How to Use Citi Bike Stations as Free Exercise Machines

Who needs a gym membership when there are more than 300 <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/12-important-citi-bike-tips-to-review-before-you-use-nycs-new-bike-share-program/">Citi Bike</a> stations in NYC inadvertently offering free spin classes? <a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/spinning-on-citi-bikes/">The New York Times</a> recently shed light upon the new phenomenon, where opportunistic New Yorkers have been hopping aboard docked Citi Bikes and <a href="http://gothamist.com/2013/06/12/stationary_citi_bike.php#photo-1">using them as stationary bicycles</a> to exercise. Is this another way for the general public to be able to enjoy the new bike share system or just plain bizarre? Tell us in the comments below.

If you, too, want to participate in these "free" cycling classes, there's really not much to it.

Just walk to your nearest <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/12-important-citi-bike-tips-to-review-before-you-use-nycs-new-bike-share-program/">Citi Bike</a> station, mount a bike of your choice, and get pedaling.

There's just one catch - apparently, you can only pedal backwards. But that hasn't stopped any of <a href="http://gothamist.com/2013/06/12/stationary_citi_bike.php#photo-1">these folks</a> from partaking in the new "trend".

If the Citi Bike "gyms" start to "spin" too far out of hand, it seems likely that the DOT might create some kind of locking mechanism for the bikes. But we have to wonder if there isn't some kind of upside to this.

For example, what if Citi Bike could somehow harness the resulting <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/the-charge-cycle-free-pedal-powered-phone-charging-stations-could-come-to-nyc/">pedal power</a> to help juice up their kiosks (some of which are powered by solar energy right now), or even add energy back to the grid? We've seen <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/photos-soggy-new-yorkers-flock-to-human-powered-nyc-premiere-of-nbcs-revolution/">pedal power in use before</a> so the technology does exist. It would just be a matter of how much the city would be willing to exist to implement it.

The New Yorker called the new phenomenon on their June cover.