A missing Citi Bike mysteriously reappeared in Manhattan on Saturday.

Filmmaker Ted Geoghegan found the bike covered in silt and barnacles, as if it had been left underwater.

The bike had been missing since September 2017.

When filmmaker Ted Geoghegan set out for the Citi Bike station near his Manhattan home on Saturday, he expected to find at least one working bicycle he could ride that afternoon. What he saw was a little weirder: One of the program’s signature blue bikes had been covered in silt and barnacles, as if it had just been dredged from the bottom of the Hudson.

Geoghegan, known for his horror films like We Are Still Here and Mohawk, tweeted about the disappointment, noting that the bike appeared to have “been fished out of the river.” The pictures make it look like something from one of his movies:

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Hey @CitiBikeNYC! I raced over to the rack by my house, hopeful to grab the one CitiBike that was there. It has literally just been fished out of the river. It is held together with rust and barnacles. 73rd and Riverside. 🤦🏻‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/AgFrBJc1TV — Ted Geoghegan (@tedgeoghegan) February 23, 2019

According to a Citi Bike spokesperson, the bike was last rented in September 2017, so it could have been parked underwater for up to 15 months. How it finally resurfaced is a mystery, because it likely wasn’t a Citi Bike employee who re-docked it.

“Citi Bike staff removes any bike that is in a visibly unrideable or dangerous condition,” the spokesperson said, adding that the barnacle bike “has since been removed from service by our team.”

Ted Geoghegan

Maybe whoever dumped the bike felt guilty and dove down months later to retrieve it themselves. Perhaps Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy got tired of fighting over bike share and ditched it for the invisible boatmobile. More likely, though, is that someone fishing or boating discovered the bike by accident and, rusty and disgusting as it was, quietly returned it to a docking station.

Jordan Miller, lead mechanic and co-owner of the Tampa, Florida, bike shop Velo Champ, often participates in river cleanup efforts in his city. He said volunteers occasionally pull up bicycles submerged in the brackish river water, and that the discarded rigs are almost always beyond repair.

Ted Geoghegan

“Salt water causes extreme corrosion and rust,” Miller said. “Any electronics would be ruined, and barnacles, algae, and other water life start finding a home. It’s pretty gnarly.”

According to Miller, it’s usually necessary to retrieve bikes with a dock hook or rope, but sometimes anchors or cast nets will pull them up in heavily dredged and trafficked areas. He’s been on group rides where people have accidentally tipped a parked bike into the water, and said if this happens, it’s important to get it fished out, rinsed off, and drained within an hour or two.

If the bike falls into fresh water, Miller said, “there are still going to be chemical reactions with the alloys, but it won’t happen as quickly. In a really grimy river, a lot of times there are other contaminants that can affect it as well.”

Park your bikes on land, people.

Riley Missel Test Editor Test editor Riley Missel is an experienced road racer, mountain biker, and a national champion on the track who has been at Bicycling since 2017.

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