Campus Bike Center (51 E Gregory Dr., Champaign, IL 61820. Phone number: 217-300-4638) was added as the Shield pick-up location. Sarthak Prasad dropped off 250 Shields at the location to be picked up by bicycle users. This location will be available for Shield pick up from August 24, 2020. Due to the pandemic, the CBC will only accept visitors who make an appointment beforehand, so please call in ahead to more information. The Shields will be distributed at the front desk of the CBC's new location.

We will replensih the Shields as needed.

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.

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, 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, 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

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, 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, It felt surprisingly busy in the shop at times last week. Our staff is dwindling with the end of the semester. We’ve reached the time of year where people bring their bikes in to the shop simply to thaw out. This week will be worse yet with the snow today.

This week’ll be more of the regular: building bikes, piling stuff up to throw away or donate to the Urbana shop. We’re closing this Friday, the 20th and will reopen on the 6th of January.
Thanks to Todd for picking up scrap over the weekend.

Numbers:
Visitors: 49
Sales: $231.50
Memberships: 2 for $60

Tires/tubes: 9 for $63

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center

All, Looking back to the week before Thanksgiving break, it was about average for this time of year. Not a whole lot to report. Still throwing stuff away as we see fit. Bikes are getting built. One of the student staff put in her resignation as she’s received an internship with iSEE. Always nice to see success for the students here!

This week we’ll host our Fix-a-Flat class on Friday, Dec 6th at 11am here at the Bike Center. Likely to be poorly attended since it’s December. Otherwise, it’s more of the same: building bikes, cleaning shop, throwing stuff away.
The numbers:

Visitors: 66

Sales: $231.50
Memberships: 2 for $60
Tires/tubes: 9 for $75

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center