Spent time tracking down a few new sources for kids’ bikes, as this year we aren’t receiving a large number of donations yet. At this point, we're looking at a little more than 20 kids bikes.
Visitors: 53
Sales: $724.25
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $225
Memberships: 8 for $240
Tires/tubes: 7 for $50
The Bike Center received a few more donations and started processing the abandoned bike pile which they'll continue to tackle throughout the week. There was a mention in E-Week for their Kids Bike Giveaway and already have donations lined up.
Visitors: 66
Sales: $575.10
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $140
Memberships: 8 for $240
Tires/tubes: 9 for $69
They finalized the date and times for our Kids Bike Giveaway event: 12/14/24 from 2 – 4p at Urbana IMC building, so they submit work orders for signage/posters/social media posts. Thus far, we’ve gotten zero donations of kids’ bikes, but between both shops we have ~15 to start working through.
They'll also have their first instructional class on how to fix a flat tomorrow.
Visitors: 69
Sales: $1,153.50
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $395
Memberships: 20 for $600
Tires/tubes: 22 for $163
The Bike Center hired 2 new staff members and got a new inventory of kids' bikes that are already in the works of getting fixed up. Posters are printed and hung at CBC for donations to the Kids’ Bike Giveaway. Posters and flyers were also given to Urbana staff for them to display in their space.
Visitors: 110
Sales: $1,153.50
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $200
Memberships: 20 for $600
Tires/tubes: 22 for $163
All, Manageable levels of busyness last week. I think our visit numbers have declined slightly, which makes sense for the time of year. Highlights of the week: Received a couple worthwhile direct donations. Fixed up a couple kids’ bikes. Had a student staff interview. Got a few B-a-Bs out the door. The law professor who’s into bikes has become a regular Friday volunteer.
All, Another busy week with the fun addition of Bike To Work Day and Light The Night. Haven’t seen the numbers yet but both events went well, I believe. Friday was surprisingly slow here, which was great since I had staff out sick. We had a BTWD participant follow up and volunteer with us on Friday, which was great.
All, It’s Bike Week! Bike To Work Day and Light The Night are this week, so we’re prepping for that. Still busy here, too, during our open hours. We’re moving more build-a-bikes and have 3 bikes in the queue for the sales floor. After this week we’re on to the abandoned bikes from the last round up. Always fun around here!
The numbers:
Visitors: 122
Sales: $1,801.50
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $340
Bikes (B-a-B): 3 for $210
Memberships: 25 for $750
Tires/tubes: 30 for $237
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center
All, Another busy week, although slightly less so since we’re out of refurbished bikes. We’ll have a trickle of one or two available as I’m able to fix them but we’re far too slammed during open hours to build any.
Bike To Work Day and Light the Night are next week, so I’ll be rallying staff for that and handling other prep as needed. Getting a few more B-a-Bs prepped and a bike or two on the sales floor, too.
The numbers:
All, Busy as can be last week. We’re sold out of refurbished bikes and have only a handful of Build-a-Bikes available. We have 3 new hires in the pipeline, which’ll help. Meanwhile, this week is absolutely perfect riding weather—hope folks are getting out there!
Our newer B-a-B model of handling some of the harder repairs has really helped accessibility to the program. With 3 this week alone, that’s more than we sometimes get completed in 6 months. Lowering barriers of entry is always a good thing!
All, I know students are back when bikes start selling without a test ride. You can only lead a horse to water…
We’ll likely sell out of bikes this week. So, we’ll scramble to get a few more on the sales floor. And of course, always mention our Build-a-Bike program!
The numbers:
Visitors: 19
Sales: $1,178.25
Bikes (refurb): 4 for $785
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $66
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tires/tubes: 10 for $59
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center
All, Slow week. Not a lot of visitors, not a lot of bikes sold. Should be able to get a couple more bikes on the sales floor today, as we’re down to 10 or so bikes available.
I’ll be out the rest of the week after today, but my staff will cover.
The numbers:
Visitors: 13
Sales: $465.50
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $190
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tires/tubes: 10 for $74
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center
All, Slow week, except for the full family that brought in 4 bikes over 2 days so everyone could get riding. One of the kids was extra inquisitive on what bikes parts were and their function. Genuine interest is always appreciated!
Worked through most of our donations of the last few weeks and now have to parse out the build-a-bikes from the for-sale builds to hopefully make the process easier for my staff.
The numbers:
Visitors: 12
Sales: $424.50
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $175
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tires/tubes: 3 for $20
Thanks!
All, Had a visit from someone who works at the Idea Store in Urbana. We were able to donate an old junky wheel to them for an art project—always happy to repurpose bike parts we can’t use! Even more so to an organization that helps recycle as many things as they do.
This week we’ll still be working through the donations we’ve accrued in the last few weeks.
The numbers:
Visitors: 17
Sales: $514.25
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
Membership: 4 for $120
Tires/tubes: 11 for $88
Thanks!
All, Uneventful week to report on. Real Feel temp all week was hovering near or above triple digits. Not a lot of folks out riding in that weather. We were closed on Wednesday for Juneteenth and had shorted hours on Monday due to a conference I was attending.
Tonight is the Bike Project member’s meeting, which I’ll attend.
The numbers:
Visitors: 6
Sales: $308.50
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tires/tubes: 5 for $38
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center
All, Apologies for the delay. Pretty uneventful week. I was out at a conference on Thursday and Friday. My staff handled shop hours on Friday without issue. Made some more headway in the abandoned bike pile but also got half dozen or so direct donations as well. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us this week in processing all those.
All, Normal week to report on. Over the weekend made some good headway on the last of the abandoned bikes, with the help of the Bike Project and Habitat for Humanity. One of our student staff members is headed to a conference in Italy for the entire month of June, so we’ll miss his insight as a Dutch bike enthusiast. Although, maybe that is redundant of me to say.
I will be attending the Youth Bike Summit in Pennsylvania from Thursday – Sunday this week. Should be a good opportunity to dive deep into bike programming of all sorts!
All, Shortened week with Memorial Day. Otherwise, business as usual. Subpar donations are still trickling in, so we’re able to continue to pass those along to Habitat. Took a week break on the barn bikes but will be ramping that back up this week. I believe the tagging of abandoned bikes on campus has begun, so we’ll likely get calls/emails about that in the coming weeks.
The numbers:
Visitors: 28
Sales: $656
Memberships: 2 for $60
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $365
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $60
Tires/tubes: 5 for $55
Thanks!
All, Last week, with the Bike Project, we were able to donate 20 or so bikes to a nonprofit church group that will send the bikes overseas. These were all bikes that would’ve otherwise been in the scrap yard, so it’s less work for us and helps keep more bikes out of the waste stream—a win-win! We continue to donate kids bikes to Habitat for Humanity as we do not have the storage space to keep those until our winter giveaway.
Got a couple more new hires on board and learning the ropes.
All, First week of M/W/F was fine in terms of meeting demand. Not a lot of people in, but we did steadily sell bikes to summer session folk. Had one person start a build-a-bike. Interviewed a potential student staff hire, and will have a few returning staff starting this week.
The numbers:
Visitors: 38
Sales: $1,307
Bikes (refurb): 5 for $800
Memberships: 5 for $150
Tires/tubes: 6 for $57
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center
All, Slow beginning to the week and a furious finish. Friday was busier than we’ve been in weeks, but we were also down some folks as finals were wrapped up for most people. Made progress on the abandoned bike pile. Habitat for Humanity’s bike rodeo has been a godsend, as we’ve been able to unload some kids/teen-sized bikes on to them in good conscience knowing they’ll be going to a similar cause. We’ve donated nearly a dozen bikes from CBC alone and will probably have more. We’ve received 14 direct donations from folks graduating or not using their bike, going back two weeks.
