of Fordham. For sometime you had to go more south of Fordham.
Yes and hear you on the hills and esp when you do not have to worry about locking your bike and can just dock.
Today it took so long waiting on a bus it was easier to get a citiBike and just run down to where I needed to go.
Happy Boogie Down Riding!
Thanks for the walk in the weeds. I think the same way. Syracuse NY experimented with Gotcha Sync last year. From what I could tell it was a flop. Syracuse is not a bike friendly city. They were inexpensive cadence only sensors similar to the citibikes. The three speed gearing was nowhere near enough for the city hills. They pulled the bikes off the streets in October citing the weather and covid. No one was riding the bikes anyway.
Sad to hear the Bikeshare didn't work in Syracuse. It can be a huge driver in growing cycling and community support.
We had Gotcha locally as well. Low ridership due to Covid and lack of cycling infrastructure. I think Lyft bought the company and one day, all the bikes were gone.
I like that they went with the drum brake on the front and the Dutch style roller brake on the rear. As long as you don’t need to go down anything more than a very gentle slope. My Batavus bike has front and rear roller brakes and even just on the pedestrian and bike bridge I ride over regularly, if I roll over the top as slowly as possible and grab two handfuls of brake it still barely stops before the bottom. Which is a blind and tight 90 degree corner. So that’s always fun.
I also like the single speed setup and the equipment it comes with. But I can’t understand why they don’t use a full chain case to really minimise maintenance. The bike share in Brighton, which I’ve used went with the shaft drive. It looks cool and it’s great for places with salty sea air.
I have a cargo with a roller brake on the back wheel, it is barely slowing it down, even on the flats, but I don not care to much about it, because I have two big drums on the front, like in this video. But! My wife has an ebike with only roller brakes, and it works, even on hills. So probably you have a problem with your brake, it needs a regular grease change. And if you brake continously on a big hill and heat it up too much the brake performance goes away, then it needs a grease change.
@@Vegan_Touring_Cyclist I don’t really ride it that much and where I do ride is basically flat aside from riding down the short bridge. So I don’t think it’s that.
You can learn a lot by the way they spec these bikes.
About a year after riding a Jump bike, I purchased an e-bike. By that time, the prices for e-bikes started being more affordable. But now I kinda want to invest in a more stylish premium e-bike.
Curious about an Enviolo cvt hub with a Bosh direct drive in hub motor combination? What I don't like about mid drives is you still have open to the elements gearing that needs maintenance, we went with a direct drive hub motor e-bike, completely silent and simple, fully enclosed, should be maintenance free, but it lacks torque at the low end, curious on your thoughts about combining two of your favorite things into one device @Propel
I remember seeing a citi bike with brakes that sounded like a train was stopping. Extremly loud, pretty funny
The basket isn't a new design, that design is actually the 3rd design which came out before the 1st ebikes were put out in the streets. If im not mistaken it was sometime around 2016/2017
i bought my R&M because liked the citi e-bike but got tired of hunting them down around the city
I think you're not alone here. I hope you have been enjoying your new eBike!
Thanks for video always wondered about these.
Built like a $h t brick house.
Thanks for watching!
Have you seen the newer electric Citibike bicycles? I was wondering what motor they went with, and is it a geared rear hub motor? It's hard to tell if it has a mid drive motor because the drive train is covered up on the new ebikes. The only info I found was online in an article that said it has 500W motor. I would imagine Citibike sees a lot of miles on these electric bicycles and knows what is reliable and what isn't.
I am curious if this business model will endure. The logistics of keeping the batteries charged seems like a serious challenge. Also, are these bikes in service during the winter months? If so, I wonder at battery longevity.
I wonder what the closest retail equivalent of this bike would be 🤔
By a blinking light, it is hard to see the distance, especially as it moves. By day no problem, but ad night it is.
No rear rack, so you can't ride with 2 people on it. Rear fender works also as a coat protector.
Here's my question... For these on site talks/reviews do you use a ebike to get there and back?
We pretty much always do with very few exceptions. This day we were on foot though.
Like to pick up a used one of them. Very heavy-duty.
Thanks.
You will be my hero forever if you can tell us how the batteries are charged. I looked it up in every combination possible and it always talks about how to charge the cost of the bike. Who plugs the battery in ? Do they charge on the post ? Thank you!
Lol! Small price to pay. They actually swap the batteries daily. They have several crews working on this.
Love it. Thank you so much for clarifying this. I was dead curious!
Ebike with dynamo hub?
👍
Interesting subject. In the Netherlands you mainly see rental bicycles from the railways, fairly cheap, 3.95 euros for a maximum of 24 hours. These are not e-bikes. What you also see a lot in the big cities are rental bicycles for students. Recognizable by a blue front tire. You can rent it for a year or so. Maintenance and costs
stealing the bicycle is then included in the rental price. Also mostly regular bikes, I believe they also rent out e-bikes but I'm not sure. Couldn't find it quickly on the internet either. You also see a lot of electric rental scooters up to 25 km / h. But I don't know renting a e-bike like you show in the Netherlands. You can rent e-bikes in some bicycle shops, often even if you are unsure whether a certain type of e-bike is something for you and can try that e-bike for a longer period of time. And then buy or not after a certain period of time.
What I do not understand is how do you know how far the battery is loaded? What I understand these e-bikes are not loaded at the place where you park them.
The Citi Bike app shows you the supposed charge level of each bike at a dock. Each bike has an ID number sticker that you can reference in the app to see its charge level.
@@dtape Oké, thank you dtape. I never rent a bicycle, so did not know that.
@@leojonkers3181 You're welcome. It's not something that is widely known and it would only be noticeable to people using the app. Hard for anyone else not using the bikes and not using the app to observe and know about.
Am I the only one wondering why an electric bike needs a dynamo?
Can't the battery power the lights?
They can, but if the battery dies that would be a major safety hazard.
@@Propelbikes Which makes sense..could the dynamo trickle charge the battery? I assume those LED lights consume very little power.
@@CaptApril123 I like that idea. Then, they can set a reserve for the last part of the battery charge to be dedicated just for the safety lights until it gets a higher charge.
Paris (France) has similar regular bikes and e-bikes rental service for short trip. I haven't tested these bikes which were set a few years ago, replacing original Velib full muscular bikes. The original Velib structure had already big troubles to have muscular bikes available in relative good status, because of thefts and degradations. New company replacing Velib intoduced eBikes along regular bikes... and have bigger issues to respect their planned budget. Now, a new agreement has been settled: rental will become more expansive for customers and involved cities will give more money too...
I don't think ebikes are a good choice for this kind of short trip rental service, whatever their qualities or drawbacks. This kind of service should remain cheap, and bikes must be simple and sturdy.
Furthermore, not having battery charged automatically, when bike is attached to its base, is a total nonsense.
Ir would be great if San Francisco had a better bike regulation as well as better protection for bikers, they should invest more in safer bike lanes if they wants to improve the city as bike friendly, it is still far from the European major cities. They cannot be called a bike friendly city.
Those batteries will all be nicked in one day here (Manchester, UK). Lol.
They tend to hold up pretty well here I think.
These look a *lot* like San Francisco's baywheels bikes (also Lyft)
Same company, Motivate operates bike share in DC, Boston, NYC, Jersey City, Chicago, San Francisco, San Jose, East Bay, Columbus OH, Minneapolis, and Portland
Those city bikes is more used as an entertainment rather than a real functional usage as in Europe, it is funny to see young people use thise bikes to make short trips for fun only, the idea is maybe good but there is no campaign on stimulating people to use bikes for other usage rather than for an hour fun tour, in US the bike is more for sport and snobbism, rather than a functional usage.
Is it possible to lower the speed
Brake
lisbon bike share bike is child seat ready , you just have to buy a child seat
Super cool!
If a Citibike is not electric it’s crap. 😩5 peddle rotations for one full wheel rotation is not my idea of efficiency. 😫
Lyft citibike is a scam.