First bicycle registration on the new system!
Shelby Keye became the first person to register their bicycle on University's new national bike registration system through Project 529!
Shelby Keye became the first person to register their bicycle on University's new national bike registration system through Project 529!
The bicycle registration page on the Bike at Illinois (bike.illinois.edu) to reflect the new changes. The new system will be available to the public from July 20, 2020. This page now contains information about the importance of registration, new bicycle registration system, how to register, and the 529 Shield (registration tag) pick up locations. Due to the pandemic, all the Shield pick-up locations were closed.
Learn more and how to Register Your Bicycle here.
Learn about the Benefits of registering your bicycle here.
The Purchase Order to purchase the Community-Plan of the Project 529's bicycle registration system was approved and the contract was sent to the vendor via email (due to the pandemic) on May 1, 2020. The contract would begin on July 1, 2020 and end on June 30, 2021. Sarthak Prasad will work with the F&S IT department to plan and prepare to use the new system and the bicycle registration fee.
The trial period for the Project 529 system will end on June 30, 2020.
SSC funded the Bike Maintenance Instructor project with $1,000 in FY17. Please see attached the final report for this project.
See the project update for the funding letter for this project here.
Please see attached.
Following the CTAC meeting on March 27, 2020, the Committee approved the proposal of adding a one-time $10 bicycle registration fee per bicycle.
Please see attached.
All, This is a digest for the week of 3/9 - 3/13. Last week we were closed for spring break and now we’re closed for the pandemic. I’ll be back to reporting when we reopen.
The numbers:
Visitors: 38
Sales: $162
Memberships: 2 for $60
Thanks!
- jake
All, Truncated week for me as I was out of the shop on Wed – Fri recuperating. On Tuesday night I was hit by a car on my bike ride home. No injuries beyond some scrapes and sore muscles. I was very lucky it wasn’t much worse.
Ultimately, we have a long way to go when someone who rides as defensively and as safely as I do can get hit by a car on a quiet residential street.
This week I’ll be meeting with my newly-hired Program Assistant to work out his schedule and responsibilities. I’ll be picking up more bikes from the warehouse, meeting with a student design group for transportation/climate issues (Design For America’s “Social Hack”), and building/scrapping bikes as needed.
The numbers:
Visitors: 63
Sales: $32
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
All, Happy March! Looks like it’s coming in like a lamb for a change.
Still slow around here as far as visitors are concerned. On Friday of last week we got 7 bikes donated, all of which will be junked or passed along to Salt & Light (3 kids’ bikes). That’ll give the student staff something easy to do this week. Elsewhere: Our grinder wheel bit the dust so we’ll be all analog on filing housing and cleaning parts until that is replaced. Less electricity use = more sustainable!
This week I’ve got an interview for a student worker, our Fix-a-Flat class on Thursday and on I’ll be setting up some of my staff to have key-access when I’m away.
The numbers:
Visitors: 45
Sales: $132
Membership: 1 for $30
Tires/tubes: 4 for $49
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
All, I only worked Monday and Tuesday last week as I had a family emergency out of town. Those two days were slow. I picked up some bikes from the warehouse to keep everyone busy. Those bikes are coming along.
This week is business as usual. I’ll look to reschedule some of the meetings I missed in my absence, pick up a couple more bikes, and box some more stuff up for our move.
The numbers:
Visitors: 27
Sales: $106
Membership: 1 for $30
Tires/tubes: 4 for $23
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
All, Business as usual last week. The Scottish dude finished his build-a-bike. He only came in, too, because his German friend did a B-a-B as well and talked it up. Nothing beats good word of mouth. He was positively giddy about the whole thing and never got discouraged or frustrated by the process. The highlight for me was bending back a canti brake boss using the hole in the end of a crescent wrench. It’s not perfect but it’s functional enough. That’d make a good motto for us.
I’ll head to the warehouse this week to grab a few more bikes. I’ll also schedule a couple training sessions with my staff to refresh on some repair basics .
The numbers:
Sales: $428.50
Bike (refurb): 1 for $180
Bike (B-a-B): 1 for $30
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tires/tubes: 4 for $17
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
All, Really slow last week as the weather got rainy and snowy—sure fire ways to keep people off their bikes. Although a nice Scottish gentleman studying here came by to claim one of the remaining bikes as a B-a-B. He repeatedly mentioned wishing there was something like this back home in Scotland, so we’re basically cooler than Scotland.
We had our first Fix-a-Flat class on Friday but that was a no-show, sadly.
I picked up some bikes from the warehouse to keep my staff busy while we wait for the real moving to commence. We’ve built up just about every bike in the shop, save some old 3 speeds. A good amount of inventory has been boxed up and moved to the Urbana shop or stored here for use at our new space.
This week I’ll be meeting with marketing and IT folks to discuss how the new bike center will look from those respective areas.
The numbers:
Visitors: 46
Sales: $261
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tires/tubes: 4 for $26
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
Attended by: Sarthak Prasad (organizer, F&S), Morgan White (F&S), Stacey DeLorenzo (F&S), Marty Paulins (Parking), Gary Williamson (Parking), Bryan Johnson (Housing), Barbara Robbins (UIPD), Tara Hurless (UIPD), Jake Benjamin (Campus Bike Center), Alana Harris (called in, Campus Rec), John Lantz (called-in, Office of the Dean of Students), Ben LeRoy (City of Champaign), Lily Wilcock (City of Urbana), Jeff Yockey (Champaign County Bikes), Donna Williams (Called-in, Project 529)
Sarthak Prasad organized this meeting on January 31st from 2-3 pm to discuss Bicycle Registration using Project 529. We started off with the introductions, and Sarthak briefly explained the agenda for this meeting.
We talked about the current bicycle registration system for the University and both the cities, and the need to bring a new registration system to the university and the community. City of Urbana has a paper based bicycle registration system and City of Champaign does not currently have a bicycle registration program. We discussed the potential benfits for having Project 529 as the national bike registry vendor. Some of these benefits include:
Following this, Sarthak talked about the costs that will be incurred to bring this system, and went over the Quote (attached) with the group. We (university) have started the Purchase Order process, and is in progress. To start with, the University will pay the entire quoted amount (including the Secondary accounts) to bring the system here. Sarthak has asked the Cities to contribute the Secondary Account funds. This system will also include the Village of Savoy, but since the population is much less compared to the University and the cities, Project 529 will not charge a Secondary Account fee for Savoy. This will mean that there can be administrators from the University, Urbana, Champaign, and Savoy. These admins will have access to the program (not separarte programs for each unit).
The University is also considering adding a $10 registration fee, but we trying to get approvals on that. The funds from this registration fee will go towards the bicycle programs in the university and community. Sarthak, Morgan, and Stacey will discuss with the Cities on how to distribute the funds.
Facilites & Services Transportation Demand Management (F&S TDM) at the University is purchasing the Community Plan from Project 529, and will lead this project. We would appreciate the support from all of departments involved.
Sarthak briefly explained the implementation plan, which is to launch a Pilot program immediately after the Spring Break, look for what works and what needs work, right up a report by the end of June, and launch the program to the public starting in July 2020. Following this, Donna from Project 529 briefly explained how the system works and some of the existing features. We also discussed how to add new features as well.
In the final 15 minutes, we asked Project 529 some questions about their system.
Ben LeRoy and Lily Wilcock will get back to Sarthak Prasad about funding the Secondary Accounts fee.
The Campus Bike Center is bringing several Bike Maintenance classes and Group Rides for Spring 2020 for free!
All, Slow and steady for the week on the whole. Anecdotally busy again for this time of year. Still gearing up and/or down for moving shop, depending on how you think of it.
We’ve got our first fix-a-flat class of the semester coming up this Friday from 11am – 12p. Today’s warm weather projects a busy shop this afternoon but I’ve given up trying to predict how busy it’ll be. I’ll also be hiring two new student staffers this week with a third interview to schedule.
The numbers:
Visitors: 61
Sales: $651
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $430
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tires/tubes: 8 for $31
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
All, First week of the semester is in the books! We were busy at times, and characteristically slow for the majority of the week. Sold a few bikes.
This week I’ve got another interview and hopefully it’ll work out so we can get our staff numbers back up. I’ll probably make a run to the warehouse to pick up a few more bikes since we’re out of B-a-B candidates/shop builds and a run to Urbana to drop off excess stock in advance of moving.
The numbers:
Visitors: 56
Sales: $478.50
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $305
Memberships: 1 for $30
Tire/tubes: 3 for $11
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
The Bike Month Planning team met on January 14th, 2020. We discussed the Roles & Responsibilities and the Weekly Tasks list for the Bike Month. Please see attched the Weekly Tasks list for the planning team.
All, Last week we reopened for 2020! Although, by the count of visitors and sales, you’d hardly know it. The junky weather never helps. This week projects to be a little warmer today and tomorrow, at least. We’ll see what happens next week when school starts back up.
We currently have 2 – 3 bikes left in the shop that are not either for sale, being built up, earmarked for other projects, or junk not worth keeping.
This week I’ll be working on scheduling my student staff for open hours shifts as well as our extracurricular events/programs like our fix-a-flat classes, etc. I’ll also be coordinating with Parking to get at least a few potential Build-a-Bikes in here for next week in case anybody wants to give that a whirl. And, of course, throwing old junk out.
Numbers:
Visitors: 17
Sales: $12
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
All, This report is for the week of December 16 – 20.
Not much to report as this time of year is always slow. Still had a decent number of visitors. We are not reopening until the 6th, so today and tomorrow I’ll just work solo in the shop. The weather will be nice today so I’ll be able to concentrate on test riding and final tune ups on our collection of refurbed bikes. As it stands, most of our stock of bikes are ready and for sale or in-progress builds.
The numbers:
Visitors: 36
Sales: $324.90
Bike (B-a-B): 2 for $60
Tires/tubes: 5 for $33
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center