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Lyft Removes Faulty Electric Bicycles From Three Cities

posted by chromas on Tuesday April 16 2019, @06:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the I've-never-had-functioning-brakes,-I-don't-oil-my-chain-and-my-derailleur's-out-of-adjustment dept.

takyon writes:

Brakes that are too effective have led Lyft to remove thousands of its electric pedal-assist bicycles from New York City (Citi Bike), San Francisco (Ford GoBike), and Washington, D.C. (Capital Bikeshare):

A month ago, Jordan Wyckoff was riding an electric Citi Bike to work in Brooklyn when he slammed on the brakes to avoid a minivan that swerved in the bike lane. But when he hit the brakes, the front wheel locked up, sending Mr. Wyckoff over the front of the handlebars and onto the pavement.

The same thing happened to Dominik Glodzik when he tried to brake before a stop sign in Astoria, Queens about two months ago.

William Turton flipped over the front of an electric Citi Bike while trying to brake before an intersection on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn.

In recent months, dozens of riders have reported injuries while riding electric Citi Bikes, prompting the company on Sunday to pull all of the approximately 1,000 electric bicycles from New York City's streets amid safety concerns about the brakes. Lyft, which owns Citi Bike, took similar precautions with its other bike-sharing services in Washington and San Francisco.

Motivate, a subsidiary of Lyft since 2018, operates bicycle sharing systems in several cities.

Also at BBC and Engadget.

Previously: Uber May Try to Buy Citi Bike Parent Company Motivate
Lyft Acquires America's Largest Bike-Sharing Company, Motivate

Related: New Electric Bikes, Scooters, and Dockless Bicycles Hitting U.S. Streets
Uber Buys Electric Bicycle-Sharing Startup JUMP Bikes

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by kazzie on Tuesday April 16 2019, @11:56AM (3 children)

    by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 16 2019, @11:56AM (#830363)

    I strongly recommend reading the advice of lifelong cyclist (and bike mechanic) Sheldon Brown [sheldonbrown.com] on using the front or rear brake skillfully. Here are two key quotes:

    Conventional wisdom says to use both brakes at the same time. This is probably good advice for beginners, who have not yet learned to use their brakes skillfully, but if you don't graduate past this stage, you will never be able to stop as short safely as a cyclist who has learned to use the front brake by itself.

    The cyclist who relies on the rear brake for general stopping can get by until an emergency arises, and, in a panic, he or she grabs the unfamiliar front brake as well as the rear, for extra stopping power. This can cause the classic "over the bars" crash.

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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Tuesday April 16 2019, @12:24PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Tuesday April 16 2019, @12:24PM (#830371)

    Indeed. And your post came up just as I was posting mine, making a similar point. The rear brake is really the secondary brake.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday April 16 2019, @01:58PM

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Tuesday April 16 2019, @01:58PM (#830393) Homepage
    I've lived in university towns most of my life. 90+% of cyclists never get out of the "beginners" class. Have you not noticed the prejudice against cyclists? - this is why. I've even seen some (I won't mention any attributes about them, lest I be called somethingist[*]) even repeatedly standing on the frontmost pedal attempting to hill start at a traffic light, going absolutely nowhere as they were in their top gear at the time! (And then attempting to derail down the gears whilst stationary, as a follow-up trick.)

    [* Oh, alright, they were almost certainly Spanish, as I know there was a summer-school for hundreds of Spaniards in town at the time.]
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @02:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @02:44PM (#830421)

    Which means it is stupid that they removed the bikes. What are they going to do? put weaker breaks on them? People should understands that bicycles are vehicles and they need to learn to ride them properly.