All, Slow week, of course. Housekeeping abounded: student staff meeting, an interview, safety checks.

This week we have our Basic Maintenance 101 class on Wednesday evening. Other than that, it’s business as usual. The extreme cold will likely keep people away but this week also marks a relaxing of COVID restrictions, so we’ll see how those two balance each other out.

The numbers:

Visitors: 10
Sales: $105
Misc: $60

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

The dollars spent from TEM for faculty/staff air travel from FY20 is attached.

All, Not a whole lot to report: The Bike Center Fix It pump is operational and I’ll be meeting this week about marketing to get the word out. I got an email not 12 hours after visiting the new Flagg Hall covered bike parking asking if it was operational, funnily enough. Parking tagged the bike that was locked up out front of the Bike Center. It was probably a donation but doing our due diligence on that.

This week student staff will start and we’ll work through some more bike builds.

The numbers:

Visitors: 6
Sales: $59
Memberships: 1 for $30
Misc: $29

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

All, Slow week, of course. An uptick in donations of parts/bikes. Got a nice hybrid Giant bike that is already fixed up and ready to sell.

We are almost totally and completely moved out of our former garage home. It’s actually a lot of square footage in there once you remove all the stuff accumulated over the last 11 years or so!

This week will be scheduling, semester prep, and more work to get the outdoor bike pump fixed up and operational for the few hearty winter cyclists.  

The numbers:
Visitors: 10
Sales: $196
Memberships: 2 for $60
Bike (refurb): 1 for $120
Misc: $16

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

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

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

The Daily Illini published an article about the impacts of covid-19 on the campus sustainability efforts. One key message is that, even with some delays associated with the pandemic, we are still determined to move forward.  The conclusion of the article says: 

Mohamed Attalla, executive director of Facilities and Services, said there are lots of initiatives to reach carbon neutrality in terms of energy and hopes to reach 400,000 metric tons of CO2 this year.

Attalla said the addition of a third solar farm, advances in geothermal energy and research in carbon capture contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and that long-term, COVID-19 should not be a problem.

“Maybe we’re behind a little in implementing some projects, but we’ll be able to catch up,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a long-term impact on the iCAP implementation.”

White also said she doesn’t anticipate any long-term problems with achieving the iCAP goals and believes it’s important for the University to lead by example when it comes to sustainability.

“I really believe that accomplishing the iCAP goals is something we can do, we need to do and we will do,” she said. 

“Climate change isn’t waiting for us,” Edwards said. “(The University is) the laboratory for science, for humanities, for arts …  all those kinds of things show what is possible of humanity.”

“If we’re going to call ourselves leaders, then we need to lead,” he said.

https://dailyillini.com/covid-10/2020/12/08/covid-19-pandemic-impacts-un...

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.