Ithaca Bikeshare

We took these on a 25ish mile journey from Cass Park, up the Black Diamond Trail, over to Bet the Farm Winery, down to Cayuga Lake, through the Cayuga Nature Center, then back to the trail and Cass Park. The trip was phenomenal. The bike? In general: The bike is 110% adequate. The positive: The bike was relatively comfortable and everything was functional (for the most part), the motor is powerful, and the battery lasted! The bad: BRAKES!!!! The brakes on my bike needed far more strength than they ought to have; especially considering the hills in and around Ithaca. My wife was absolutely terrified going down some of the hills. We swapped bikes and I found her front brakes severely lacking power. Did they stop the bike? Yes…given enough space; But if there was a need to stop abruptly, it wouldn’t have happened. Preference: I would have preferred some control over the motor’s power. We both found that the only time our legs were doing any of the work was on the uphills. As a result it felt like more of a motor bike than a pedal-assisted bike. Would I do it again? Yes. But definitely a with helmets next time.

This is a great service in a hilly place. The bikes ride well and the annual pass is very reasonably priced. The app is not as fast, but so far works very reliably.

Despite the general slowness and bugginess of the app, I decided to give it a try. The setup process was difficult and tedious (manual card entry; why do I have to activate the bike twice to unlock and ride?). The bike itself claims to be an e-bike but offers little to no pedal assist. I couldn’t get it to activate up a slight incline without a running head start. And forget about hills on these bikes, they can’t handle them. Finally, I gave up and attempted to end my ride. Despite propping the kickstand, the bike would not be recognized as parked no matter what I did. The app kept spinning and throwing red error messages. This entire system is dangerously bad and should be taken down before someone gets hurt.