NEW YORK, NY–Citi Bike on Sunday took their electric pedal-assist rides out of service across the five boroughs of the city this weekend due to numerous rider complaints of “over-responsive brakes”
“We recently received a small number of reports from riders who experienced stronger than expected braking force on the front wheel,” the service wrote on its blog early Sunday. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively removing the pedal-assist bikes from service for the time being.
The setback, first reported by Streetsblog NYC, will see about 1,000 e-bikes — or approximately 8-percent of Citi Bike’s overall fleet — pulled from service, reported The New York Post.
Pedal-assist bikes owned by the same parent company in Washington, DC and San Francisco have also been pulled from service over the same issue, the spokeswoman confirmed.
Citi Bike — which has been in the middle of a piecemeal roll-out of the snazzy but elusive rides since 2018 — vowed to launch a new pedal-assist model that works out the kinks.
“We have been hard at work on a new pedal-assist bike, and are excited to bring that to you soon,” the service wrote, though it wasn’t immediately clear when the improved model would hit city streets.
But until the new e-bikes are ready to roll, the CITi program will put about 1,000 traditional people-powered two-wheelers over the next few weeks, Citi Bike said.
