whoops

Almost exactly six months ago, we attempted to teach Bwogger Nadra Rahman how to ride a bike on Zagster bikes, a new bikeshare on campus. About a week ago, a few other Bwoggers decided to give Zagster bikes a try. Deputy Editor Mia Lindheimer reports on her experience.

Unlike another certain Bwogger and bike-reviewer, I am fully proficient in the art of riding a bike. I have often ridden through a park with the wind in my hair, and I was looking forward to doing just that with the Zagster bikes last week. If you missed our article last semester, here’s what you need to know: Zagster like an off-brand CitiBike for college students, and they offer three locations on campus which you can check bikes out of. They charge $5 for the 24-hour “membership” and $3 for every hour you use the bike (though, they do give you one hour “free”). There are check out stations outside Lerner, John Jay, and Wein, where you can use the accompanying Zagster app to check bikes out.

So, my friends and I decided to do just this to have one last bout of summer fun biking through Riverside. We woke up bright and early (noon), downloaded the Zagster app, and headed down to Lerner to check the bikes out. It didn’t go so well. To begin with, the app was particularly slow, forcing us to restart it a few times to actually get the bike code and unlock the bike. While some of us were playing with the app to try and get it to work, others were moving on to the unlocking stage, where one bike unlocked perfectly and according to the instructions, and another just kept repeating “Error” after we typed in the code. That wasn’t such a big deal, we just switched to a different bike and it unlocked just fine. Meanwhile, friend three has finally figured the app out, and unlocks her bike. Off to Riverside we go!

Just kidding. As my friends began to ride off, I looked down at my bike, because my foot kept failing to land on the pedal. Surprise: there was no pedal. The left pedal of my bike was completely missing. Gone. So I made my friends wait up while I checked a new bike out. Much to my surprise, the only other bike left at the Lerner station also had its left pedal missing. Honestly, you’d think at least maybe together they’d make a pair, but there were just two bikes with one right pedal each. Not a big deal, we can just find another one at the John Jay station.

Oh, wait, but there are no bikes even parked at the John Jay station. Are the freshmen in John Jay just really into these Zagsters? Where did all the bikes go? Did they have pedals? I’ll never know. Anyway, we continued to Wein, where there were actually some bikes. And, while some of them were also missing pedals or other assorted parts, I was able to find one rideable bike for our journey through Riverside, but a bigger question haunted me: what the hell actually happened to these bikes? Were they not brand new just six months ago?

Perhaps there’s a group of really faithful Zagster users somewhere on campus, and they’ve worn these bikes out. But why haven’t the bikes been repaired? Who has done so much damage that pedals are inexplicably missing? What use are the bikes if you have to even walk across campus to get one? Is the sad state of these bikes thanks to students, or thanks to Zagster’s lack of maintenance? The world may never know, but in the meantime, remember to bring a left pedal with you on your next Zagster excursion.