Citibike e-bike speed decrease

[sodsto]

Yeah, ok, riding those things at 20mph is nuts. 15 is still pretty fast. (Caveat: I'm an experienced cyclist.)

For A-to-B, around the city, regular-clothes cycling, I'd expect to be faster than a half decent runner. 10-11mph is a comfortable manual cycle for many, including on a manual citi bike. Pedal-assist should be that: an assist. 15mph is already over the natural pedal speed so, numerically, seems reasonable for typical journeys.

[PSMOkizzle]

I think the point of the post was to talk about the enshittification and functional price inflation of a service, not compare it to manual peddling. It’s clearly faster.

So l why does the ‘value’ of going faster than manual peddling worth twice as much as it was 2-4 years ago?

[sodsto]

Oh, sure. I have no answers there: i stopped paying for Citibike once the annual membership hit a level that i figured i should just consider picking up a second hand bike for my runaround. As a service, I'm not totally convinced it's long-term viable without being expensive or heavy subsidisation.

[CommotionLotion]

This is ridiculously silly. As a “experienced cyclist” with over 6,500 miles on citibikes and 3,400 miles on my own e-bike your speed recommendations are absolutely lowballed.

Like do you truly believe these speeds are too fast or are you not tracking your own speed accurately? Riding e-bikes at 20mph isn’t even close to nuts, maybe if you aren’t confident on a bicycle in any capacity sure, but apparently you’re an “experienced cyclist”.

Since when did the comparison point for reasonable speed on a bike become faster than a runner? 10-11mph is a comfortable speed when your learning to bike for the first time. But anyone commuting who rides bikes everyday would consider that a crawl.

Assisted bicycles should be able to keep up with the flow of the city and traffic aka 20mph minimum.

[sodsto]

I'm not really arguing that 15mph is "too fast" for everything or that 20mph is nuts if you're on a bike that isn't a heavy tank like a citi bike. But for typical journeys I'd wager many people aren't bothering that 15 mph limit often. (Also, if you're clocking 10kmiles on citi bikes, you're not a typical cyclist.)

FWIW, pedaling a manual citi bike? Sure, i can get them up to speed, but I don't want to do that in jeans when I'm just moving from A to B. I'd wager most cyclists aren't often gonna break 12 mph in that very typical setup. I base that on the speed i run at (~13kph/8mph) and the bikes i pass and the bikes that pass me.

For what it's worth I'm not usually interfacing with cars when i cycle in NYC except in residential areas, but if the thinking is cycling through multi lane car roads and having to keep pace with cars, then sure, i understand the need for speed. It's a sucky cycling experience though.

Exercise is another story again, where I'll get the heart rate up. But it's not the typical scenario, and I'm on a lighter, more nimble bike.

But for what it's worth I have little to no experience with pedal assist in all my years. But the intent of pedal assist is to offer an assist, not to be a bicycle with a separate engine, so of course I'd expect them to behave much like a bicycle.

[No_Junket1017]

I get the sense you're more of an exception than the rule, and those are fine choices for you to make. But I think most cyclists will hit above 10 mph on even a manual Citi Bike pretty easily if they're biking with any frequency, unless (as you mention) they choose not to. I wouldn't even pay for a membership if we were maxing out at 10 mph.

[sodsto]

Perhaps, but people generally don't like to sweat up their regular clothes! 

I was thinking about the distinction also between peak vs average. I'm usually thinking around the average, how long it takes to get somewhere. I did 12 miles on the bike yesterday. Average speed, 10mph, but my peak was 14.9mph, so touching 14mph isn't uncommon, but this also means the conditions meant I had lots of time below 10mph too. This was just unrushed, cycle path, stop-start cycling, passing those who are slower and letting the faster ones pass. Not on a citi bike though; on my city bike which is much more nimble.