3 speeds are enough for city riding and the solid tires are horrible.

61mph? With all respect, I really doubt your statement. On my carbon road bike with slick 120psi tires I could not go faster 45mph on a long, steep, smooth downhill in Harriman State Park. Tour de France speed record is something like 75mph.

This was on a day there was a freakish tailwind of at least 25 mph. You’re correct that on a normal day there’s no way you’re doing 61 mph descending the QB or any other bridge. This wasn’t a normal day. FYI, I’ve hit 45 mph on level roads a couple of times on days when we had sustained tailwinds of 30+ mph. Very rare, but it does happen.

Here’s a bicycle speed-power calculator:

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

Use racing bike (hands on drops) for the bike type, 165 lbs for my weight, 30 lbs for the bicycle weight. Put in -5% for the gradient and -30 mph for the wind speed. If I use 200 watts for the power, I come up with 62.8 mph. Note that 200 watts is what I can sustain for an hour now. Back when I did this I was 25 years younger, so my one hour rate was probably closer to 250 watts. And also note that I could easily do more than that for a few minutes. If you put in 400 watts for the power, that’s 65 mph. Without the tailwind, I’d be lucky to do 40 mph according to the calculator. I don’t know the exact downgrade on the QB, but it’s easily at least 5%. For more fun, look at the number that comes up with a 30 mph tailwind, 0% grade, and 400 watts for the power. Yep, 48 mph on a level road.

It depends how far you need to go. A mile or two, 10-15 mph is OK. A longer ride not really. As for maintaining 20 mph for extended distances, here’s a speed plot from one on my rides last year which I made from the GPS log. Nothing special, just a typical ride for me. Overall average speed was 15.7 mph. Note how many times I needed to slow down for various things, mostly coasting up to red lights, or the average would have been maybe 1 or 2 mph higher. Oh, and this was on airless tires (those probably knocked another 1 mph off my average). I was a few months short of my 50th birthday. I’m also a good 25 pounds overweight. If I can do this, so can probably half the population. A lot of people ride might have trouble maintaining 20 mph because they’re on POS bikes, not for any other reason.

My primary bike is a Surly Disc Trucker, so perhaps my perception as to what constitutes a “heavy bike” is a little skewed. I rode the Capital Bikeshare a month or so ago and it was a blast. Would I have wanted to do a century on it? Maybe not. But for zipping around town it was great. And I did see a pod of CitiBikes in the 5 Boro two weekends ago, so maybe a century ISN’T out of the question!

(By the way, I know a lot of people object to calling them “Citi” bikes. Yes, CitiBank is evil, etc. So might I suggest, a la London’s Boris Bikes, the “Mike Bike?”)

huffy’s will last forever. its built and weighs like a tank

15mph only? girl dont know how to ride. i can do 15mph uphill on the ed koch bridge with full mountain knobby tires if i tried.

now i know not to take this chic seriously.

My ride is about 8 miles, from Maspeth to 1st/34th. On a good day I can ride 20+mph from 14th street up to 34th along First Avenue, if there is no tailwind and I make the lights and ride with the traffic. But that doesn’t make a big difference in the end. Most of the time there are no really good conditions to pick up that kind of speed and do it safely. I ride Surly Disc Trucker which is a nice bike but definitely not fast (700×28 tires). I rode my roadie a couple of times to work, and yeah, it was fast. I made it to work in 25 minutes as opposed to 40 minutes, but it was pretty scary, borderline reckless IMHO. On that bike at those speeds I would have little chances to stop quickly in a real emergency situation. That’s why a prefer slower bike but with more grip and more breaking power for my commute. Now, if your commute is somewhere upstate, longer blocks, fewer lights, less traffic and greater distances the a faster bike would make more sense. For my commute it doesn’t really matter if my ride is 20 minutes or 40 minutes. I advocate careful riding and leaving early enough so you don’t have to rush. If you have to rush then you’re not much different from a regular morning commuter 😀

i also did a test of these bikes. yes, they are heavy. yes they dont have a racing profile. but its not supposed to be. its a utilitarian hauler. and VERY surprisingly, these bikes are actually quite nimble. i was able to get good speed on these bikes along with some handy maneuvering in the limited space at the bike show. i dont see a problem hitting 15mph+ on these bikes.

Mine’s actually pretty new – only got it in February so I only have a couple hundred miles on it. Once I swapped the stock saddle for a Brooks Flyer it officially became the smoothest ride ever. Now if I can just get the placement of the handlebars totally figured out it’ll be sweet as sugar. Heavy, though. Heavy as heck.

I built my own last year, just bough the frame, and wheels. I’ve put extra gel padding on the bars. I think the way Surly ships them the hoods are too low. I like when the sides of the handlebar are parallel to the ground and hoods are slightly up.

Enjoy the ride!

I am surprised no one has yet pointed out that Simone’s SE draft bike is NOT a fixie.

You can have multiple gears on a fixed gear bike.

I’m a 100% recreational rider, so I pick and choose the roads and times when it’s most comfortable for me. Just in case you wanted to know, the ride above was as follows:

1) my place (near 166th and Jewel Ave) to Union Turnpike
2) Union Turnpike east past city limits until it turns in Marcus Avenue, and then intersects Hillside Avenue (25A)
3) 25A to Glen Cove Road
4) Glen Cove Road to NY25 west (Jamaica Avenue/Jericho Turnpike)-I’m on this for 9.1 miles
5) Turn off Jamaica Avenue at 181st, take that to Hillside, cross Hillside and take Midland Parkway/Surrey Place to Union Turnpike

6) Union Turnpike to 164th Street to Jewel Avenue and home.

1-6 is a big circle of about 23 miles. I “padded” on a few extra miles before coming home.

Where you go is a bit more congested than the route above. In December I rode from my place to a friend’s house near Coney Island, 35 miles round trip. I only ended up averaging 13 mph on account of the congestion in places and a headwind, despite the fact 8 miles was on the Belt Parkway Greenway.

I advocate riding whatever is comfortable. I always prefer a good road bike no matter where I’m riding because you use less effort for any given speed.

And 8 miles in 25 minutes on your road bike is pretty good if you ask me, especially for that area. I’ve little doubt you could keep my pace. I did 10 miles in 25 minutes once back in college, but this was in suburban NJ along US Route 1 where I didn’t need to stop at all. It’s rare I average much over 16 mph in the city, even where I ride, on account of lights/congestion/road conditions.

Based on my limited experience with similar bikes, that’s what I was thinking-slow acceleration due to the weight but otherwise no problem getting to ~15 mph or so. I found her claim of 7 mph to be suspiciously low.

They’ll steal this one. It’s actually pretty nice for a Huffy. My brother had 3 bikes stolen, and I guess that colored my thinking. Then again, this was in the 1980s when crime levels were generally higher.

Pay people to fix flats? I’ve had like 1 flat in many many thousands of miles of riding on my puncture resistant tires.

Solid tires suck, period. They do nothing to absorb high-frequency vibration that pneumatic tires can. Even the highest quality suspension system on a $20,000 bike (Moulton) cannot make up for the lack of the pneumatic suspension a tire provides. “Road buzz” absorbs rider energy. Any up-down movement of the bike/rider requires energy that USED to be forward momentum. Such losses account for the MAJORITY of losses at less than 20 MPH of speed, far far far overshadowing any losses from rolling resistance or air drag. This is why solid tires suck.

All I know is I have over 8600 miles on skinny solid tires and they’re just fine. I’ve noticed a minor loss of speed of about 1.5 mph but that wouldn’t even be a concern for most people. There are some tires using high-rebound elastometer which roll and ride as well as pneumatics. I haven’t tried them yet because they’re not currently available in the size I use, but they are available in the size tire used on the Citibikes.

As for flats, I used to get rear flats pretty much every week. That alone made finding an alternative worthwhile. It remains to be seen if flats will be a major problem on these bikes, but if so, I’ll strongly suggest they move to airless tires.

And if airless tires suck, why is at least one bike share bike system using them?

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/long-beach-announces-bike-sharing-plans-2500-bikes-be-installed.html

http://wp.bikenationusa.com/bike-nation-unveils-second-generation-made-in-the-usa-bike/

I’m pretty aware of bicycle physics and your statement that wider tires are faster than narrower ones is not always true. Wider tires can achieve a given coefficient of rolling resistance with less pressure than a narrower tire. And in general for any given tire rolling resistance decreases with pressure up to a point, after which further increases in pressure may have the opposite effect. However, crr varies quite widely even for tires of a similar size. It depends upon type of tread, type of rubber, type of casing, etc. Look here for example at the wide ranges of crr: http://www.biketechreview.com/forum/1-general-discussion/9761-the-definitive-rolling-resistance-thread

All that said, here’s some interesting testing: http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/03/bikes-and-tech/technical-faq/tech-faq-again-bigger-tires-roll-faster_209888

Wider tires roll better according to the tests, but the differences aren’t huge compared to narrower tires. It looks like a difference in crr of 0.00082 from narrowest to widest. If we assume rider plus bike weighs 100 kg, then that’s a difference of 7.1 watts in power at 20 mph (and proportionately less at lower speeds). Or put another another way, this translates into a speed gain of only 0.3 mph. This is of course neglecting the great aerodynamic drag from the wider tire. If we go from 20 mm to 23 mm tires, then overall the lower rolling resistance cancels the extra drag. If we go to 25 mm, then we lose speed despite the even lower rolling resistance of a 25 mm tire compared to a 20 mm tire. Bottom line, you’re NOT gaining much if any speed going with a wider tire. You will be getting a better ride on a wider tire inflated to a lower pressure, that much I can’t argue with, but you won’t be much faster. Based on the data I’ve seen, it looks like 23 mm might be the best size overall, so maybe I’m losing a few tenths of an mph with 20 mm tires (assuming we’re talking air tires with similar construction).

Getting back to airless tires, yes, the ones I have are costing me roughly 1.5 mph at 20 mph (and proportionately less at lower speeds), but as I said better ones now exist. My tires are 5 years old, and based on ~15 year old technology. The newest airless tires with high-rebound elastomer are testing out at crrs similar to better airless tires. They also ride similarly. And then you have this which is in prototype phase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9SWIsY8rzQ

They actually claim a lower crr than air tires.

Bottom line-airless tires aren’t on every bike share bike yet, but I’ve little doubt the way they’re headed they’ll be on every bike, period, within a decade.

I do note that there are some pretty hefty speed losses riding on roads which are cut in preparation for repaving. That’s probably similar in texture to a rumble strip. And of course, rougher pavement is slower, often not just because of suspension losses, but for the simple reason I often slow down just to keep from being bounced around too much. That said, I’ve gone pretty fast over rough stuff on my airless tires, including 20+ mph on Hillside Avenue. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Hillside Avenue, but parts of it resemble the lunar surface. At ~20 mph it feels pretty much like being on a bucking bronco. And it felt that way even when I had air tires on my bike.

Regarding airless tires, the ones with high-rebound elastomer as good as many pneumatics. And the Energy Return Wheel concept looks very interesting. It looks like that hollow structure is performing the same function as the air in a pneumatic tire. Remember also the airless tires don’t necessarily have to be better than all pneumatic tires, but merely “good enough”. If they reach the point where maybe they’re midway between the best and worst air tires in terms of rolling resistance and ride quality, many people will use them. Actually, they’re already close enough for many people to seriously consider them. I’m relatively happy with my Nu-Teck tires but wanting to try something a little better. These look like they’ll fit the bill when they come out: http://www.airlesstiresnow.com/AirLyte_ep_41-1.html

The bottom line is airless tires will never be mainstream unless some people are willing to at least give them a try. If they were really that awful, I wouldn’t be using them.

The Citi Bike is amazing cause its built in Canada. lol A great design perfect for short commutes in a city. It will be so popular that the main complaint will be lack of bikes or of empty slots.

No you can’t

Narrow, high pressure tires have MORE rolling resistance than wider, softer ones. Not less.