Lyft shoots e-bikes in three US cities over braking issues

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A Lyft bike is on display following the opening ceremony of the Nasdaq bell, which celebrates Lyft's first public offering.

Lyft Inc. is removing several thousand electric bikes from its self-service bike program in New York, Washington and San Francisco due to a braking problem, the chairlift company said Sunday.

"We recently received a small number of reports from pilots who found stronger braking force than expected on the front wheel," the company said in a message sent Sunday to its customers.

The company's shared bike division is replacing about 3,000 pedal-assisted bikes in New York, Washington, and San Francisco with traditional bicycles to avoid service disruptions. The company already operates around 17,000 traditional bicycles in these cities.

Among the shared bike brands affected by the withdrawal of service include Citi Bike in New York, Capital Bikeshare in Washington DC and Ford GoBike in the Bay Area.

Some electric bikes are still on the docks but customers will not be able to rent them anymore.

"After a few reports and as a precaution, we are proactively stopping our electric bikes," said Citi Bike spokeswoman Julie Wood, "Safety First."

The company said it was working on a new electric bike model that would be ready to be rolled out soon.

Lyft, which was announced in March, bought last year's Motiate from Citi Bike with the aim of countering competition from the rival's purchase of start-up JUMP Bikes, which specializes in sharing several months ago.