From an investment banker at 7.50am to a solar product start-up entrepreneur more than 12 hours later, we follow the fortunes of a New York Citibike for a dayAnd here's what happened when we followed a Boris bike around London for a day

The route taken by New York Citibike number 0919. Graphic: Finbarr Sheehy for the Guardian

Our bright blue Citibike, number 0919, starts its day early at the busiest Citibike station, on 42nd Street, outside Grand Central station. Last month, nearly 500 trips started or ended here every day.

7.50am Yuri K, 39, rushes towards Citibike 0919. He just got off the train from Westchester, New York, and is on his way to his office in Tribeca in downtown Manhattan. "Yes, you can follow me," he says as he puts on his blue helmet. "I hope you don't mind going in the wrong direction on some streets." An investment banker from Moscow, Yuri has lived in the US for 12 years. He shoots down Park Avenue at breathtaking speed, weaving in and out of rush-hour traffic. "I like taking the bike in the mornings, because my entire trip is downhill. On the way to work, I'm faster on the bike than when I take the subway – 23 minutes is my best time. Not today, though, because you are slowing me down."

8.25am George Kaufman, 38, managing director at an investment firm, picks up bike 0919 at the corner of Duane Street and Greenwich Street, near his Tribeca apartment. His route to work in the financial district takes us to the southernmost tip of Manhattan in Battery Park, past the Freedom Tower and along the Hudson river. George's bike ride is leisurely; he is a cautious cyclist. "This is my first ride to work this year. I usually take the subway, but I bought a seven-day bike pass over the weekend, and the weather this morning was too nice not to take advantage."

8.50am After only two trips, our bike has travelled 9.12km. Within the next five minutes, five other officer workers arrive on Citibikes, dock their steeds and disappear into the grey office building opposite us.

9am Sporting a bright green T-shirt and shorts, Alan Kindler, 58, gets off the Staten Island ferry, walks over to the Citibike station and places his brown leather satchel in the basket of bike 0919. He lives on Staten Island and commutes to Times Square. His bike ride from the ferry terminal to the Verizon store, where he works in customer service, is 8.7km each way. "A person should work up a good sweat every day," he says as he cycles up the West Side Highway in the sun. "I only take the subway when the wind chill is below 15F."

9.45am Our bike has travelled 17.5km and is parked at a busy station on 8th Avenue, outside Port Authority bus terminal. Jeff Blakeman, 34, lives in New Jersey and works in Chelsea at Tekserve, a technology reseller. He arrives at the bus terminal from New Jersey, grabs bike number 0919 and starts cycling south on 9th Avenue. After two blocks, at 9.50am, the bike starts rattling loudly, followed by a whistling sound of escaping air. He hits the brakes, jumps off and investigates the rapidly deflating back tyre. Clonk – a huge nail drops on to the asphalt. "I guess it's time for another Citibike!" Jeff exclaims. He rides bike number 0919 on a flat back tyre one block north, docks it into a station at the corner of 9th Avenue and 39th Street, and is back on the road on a new bike – number 1969 – all in less than four minutes.

Victor Nkwo: 'When I moved to New York, I had a car, but you spend at least $350 a month on parking. I was one of the first to sign up when NYC started bike sharing.' Photograph: Brian Harkin for the Guardian

10.30am Personal trainer Victor Nkwo, 32, is happy to find bike 1969 at the station near his Chelsea apartment. "In the morning, these docking stations are usually empty and I have to walk to a different station to find a bike." He is on his way to the personal training studio he runs on Broadway. "When I moved to NYC, I had a car, but you spend at least $350 a month on parking. I was one of the first people to sign up when NYC started bike sharing."

10.55am Next up is Hayden Chan, 40. He lives in Queens and works in New Jersey, in insurance at Axa. "I'm on my way to my son's pre-school graduation at International Preschools on West 45th Street. I'm running late – the ceremony starts at 11." The bike station at 1st Avenue and East 44th Street, half a block from the United Nations headquarters, is almost full and none of the empty docks works. Hayden rides briskly three blocks north to the next station, but doesn't have any luck there either. Finally, at 11.30am, he docks his bike at a station on 51st Street and rushes off to see his five-year-old son graduate.

Eileen Weisinger: 'I'm running late for a kick-boxing class at the YMCA. I own a motorbike, and parked it a few blocks away because there's no parking close to the YMCA.' Photograph: Brian Harkin for the Guardian

12.05pm Eileen Weisinger, in her 40s, is the most adventurous cyclist yet. "Ready to get crazy?" she yells as we cross 2nd Avenue. "I'm running late for a kick-boxing class at the YMCA. It starts at 12.15." Eileen adds: "I own a motorbike – I parked it a few blocks away, because there is no parking close to the YMCA – and I own three bikes, but I use Citibikes all the time." She is a stuntwoman and tells me she was Drew Barrymore's body double in Charlie's Angels.

12.16pm Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Steven Struhl leaves the Midtown Surgery Centre on East 47th Street and buys a bike pass at the machine where our bike is parked. The process is confusing. "Where is the next button? Where do I put my credit card in?" Steve, who teaches at NYU medical school, performed two surgeries this morning – "One knee, one shoulder" – and is on his way to his office on East 56th and Lexington Avenue. "I fix people who fall off bikes," he says. "Don't tell anyone I'm not wearing a helmet."

Daniel Ferrara: 'Not stopping your bike over a steaming sewer is a valuable summertime tip.' Photograph: Brian Harkin for the Guardian

12.56pm Daniel Ferrera, 55, approaches bike number 1969. The immaculately dressed Bloomberg journalist cycles down Lexington Avenue in the hot sun. On his way to pick up his golf club from a nearby store, Dan stops at a red light, directly over a sewer grate, which suddenly exudes unbearably hot steam. He gasps: "Not stopping your bike over a steaming sewer grate is a valuable summertime tip."

3.30pm Christy Kidd, 42, picks up our bike opposite the New York public library on 5th Avenue. She just got out of a job interview – "It went well!" – and is on her way home. Christy is a financial professional and has co-written A Modern Marriage with her husband, a memoir about their alternative take on marriage. "My husband and I first saw these bikes in Montreal, and we thought it was a great idea for New York. It takes me 12 minutes to get from Union Square to my apartment – that's including checking the bike out and docking it. For 14 blocks, that's very quick."

3.52pm Radenko Miskovic, 33, is an ardent cyclist. Every day, he cycles cross-town from his apartment in Gramercy/Murray Hill to the Chelsea Piers sports centre on the West Side Highway, where he is a personal trainer. His clients are "explosive types" he says as we ride west on West 21st Street. "Mostly sprinters and boxers, some basketball players. The bike saves me one hour every day. I rode it all winter, but you need to have a face mask."

4.13pm Henrik Hanson's trip to Chelsea was unsuccessful: the 28-year-old Swedish film director and graduate from the School of Visual Arts came to visit his professor, who is a curator at a gallery in Chelsea. "I rode to Chelsea to give a gift to my university professor, but unfortunately he wasn't there. It's a book about my home town, Stockholm." Henrik picks up our bike, which is parked outside a former women's prison on the West Side Highway, and rides back to the East Village. "I like biking much more in Sweden than here. They have bike roads in Sweden. It's so dangerous to cycle in New York."

5.05pm Our bike is docked at a station outside Baruch College on Lexington Avenue. Phuong Pham, 21, an undergraduate student from Vietnam who majors in actuarial science, leaves class and grabs our bike. He wants to get a duplicate key to his apartment cut at a locksmith in the East Village. "In my home town, Qui Nhon in central Vietnam, I used to bike to school every day. But riding in New York was scary at first. It was so dangerous. After two or three trips, I got the hang of it. Taxi drivers in NYC are crazy – I get honked at a lot – so I ride more carefully."

Eve Jochnowitz: 'I just went out to buy some groceries.' Photograph: Brian Harkin for the Guardian

5.48pm Eve Jochnowitz, 50, Yiddish teacher and scholar of Jewish culinary history, loads her grocery bags into bike 1969's basket and puts on her red helmet. "I just went out to buy some groceries." Eve, who has lived in Greenwich Village her whole life, is about to go on a two-week bike trip, and her own bike is being repaired. "My boyfriend and I are going to Rutland, Vermont, for a contra dance event, the Giant Robot Dance. Then we are biking 240 miles from Rutland to Oswego, New York, for the Great Bear Groove."

Joel Klein: 'I have seven bicycles and I'll never use one of them again. This is so convenient.' Photograph: Brian Harkin for the Guardian

6.20pm Our bike's next rider is Joel Klein, 64, a children's entertainer and "professional balloon twister" wearing a green tank top, saffron trousers and a fabulous pair of glasses. Last year, he twisted balloons at the White House, at a Fourth of July celebration for military families. He is on his way home from a Weight Watchers date with his daughter. Joel is a big fan of bike-sharing schemes: "I have seven bicycles and I'll never use one of them again. This is so convenient; you don't have to chain anything up. I've been riding in New York since I was a kid."

Colin Whitlow: Crossing Brooklyn bridge is 'a bit harrowing at first because you are sharing space with so many pedestrians'. Photograph: Brian Harkin for the Guardian

6.56pm Colin Whitlow, 32, takes bike 1969 from the West Village past the chess players in City Hall Park across Brooklyn bridge to Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Crossing the bridge, he says, "is a bit harrowing at first because you are sharing the space with so many pedestrians." Colin does business development for a private equity firm and media company in Manhattan, and he rides across Brooklyn bridge twice every day to get to and from work. "I come to work more invigorated than if I took the subway."

Shveta Sarin: 'The bikes are amazing. They solve all of my commuting problems.' Photograph: Brian Harkin for the Guardian

8.20pm As the sun sets, Shveta Sarin, 27, takes bike 1969 for a ride up to Williamsburg in North Brooklyn. She moved from New Delhi 18 months ago and works at a solar product startup company. Together with her husband Rahul, who rides his own bike, she is cycling quickly past Brooklyn's Navy Yard to make it to a 9pm yoga class in Williamsburg. "The bikes are amazing. They solve all of my commuting problems." She docks the bike and walks to the studio.

9pm Wiliamsburg's nightlife is just getting started. Since 7.50am, our bike has travelled 53km and carried 17 cyclists across New York.

• This article was edited on 21 August 2014 to change Westchester, Connecticut to Westchester, New York