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Project Updates for collection: Bicycle Related Projects

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  1. Weekly Update - Word of mouth, Bike donations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Pretty slow around these parts—per usual for this time of year.

    A story: A gentleman comes in on Wednesday looking for bikes. We get to talking and he’s volunteered at Working Bikes (the org we give abandoned bikes to) up in Chicago, he knows his way around a wrench. He buys a nice road bike and that was that. An hour later, he brings a friend back; she signs up for a membership. Two days later, same guy is back with another friend; he buys a membership, too. Says they’ll both be back on Monday to work on a bike. Word of mouth really is the best marketing.

    This week I’ll still be processing the donations from the kids bike event that were not kids bikes. We got a lot of adult-sized bikes that aren’t worth saving, unfortunately.
    The numbers:

    Visitors: 11
    Sales: $254
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Misc: $4

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  2. Weekly Update: Happy New Year, Kids bike giveaway

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Happy New Year! The final week of the semester—and the two weeks preceding it—were a whirl of kid bike prep for our event, which took place on December 19th.
    Here’s a story CI Living did on the event:  https://www.wcia.com/ciliving-2/the-bike-project-hosts-kids-bike-giveaway/
    We gave away 40+ bikes in less than half an hour and our community really came through in providing those donations on such a short time frame.
    This week will be a lot of cleaning and organizing—kids bike parts are strewn every which way as we hustled to get the bikes finished—and an inventory once-over to see where we stand on parts and bikes.
    Thanks!
    The numbers:

    Visitors: 7
    Sales: $19

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  3. Weekly Update: WCIA interview, Kids bike giveaway

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Last Monday WCIA came by the Bike Center and interviewed me for our Kids Bike Giveaway event. Made the evening news! We got one call from a woman in Tuscola, a man from Danville, and a woman emailed from Springfield, all referenced the news story.
    Accordingly, we’re in full-on kids bike mode: student staff are fixing them, I’m fielding phone calls and emails, people are dropping them off nearly every day we’re open and sometimes even when we’re not.
    I think we’re at around 20 bikes and we should probably get to 30 by week’s end between both shops.
    This week we’ll continue prepping for the Bike Giveaway event, mostly logistical items like signage, set up, and keep fixing them.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 11

    Sales: $215
    Bike (refurb): 1 for $160
    Tires/tubes: 4 for $39

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  5. Weekly Update: Kids Bike Giveaway, WCIA interview

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Last week was our first one with “regular” open hours again. I’d guess we had about the same number of people coming by as we did under our reservation system but it was certainly less leg work.
    Our main push for the next few weeks will be our Kids Bike Giveaway. The particulars:


    Date: Saturday, December 19th
    Time: 1 – 3p or until we run out of bikes
    Location: Urbana Bike Project (202 S Broadway Ave., Urbana)
    Details: first come, first served; one bike per kid and they must be present to pick out their bike.

     

    We are still in need of donations but just through emailing our membership we’ve heard from 3 – 4 people with bikes to donate.  WCIA is calling me later today to discuss, so hopefully we’ll get on the news. I’ve done lots of submitting to various media outlets. I’ll be focusing on getting the word out on the need for donations this week and focus on doing the bulk of the refurbishing next week. If successful TBP has expressed interest in making this an annual event. We’ll see!

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 6
    Sales: $165.50

    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 4 for $12

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  6. The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign, in partnership with the U of I Campus Bike Center, is hosting a Kids’ Bike Giveaway this holiday season!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Encourage Bicycle Use

    The Bike Project is currently accepting donations of all kids’ and teen bikes, regardless of condition, and then refurbishing them to give back to young folks in the community!

     

    Donations can be made at the Urbana Bike Project (202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana) or at the Campus Bike Center (51 E. Gregory Dr., Champaign).

     

    Please call (217) 469-5126 or email contact@thebikeproject.org to arrange a donation.

     

    Kids' Bike Giveaway Event:

    Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2020
    Time: 1 pm – 3pm or until we run out of bikes
    Location: Urbana Bike Project (202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana)

    Details: first come, first served; one bike per kid, and they must be present to pick out their bike.

     

    All health and safety guidelines will be followed.

  7. Weekly Update: Slowest week financially, Closing appointment system, New working hours

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Maybe the slowest week on record, financially-speaking, as we grossed $8. Hopefully not a preview of the rest of the semester…
    Before the break we did have a repeat visitor express interest in volunteering so there is some latent interest in our offerings.
    This week we will be closing down our appointment system in favor of our regular open hours offerings. Visits have not been frequent enough to warrant the extra trouble of an appointment system. We’ll be open M/W/F for the rest of the semester, barring any further mitigation efforts.
    We’ve got a few bikes from the warehouse to work on and they’ve already proven to be  good teaching candidates for my staff on things like the irreparable damage kickstands can so easily inflict. No one likes leaning their bike against a wall just-so but it beats having to replace it entirely
    Thanks!

    The numbers:
    Visitors:
    Sales: $8!

     

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  8. Weekly Update: Daily Illini interview, CTAC, post-Thanksgiving programming

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Last week I was interviewed for the Daily Illini  about the importance of bikes during a pandemic for health, safety, and exercise. No word on if they’re publishing the story.

     

    Last week, I was also present for the Active Transportation Advisory Committee on campus to discuss infrastructure and developments for bus riding, biking, and walking. Great to see and meet—virtually—so many University people involved in implementing and promoting safer and healthier ways to get around campus and the community.

    This week is business as usual: picking up bikes from the warehouse, staff meetings, and prepping for our post-Thanksgiving programming.

    Thanks!


    The numbers:


    Visitors: 10
    Sales: $99.50
    Memberships: 1 for $30

    Tire/tube: 4 for $30
    Misc: $34.50

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  10. Weekly Update: Promote the Bike Center, bike pick up

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Lovely summery weather last week!
    Main event for the week was a marketing meeting to discuss new and innovative ways to promote the Bike Center, which was fruitful and really put into perspective how much stuff we do here at CBC when explaining it, even in general terms. And things like build-a-bikes vs. refurbished vs. DIY repairs will always confuse the uninitiated.
    This week is business as usual. Bikes to be picked up from Parking, an Active Transportation Advisory Committee meeting, staff meetings to be scheduled, and so forth. Some suppliers seem to be restocked a bit on some much-needed bike parts but as we inch ever-closer to fall/winter, immediate demand for those parts will wane. But we’ll still stock up a bit.
    The numbers:


    Visitors: 12
    Sales: $226.50
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $200
    Misc: $26.50

    Thanks!

     

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  11. Weekly Update: Moving bikes from warehouse; Traffic safety

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Slow week again. Grabbed a few more bikes from the warehouse. I’ve been given clearance to remove all the remaining bikes, so I’ll be doing that in small doses for the rest of the semester. I’ll bring some of my staff along to help. Moving bikes around is a lot easier for college-aged kids anyway.

    I spoke with a UIPD officer last week about traffic safety after I had some close encounters with vehicles on campus. We’ve tentatively planned to do a meet and greet/talk next semester with my staff and UIPD to cover road safety on campus. It’ll be great to have the ear of enforcement on cycling issues and in the end, be better cycling advocates to the community.

    Numbers:

    Visitors: 6
    Sales: $228.00
    Memberships: 1 for $60
    Bike Sales (refurb): 1 for $160
    Misc parts: 2 for $8

    Thanks!

     

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  13. Weekly Update: Abandoned bicycles, Working bikes

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    All,

    Pretty slow week. Had the iCAP sustainability celebration on Tuesday, which was great. Always fun to see/hear from other parts of campus that are working towards a better future for our campus. On the flipside, I had the displeasure of reporting a dangerous F&S driver that same day and then a dangerous MTD driver on Thursday.

    Todd came by and cleared out scrap on Friday which was welcomed.

    As of this morning, I communicated with Working Bikes that we will not be doing our annual abandoned bike donation as Parking did not collect bikes last spring, due to COVID, and thus we have no bikes to donate to them. It hasn’t been decided/communicated whether Parking will collect later in the fall/winter or wait until spring. This will also negatively affect how many bikes we’ll have for sale next spring, as the pool of available bikes is lower. But of course, most of the abandoned bikes were being donated and for sale numbers were always more dependent on our ability/time to build more than a dearth of bikes.

     

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 11 (7 UIUC-affiliated)
    Sales: $225
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Misc parts: 8 for $55

     

    Thanks!

     

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  14. Student collaboration: Promotion of bicycle registration system

    Associated Project(s): 
    ENG 177 GFX Global Sustainability Scholars
    Bicycle Registration

    Sarthak Prasad met with Shayna Talpallikar to discuss her proposal to promote bicycle registration on campus. Bicycle Registraiton has been mandatory for years, as explained in the University Bicycle Ordinance, and the university should promote it more like that. There is a new national registration system, with a one-time $10 registration fee, and it is available to all - students, faculty, staff, alumni (in C-U area), departmental bicycles, as well as the residents of Urbana, Champaign, Savoy, or any other Champaign County residents.

    Shayna expressed interest in helping us out with this project and how we can achieve it. We discussed two main ideas, and thought adding signage to major bicycle parking areas to be the best option right now. Another option was to have Bicycle Registration days or events across campus where we give out free donuts and raffle option to those who register. However, this idea was discouraged due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Please see attached some notes from the meeting. A recording of the meeting is also available.

    Attached Files: 

  15. Weekly Update: Abandoned bicycles, Sustainability Celebration

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    All,

    Mike, a semi-regular at the old shop, walked in on Friday for his appointment, looked around and said, “What’d you have to do to get upgraded to such a nice spot?”

    Just another positive review of our new space.

    I coordinated with Parking to do more frequent pick ups—but smaller loads—of abandoned bikes, which should allow for a better flow of bikes in and out of the bike center. This should be more manageable for myself and my staff going forward, as well.

     

    This week is a Campus Sustainability Celebration on Tuesday, a CBC staff meeting Wednesday evening, and warm weather to close out the week, which usually equals some more traffic, but we’ll see if that holds during a pandemic.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 14
    Sales: $178.20
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Misc parts: 4 for $40

     

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  16. Update to the University Bicycle Ordinance

    Associated Project(s): 
    University Bicycle Ordinance

    The Univeristy Counsel made a slight update to the definition of bicycle, which has been updated to the University Bicycle Ordinance.

    1. Bicycle. Any one-, two-, three-, or four-wheeled device propelled by human power upon which any person may ride, not including wheelchairs or similar devices, but also including class 1 low-speed electric bicycles, as defined by the Illinois Vehicle Code, 625 ILCS 5/1-140.10. For Use of In-Line Skates, Roller Skates, Skateboards, e-Scooters, and Self-Balancing Personal Transportation Devices, refer to CAM FO-35.
    Attached Files: 

  18. Weekly Update: Open hours sign, bikes pick up

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All,

    Last week I had an epiphany that we should probably have a sign on the door that lists our hours, even if they are appointment only. That’s in the works, should be ready tomorrow.

    With the decrease in testing for grad/staff we’ve had to turn a few people away for not being up-to-date. They have, by and large, been totally understanding. A few people have emailed and canceled ahead of time, which is welcomed.

     

    Set up a secondary pegboard in the shop to better organize freewheel/cassette tools—it’s a vast improvement over the drawer and/or coffee can we’d been using before. Last week I grabbed the scrap metal bin, some miscellaneous parts, and Aquaham Lincoln. He’ll live atop the fridge.

    This week I’ll coordinate with Parking to pick up a few bikes—only space for 3 or so—for instructional/teaching purposes with the new hires, schedule a staff meeting for my team, finalize placement for wheel hooks around the shop to increase storage.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 12
    Sales: $747
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Refurb bike: 2 for $430
    Tire/tubes: 10 for $57

     

    Thanks!

     

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

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