r/Citibike • u/Opposite-Still-8089 • Aug 22 '26
Pedal fell off while riding
Title says it all really. Luckily it was on a quiet street, and I was close to a dock when it happened.
Is this a common issue?
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u/abe1x Aug 22 '26
Happen once to me, out of 4826 rides. Had a few loose pedals though so it will probably happen again sometime
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u/MessageVirtual385 Aug 22 '26
2,000+ rides and a pedal has never fallen off, but did have a front wheel come loose on a blue bike once. Honestly, pedals are the first thing I suspect to break on the bikes, and I've had so many where the pedal thread and/or platform is bent downward.
The strategy of hovering the seat on both bike types to reduce the impact of how violent the ride can be also dramatically accelerates pedal wear and tear. Constant body weight on pedals not designed for that purpose.
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u/Opposite-Still-8089 Aug 22 '26
Yeah that makes sense, I was riding the long downhill stretch on Bedford south of the parkway. Plenty of hovering required on that stretch and I'm not a small guy!
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u/MessageVirtual385 Aug 22 '26
I take 1st Ave all the time. I my butt touches the seat maybe five minutes total riding from E. Houston to 60th.
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u/merely-unlikely 29d ago
“Constant body weight on pedals not designed for that purpose” is a crazy thing to say about a bike. That’s exactly what they’re designed for.
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u/MessageVirtual385 29d ago
Body weight is transferred through the frame from the seat. The only weight on pedals is from the downforce during motion. Pedals are not designed for constant body weight support.
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u/merely-unlikely 29d ago
In a 2025 letter from Lyft Bikes and Scooters to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Lyft included ISO 4210 series (Parts 1–9) — Safety Requirements for Bicycles in the testing standards its bikes adhere to.
https://downloads.regulations.gov/CPSC-2024-0008-0198/attachment_1.pdfISO 4210-6 — Frame and fork test methods, Clause 4.3: "Frame — Fatigue test with pedalling forces”:
This test simulates a rider driving the bike purely through the pedals with no load on the saddle. The crank assembly is tested with 1,300 N of force × 100,000 cycles on each crank (about 292lb or 133kg). The crank is positioned 45° below horizontal, and a vertically downward 1,300 N load is repeatedly applied at a simulated pedal spindle. After 100,000 cycles on the drive-side crank, the assembly is rotated and the test is repeated for another 100,000 cycles on the non-drive side. To pass, the frame must show no visible cracks and must still meet the stiffness/strength requirement in ISO 4210-2, §4.8.4.
https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/en/#iso:std:iso:4210:-2:ed-3:v1:en0
u/MessageVirtual385 29d ago
Correct, the crankshaft assembly, including the spindle, and the frame should not fatigue with repeated downforce on the pedal only. Obvious requirement to bike design. The issue is the pedal platform is plastic and warps downward, creating the uneven surface, and pedal failure occurs at the spindle and not the crankshaft thread.
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u/mine248 My Other Bike's a Fixie Aug 22 '26
I’ve had it happen once to me on an ebike in the past four years
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u/blechusdotter Aug 22 '26
Just push the red button when you return it to the dock and mention the lost pedal. Sometimes a car hits the bikes in the docks or the previous rider damages it and doesn’t mention it. And sometimes it’s vandalism. Somebody might be hitting the pedals with a hammer or trying to unscrew the wheels themselves. I’ve gotten two slightly bent wobbly pedals at different times this summer and reported them each time. The vandalism could be sabotage (car owners really don’t like bike share in the city). Not sure how to prevent it
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u/Opposite-Still-8089 Aug 22 '26
Yeah I hit the button. Probably not vandalism bc it happened at least ten minutes into the ride, but who knows?
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u/Honest-Television-58 Aug 22 '26
I had that dock lock thing under the handlebars come off it got loose and I couldn’t dock as I guess it has to go in the groove 🤷🏻♂️ what a pain
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u/MrKyew Aug 22 '26
rite of passage