Bike Day 2021 was organized on September 14, 2021! Here are some of the numbers from the events from Bike Day 2021.

Bike to Work Day:

• Held in the morning from 7 - 10 am
• Record-breaking event with 16 welcoming stations in Champaign County, including 9 on-campus
• Record 802 pre-registrations to attend the event and more than 150 walk-in registrations
• University Housing provided refreshments to all campus welcoming stations
• iSEE produced a video highlighting the event

Light the Night:

• Held in the evening from 4 - 7 pm
• Three locations: Alma Mater, Hallene Gateway, and Campus Bike Center
• 40 volunteers for the event
• installed nearly 750 light sets (front and rear)

General feedback was very positive from the campus community members. Several mentioned that holding these events in September felt like a welcoming event and gave the returning and new students an opportunity to explore the campus and community on bike and learn about the bike program at the beginning of school year!

The Bike Month Planning team and Light the Night Planning teams are considering organizing both of these events in the fall semester going forward.

Celebrate CU Bike Day 2021
 
Be a part of two great upcoming bicycle events on Tuesday, September 14. You can participate, volunteer, or do both! 

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign achieved the Silver-level Bicycle Friendly University status in October 2019 because of its ongoing commitment to improving bicycle education, infrastructure, and programs. Visit the Bike at Illinois website to learn more about the many efforts that support bicycling on campus.
 
Bike to Work Day
Champaign County Bike to Work Day returns this semester. There will be 17 welcoming stations open between 7 and 10 a.m., with nine on the Urbana campus. Grab a snack and get some free Bike at Illinois merchandise and a T-shirt! To get the free T-shirt, you must register and bring your bicycle! 
 
Light the Night
The 14th annual Light the Night, a free bike light giveaway, will be held that evening from 4 to 7 p.m. at three locations:

• Alma Mater Plaza
• Hallene Gateway (intersection of Illinois Street and Lincoln Avenue)
• Campus Bike Center (51. E. Gregory Drive) 

Participants must bring their bicycles to receive the free light sets; lights will only be installed on bicycles without lights. Volunteers are needed in the afternoon and evening for three shifts. Fill out the volunteer sign-up form to assist. All volunteers will be required to wear face coverings during the event.

A first of its kind at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a 14’x63’ covered Bike Shelter has been installed and is ready for use in the Ikenberry Commons area between Flagg Hall and Noble Hall. It can accommodate up to 96 bicycles at a time utilizing side stage (vertical) bike racks.

See attached the pictures from first week of August!

All, No mistaking it now. We’re busy, busy, busy. We’ve sold out of all our regular-sized bikes and only have 3 left that fill out the extreme ends of the size-spectrum:  two very small and one very large bike.

We’ve been very vocal about hiring here while we’re open and have had some verbal interest but nothing that has actually translated to applications—yet. I did interview and am in the hiring process for one new employee, so that’s a start.

On Friday, Jeff Yockey stopped by and grabbed a handful of Grand Opening flyers to hand out at the Habitat Bicycle Sale. Habitat sells some of their bikes in As Is condition meaning folks might need somewhere or some parts to get their bikes rolling a little better and we’d be just the place. Always nice to get our name out to the larger community.

On Saturday,  I participated in LAB’s Traffic Skills 101 course. Despite 13 years of regular commuting, not all of the maneuvers and handling came naturally to me. Always more to learn. Up next is the official LCI training seminar in September.

This week I’ll be fielding more applications and building bikes to attempt to meet demand.

The numbers:

Visitors: 141
Sales: $2,100.50

Memberships: 17 for $510
Bikes: 8 for $1,190
Tires/tubes: 12 for $39
U-locks: 6 for $136

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

All, Last week was absolutely bonkers busy. We sold out of most of our bikes, handed out bike registration stickers, and taken in some drop-off repairs. We were closed on Friday for a staff training so we did all that in two days. We’re really getting to see how our new space handles the crush of people this time of year. Only downside is we’re only able to be open M/W/F since we’re critically low on staffing. Once we hire and onboard more folks, we’ll be able to bump up our hours some more.

Over the weekend we had the Illini Frenzy event which was a great outreach opportunity. We handed out lots of Bike Center stickers, slap bracelets and flyers.

This week will likely be as busy or busier than last. Buckle up!

The numbers:

Sales: $1,848
Bikes: 9 for $1,410
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tire/tubes: 17 for $66

U-locks: 10 for $215

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

All, We’re getting legitimately busy nowadays! We’ll be keeping an eye on overall capacity and having to limit some visitors soon.

I’m scrambling to finish more bikes to capitalize on the surging demand but we’ll likely sell out this week or next.

Over the weekend we’ve gotten over 50 bike registration notifications so it’s likely we’ll see an uptick in registration pick-ups here.

We had a patron come in on Friday who’s an RA at LAR and took all of our rack card flyers to hand out to his students—hopefully that’ll bump up our applications.

The numbers:

Visitors: 41
Sales: $1,362.60
Bikes (refurb): 6 for $940
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tires/tubes: 8 for $42
U-locks: 6 or $126

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

All, This update is a day late as I was out of the office on Monday.
Last week I was out on Thursday and Friday as well. Student staff covered Bike Center hours in my absence. On Monday last week we received a bike from Housing which we were able to quickly fix up and put out for sale.  
This week we have a couple drop off repairs to catch up on, a few more bikes to fix up for sale, and some donations to process.

The numbers:

Visitors: 26
Sales: $1,167

Memberships: 6 for $180
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $500
U-locks: 5 for $105

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

Sarthak Prasad worked with Rachel Hull in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement to create a campaign story on With Illinois to request donations towards the Campus Bicycle Plan Implementation and Mission Fund. This is a community funding campaign and Sarthak will be promoting it to the Bike at Illinois social media and community partners. The current goal is to raise $500 before September 14, 2021.

Read how you can "Help Bike at Illinois improve your bicycle experience on campus!" Please share this campaign story and make a donation ($1 minimum) to help us achieve this goal.

All, Busy week! Sold bikes, stripped bikes, helped people fix bikes. We had especially good volunteer turnout on Friday. One frequent visitor even donated his neighbor’s old bike that was headed for the dumpster before he intercepted. Another person said they’ll be here to volunteer on Monday.

Donations, thankfully, have hit a little bit of a lull, so we’ll be able to spend this week catching up on that. On Friday alone—see aforementioned volunteer levels—we started 4 new shop builds that will be finished this week.

We also sold a bike to someone from Housing who works specifically in promoting healthy and environmental lifestyles in the dorms. He seemed really jazzed about our programming and operations. Hopefully that’ll be a future partnership.

The numbers:

Visitors: 28
Sales: $1,307.10
Memberships: 2 for $60
Bikes (refurb): 6 for $1,040
Tires/tubes: 5 for $26
U locks: 3 for $63

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator