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Projects Updates for Campus Bike Center

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  1. Weekly Update: bike sale, TBP community ride

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Getting busier with the warmer temps. Working our way through a glut of single speed bikes, which are both easy to fix (thus far; knock on wood) and will be in demand come the fall. We’ve got around 20 or so bikes for sale, but the math is shifting from when we have more time to fix than help to now having more people in than down time to fix up bikes.

    Over the weekend The Bike Project held a community ride, which I attended. Great weather for some bumpy road meandering!

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 26
    Sales: $1,047.50
    Bikes (refurb): 4 for $685
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tires/tubes: 12 for $96

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  2. Weekly Update: Walking Tour

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Slow week with the bad weather. This week looks better. Friday we’re helping with the Campus Recreation Walking Tour and so will show off our space to some folks that probably wouldn’t visit otherwise—that’ll be fun.

    Also have a couple new staff starting this week.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 14
    Sales: $223.50
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 4 for $35

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  3. Weekly Update: Donation, Busier week, Staff training

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, It’s April! Busier week over here with the warm spell. Tues/Thurs continue to be slower days and the 4 – 6p side of our hours remain more popular—anecdotally. I’ll dig into the numbers and see if that bears out.

    We are also trying out new sales tickets for our bikes, with the hopes that it’ll speed up that process as demand at the computer/square station will increase between our checkouts and the Adv. Rec folks.

    We received a large donation on Thursday, which we’ll continue to work through this week. Will also facilitate a staff training for a new hire. Plan to tackle some of the abandoned bikes as well.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 38
    Sales: $727
    Bikes (refurb):  2 for $275
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes: 2 for $19

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  4. Weekly update: M-F hours, IU sustainability visit

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, First week of being open M – F wasn’t blow-the-doors-off-busy. Tuesday was a dud, but Thursday picked up a little. Think it’ll take a little longer to get the word out on our new hours, and of course it’s always weather-dependent to a degree.

    We had a visit from Indiana University sustainability folks on Friday, which was good.

    This week is business as usual and next week it’ll be April! That undoubtedly will be a busy month.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 26

    Sales: $934.09
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $540

    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Memberships: 6 for $180
    Tires/tubes: 10 for $65

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  5. Weekly Update: Spring break, M-F open

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, We were closed for Spring Break, and I guess mother nature decided that was when it would actually be spring, and now it’s back to winter. This week we reopen to M – F 2 - 6p. Considering the cooler temps, likely won’t be super busy on those days.

    We were thwarted by the weather right before break and unable to clear bikes from the barn but will try again this week.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 29
    Sales: $302.50
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $40

    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes: 13 for $75

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  6. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Business as usual last week. We cleared some space up in the back to accommodate more for sale bikes, as we were out of room in the lobby.

    After this week, we will be closed all of Spring Break and afterwards reopen M – F.

    Will continue to grab bikes from the barn this week. Another unseasonably warm week ahead!

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 38
    Sales: $467
    Bikes: 1 for $180
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes: 2 for $30

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  7. Weekly Update: Busy, M-F hours after Spring break

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Business as usual last week. We were especially busy on Friday with a wait for stand time. Today will probably be hopping, too. Warm weather and all. Should cool down by end of week and allow us to finish some for-sale bikes, as spring seems to be coming sooner this year. Only a couple more weeks before we’re open M – F. Be good to get the Tue/Thurs crew some public facing time, as they’ve been squirreled away working on our off-days.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 38
    Sales: $764.50
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $350

    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tires/tubes: 11 for $85

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  8. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Most surprisingly, we sold a bike on Friday during the snowy times. Odd timing but if you need a bike, you need a bike! Can’t argue there. Got a new hire in pipeline, gearing up for some warmer weather this week. Probably means some busyness around here.

    Been working with my staff on lacing up wheels. Can’t speak highly enough of the instructional book and the staff have taken to it admirably.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 21
    Sales: $493.50

    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $160

    Memberships: 5 for $150

    Tires/tubes: 9 for $95

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  9. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Run of the mill week here. Thanks to Todd for grabbing scrap over the weekend. This week I’ll grab some more bikes from the barn to fix up and/or scrap. Had a few sneaky ones that look good at first glance and are junk in the end. We’re getting a good stockpile of overhauled wheels ready for when folks’ bikes need new-to-them wheels.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 35
    Sales: $388.50
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $200
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Tires/tubes: 2 for$8

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  10. Weekly update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Sneakily busy last week. Warmer weather this week will likely keep visitors darkening the doors. Still plugging away at the abandoned bikes. Had an interview last week for another student worker to bolster our team in advance of the really warm weather.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 43
    Sales: $615.50

    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $260
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Tires/tubes: 2 for $5

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  11. Weekly Update: Kid's Bike Giveaway, Busy in cold weather!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Happy New Year! Since my last email, we hosted our annual Kid’s Bike Giveaway. It was terrible weather with a steady cold rain, but we still gave away 70+ bikes in about 20 minutes. There was supposed news coverage with WCIA but I wasn’t able to track down the actual footage. Not an hour after we’d given away all the bikes, someone showed up with a couple kids bike donations. Already started on next year!

    The semester started last week, and we were surprisingly busy—even on Friday when it was a snowy mess out there, which meant it was a melting snowy mess in our workshop, too. A good problem to have.

    We’ll see how we fare this week with the freezing rain.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 21
    Sales: $283
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $170
    Memberships: 1 for $30
    Tube/tire: 1 for $4

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  12. Weekly Update: Kids bike giveaway, Staff, Winter break

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, We’re down to a skeleton crew here as a lot of staff have departed for the semester. We’ll be fielding/repairing donations for the Kids Bike Giveaway this week, as a few last-minute folks have been reaching out thanks to mentions in E-week and the like. We’ll close after hours on Friday for the semester and reopen Tues, January 16th.

    Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all!

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 23

    Sales: $264
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes: 7 for $40

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  13. Weekly Update: Thanksgiving break, Kids bike donation

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Hope everyone had a good holiday break! Mine extended into Monday, so this is a day late.

    We got a few more kids bike donations come in the Friday before we closed for the break, so we are full steam ahead in soliciting donations and fixing them up. With the nippy weather we should have plenty of time to work on the donations we have so far and tackle some cleaning/organizing that always gets pushed to the slower and colder months. We’ll also continue to make progress on the barn bikes.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 24

    Sales: $476.50
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes: 6 for $61

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  14. Weekly Update: Kids bike giveaway, Cranksgiving

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Busy week on the sales floor as the weather warmed up and we sold a few bikes. Also, got a half dozen or so kids bikes repaired for the KBG event in December.

    Over the weekend the Bike Project held their Cranksgiving bike food drive. Riders were able to collect ~400 lbs of donations to Faith UMC Food Pantry!

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 43
    Sales: $1,173.75
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $530
    Memberships: 7 for $210
    Tires/tubes: 26 for $229

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  15. Weekly Update: Cranksgiving, Halloween last week

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Halloween was last week, and we are still awash in candy and Halloween-themed cellophane.

    Weather bumped back up, too, and we had a wait for stands on Friday. As the mercury goes, so do we. Accordingly, Monday and Wednesday project to be busy. 

    Getting some bikes on the sales floor and tackling some organizational projects; will continue to do so this week. Will also tackle some more kids bikes as we ramp up production for that.

    This coming Saturday (11/11) the Bike Project is hosting Cranksgiving, a bicycle ride/food drive to collect donations for a local food pantry. I’ll mention it to my staff and patrons this week.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 43
    Sales: $484
    Memberships: 9 for $270
    Tires/tubes: 8 for $59

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  16. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Made some headway on the abandoned bikes and already have six on the sales floor. We tabled at the Green Quad Day last week as well. This week I’ll work on tallying inventory--and the marketing/publicity—for the Kids Bike Giveaway as well as getting regular bikes up for sale.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 47
    Sales: $862
    Build-a-Bike: 1 for $40

    Memberships: 14 for $420

    Tire/tubes: 17 for $131

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  17. Weekly Update: Abandoned bicycles, new staff

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

    All, Big news of last week is the abandoned bikes. Bike Project folk and I were able to take an inventory of the bikes that are available and given the number of bikes—fewest in my tenure!—we are not partnering with Working Bikes this year. I communicated as much last week and no hard feelings. If anything, they’re happy to hear we have less bike waste—and they would know, they’ve got a 3 story building full of bikes.

    This week we have a couple new staff members starting here. We’ll do some off-hours training with them.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 40
    Sales: $1,030.50
    Memberships: 18 for $540

    Tires/tubes: 27 for $212

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  18. Unclaimed abandoned bicycles donated to the Campus Bike Center

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

    Following the deadline day to claim impounded bicycles, Sarthak Prasad reached out to Jake Benjamin, campus bike center coordinator, to inform that these bicycles are now considered donated to the Campus Bike Center and the Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign. See the email below:

    Hi Jake,

    The deadline to claim impounded bicycles have passed, so you can start checking the bicycles in the barn now. These bicycles are now considered donated to the Campus Bike Center and the Bike Project. I have the serial number information for almost all of those bicycles in the spreadsheet as well. We had about 240ish bicycles to start with and 24 bicycles were returned this year.

    Thank you,

    Sarthak

  19. Weekly Update: Busy times, Light the Night, abandoned bikes

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

    All, Pretty standard week. Busy with some wait time on stands/repairs most days. Had a Build-a-Bike completed—always a good thing. My team and I did Light the Night on Tuesday at the Ikenberry Quad area. First time in a new location always gets us some looks and questions. Not as busy as we hoped but again, it’s not yet familiar to folks. No word yet on numbers. 

    We were dangerously overloaded on scrap by Friday, but Todd pick it up over the weekend—always appreciated.

    This week I’ll do inventory of the abandoned bikes to see what’s worth keeping. Of note: Easily the fewest abandoned bikes in my tenure. I think my first year there were over 500 bikes left over. Maybe bike shares are really helping that issue (and maybe creating others)?

    This week I’ll have two new staffers start. It’s apparently midterms, so reinforcements are paramount.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 62
    Sales: $1,122.50
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Memberships: 20 for $600
    Tires/tubes: 26 for $192

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  20. Weekly Update: Bike to Work Day, Light the Night

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, I was out sick all last week with some combination of flu/cold/sinus infection. My staff handled operations in my absence. However, there were some issues tracking visit numbers, unfortunately.

    Last Thursday was Bike To Work Day. Some very awesome people stepped up and filled in for me. Sounds like it was a banner year! Congrats to all involved.

    Tomorrow evening is Light The Night. We’ll be hosting at a different location this year. Should be a better spot for folks to get their lights.

    We were inundated with donations last week. I’ll bring in staff off-hours to help scrap the junk bikes and reorganize this week. Hopefully we’ll have our space in better shape by our open hours on Wednesday.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 8*
    Sales: $1,242.50
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $215
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $40
    Memberships: 17 for $510
    Tires/tubes: 9 for $55

    *See above issue with visit numbers.

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

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