ATTICUS MARSE: Hi. My name is Atticus Marse from the Minnesota Daily and you are listening to In The Know a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota.
As students at a University in a major city with a lack of affordable parking, we have to find a way to get to and from classes, get to work and find good groceries. Luckily, we have some options, a light rail system, buses and bikes.
Bikes can be a great mode of transportation, but they can break down a lot. And many students aren’t equipped with the skills to tackle bike repairs on their own. Or they give up after an embarrassing crash in front of the Washington Avenue Bridge, where pedestrians run rampant, even if nothing breaks.
Many of you may not know that the University of Minnesota is rated a platinum Bicycle Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists. Only nine universities in the United States have ever reached the platinum standard out of the 480 universities rated. And they have been platinum since 2011. A portion of the award scoring is based on the campus Bike Center.
College students are lower on cash than the average Twin Cities resident, and they usually have jam-packed schedules. This can stop them from purchasing replacement parts and services from bike shops.
That is where the University of Minnesota Bike Center comes into play. Located inside the Oak Street Parking Garage near Superblock lies a small shop with student staff and high-end bike repair tools.
Eamon O’Hara, the Bike Center shop manager, explains how he got his position and how students can use the reopened center to help them take better care of their bikes.
EAMON O’HARA: I’ve been working around bikes, in bikes, managing and co-owning bike shops for about 15 years. And so I came to the University in December of 2023 to help develop a maintenance program for the university’s student rental program, the Gopher Bikes.
And after about a year and three months or so of that, the University was figuring out a way to reopen the Bike Center and I applied for and was hired for the Bike Center shop manager role. We’re really excited to be able to offer open shop programming.
And so that’s sort of like a do-it-yourself where University students, staff and faculty can come to the Bike Center and they can reserve a time to use our tools and our repair stands and the experience of our mechanics to be able to learn how to work on their own bikes.
MARSE: Students and staff can reserve work spaces to service their bikes using the Open Shop reservation system on the Parking and Transportation Website, pts.umn.edu.
O’HARA: There’s little hour blocks on Monday, Thursday and Friday between noon and five, where users can sign up for a session, and they’ll bring their bike on in and we can take a look at it. If there are any parts that might need to be purchased or replaced, users are able to very conveniently purchase those parts from our retail partner in shop, Venture Bikes. Of course, we’re looking to expand those hours once we get into the fall and there’s more traffic, more students on campus.
MARSE: Students whose bikes end up needing parts for repairs or want help from a mechanic will receive 10% off all parts and services through the Bike Center’s partner shop, Venture Bikes. This discount allows students with monetary constraints to have an easier time repairing their bikes. Josh Kaul, a third-year mechanical engineering major, has had troubles with a common issue: popped inner tubes.
JOSH KAUL: I popped one first semester. Easy change, I just went into Eric’s and then bought a new inner tube or whatever. I changed it myself because I didn’t want to have to pay for the service, and the inner tube probably costs maybe eight-10 bucks or something like that.
MARSE: If a student like Kaul went to the Bike Center, they would find expert help and fresh inner tubes.
Have you ever seen one of those little green bikes on campus with a big U-lock and a UMN logo on them, but could never figure out how to use them? Well, they’re called GopherBikes. And they’re upkept and rented out by the Bike Center.
O’HARA: So we have in the neighborhood of 150 GopherBikes on campus. And majority of those are reserved for the student rental fleet. And so students can request a bike through an open call, which will happen just as folks come back to campus.
So every semester, every season, we open up the request form so students can request a bike, and it’s free to them. It comes with a U-lock, and they can be rented for a semester, a summer, a year. And we assign those bikes, and then people are able to use them.
MARSE: A lesser-known fact about the GopherBikes is that each residence hall has four bikes assigned to it that students can check out for short-term rentals through the semester.
O’HARA: These are all completely free. And they’re all operating on a first-come, first serve. We’re looking to expand our fleet because the program has been so popular that we have a waitlist. And so we’re optimistic about expanding that programming soon to get more users on GopherBikes.
MARSE: Due to the high demand for these bikes, not all students can find easy access to one. However, there are more options for finding a bike to ride on a budget. Morgan Hendricks, a third-year strategic communications major, knows of some alternatives.
MORGAN HENDRICKS: Cycling for sure can be an expensive sport, especially for us college kids or even just buying a bike to get around when you’re working a part-time job and not making a whole lot of money. An entry-level bike shop bike is around $500, which is a lot. And I totally get it.
There are bike shops in the Twin Cities that only sell used bikes. And what they’ll do is they’ll have donations and fix them up and then sell them for like $100, $150. And they’re still good quality bikes. It’s just, they’re not brand new out of the box.
MARSE: Hendricks said that there are advantages to buying a new bike from a shop as well. Many shops offer free tune-ups, and services on bikes bought in stores. But the price saving of a used bike can outweigh the benefits of purchasing a shop bike. Hendricks owns four bikes, two of which are mountain bikes that he uses for fun and in mountain biking competitions.
HENDRICKS: I joined my high school mountain bike team after trying a couple other sports in middle school and then stuck with it all the way through my senior year. Minnesota has a really strong high school mountain bike club all throughout the state, and they put on races in the fall.
I started racing more and found some youth development clubs that I started to ride and race with a whole lot here in the Twin Cities. And ended up racing around the country with teammates and competing against some of the best young riders in the world.
MARSE: Hendricks’ past in biking has led him to his current position at Now Bikes in Minneapolis, where he works as a mechanic.
HENDRICKS: They’re a family-owned business and they’ve been around for over 50 years now, and it’s a really great bike shop that serves a large majority of the cyclists in the Twin Cities area. I’m a bike mechanic there, and I work part-time.
We have four mechanics on staff, and it’s a range of experience. I’ve been working as a bike mechanic for about two years now, but my boss has been a bike mechanic for 17 years, and there’s another one that’s been a mechanic for 30 years, so there’s a lot to learn.
MARSE: Another one of Hendricks’ four bikes is specifically built for his commute and city riding.
HENDRICKS: My bike is my main mode of transportation. I ride to work. It’s about a four-mile commute. My girlfriend has a car, so sometimes we’ll use that. But I’ve used my bike to get groceries. I’ve done DoorDash deliveries on my bike, which is a little sketchy when they order soft drinks and you start spilling stuff. But yeah, my bike is my main mode of transportation.
I think in a car, you kind of sit in your own little bubble. You experience space a whole lot differently on a bike. You don’t have to deal with traffic as much. And so it’s a little bit more freeing.
I think riding around the city on a bike is a really cool way to kind of see more than what you would normally in a car. And you get to interact with the city in a completely different way.
MARSE: Hendricks is not your average campus commuter. For him, biking is more than just a mode of transportation; it’s a hobby, a sport and a stress reliever all in one.
Kaul, another avid mountain biker and commuter, gets to work and the gym using his road bike, which he purchased for $200 at a local used bike shop.
KAUL: Yes, I commute to work, which is further downtown. So it’s a good like maybe two miles every morning. I’m in the heart of downtown, it’s on like Second Avenue there close to Target Center.
MARSE: Kaul generally likes his commute but finds that construction can sometimes make him fear for his safety.
KAUL: With construction right now on University, it can be a little bit stressful, I guess maybe on the way back more because I go early enough in the mornings at seven, where I don’t have to run into traffic. But on the way back, especially, I don’t know, it’s a few blocks to like leave the city, so that’s definitely busy in rush hour.
You really have to pay attention because cars like turning left or right won’t always see you. And then yeah, usually cross the bridge, which is easy, and then either coming back you either run into a bit of construction or it’s just not paved super well.
MARSE: Hendricks agrees that there is definitely some danger to cycling in the city, especially on crowded roads.
HENDRICKS: Riding on the roads can be dangerous, especially with people who are maybe impatient or are not used to driving and passing cyclists.
MARSE: For those of you who have hit a pedestrian or two while riding your bikes, or are too scared to get on one in the first place, the Bike Center is planning safety outreach events this fall. O’Hara offered some safety advice for riders in the city.
O’HARA: Yeah, I think one of the best things we can do is just to act predictably, to travel in designated lanes. And of course, bikes are entitled to taking up a full lane of traffic. I think it’s always safe, if possible, to take a route where the bike is removed from traffic and onto those bike lanes or bike paths. And making sure to have a light front and rear as well as a helmet. And all of those things can be picked up at the Bike Center as well.
MARSE: And despite the current detriments to campus rideability, O’Hara believes that the construction will have a positive impact on rider safety in the long run.
O’HARA: This summer, for anybody who’s been on campus, has certainly been able to observe the new construction that’s happening. And we’re really excited about all those projects. The completion of the bike lane on 4th Street has been really, really amazing. And we’re really looking forward to the completion of the same infrastructure on University Avenue.
As well as a continuation of the bike path that is on Oak Street, as it’s going to continue on past Washington up to University and connect to 4th Street. Yeah, it’s been great to be able to be a part of the University, continuing to make biking so accessible. I think we’ve identified that, you know, we just need to continue building that infrastructure to create that accessibility.
And then being able to support riders through programs like the GopherBikes or the ZAP program or the Bike Center all will, again, tie into increasing ridership and safe ridership too.
MARSE: These projects, along with others, reinforce the Twin Cities’ strong history as a bike-friendly metro area. This year Minneapolis placed second in the PeopleForBikes city ratings program. The big brother of the Twin Cities has some of the best urban trail systems in the nation.
One of the gems of this system is the Grand Rounds Scenic Bikeway, a continuous 51-mile loop of bike paths that spans from Columbia Golf Course in the north, all the way to Minnehaha Park in the south. This loop is supported by several other major bike trails that follow former rail corridors such as the Midtown Greenway, Cedar Lake Trail and the Dinkytown Greenway.
HENDRICKS: Compared to other cities, Minneapolis has really great bike infrastructure for U.S. standards. The amount of bike lanes and bike paths are a lot higher than other cities. And the drivers, I think around here, are more used to people on bikes riding next to them on the road. And so they’re a little bit less angry and a little more cautious.
O’HARA: I think we’re incredibly lucky to live somewhere with such amazing bike infrastructure. Trail users whether they’re cyclists or runners can go for countless miles without ever riding or running on car traffic in streets. So between major thoroughfares like the Greenway and the river roads it continues to be a place that just makes cycling really accessible and fun.
MARSE: The Bike Center also incentivizes bike riding through an initiative called the ZAP rewards program. O’Hara explained that the University uses radio frequency identification towers to track bikes registered with the Bike Center to see how much students or staff members ride around campus. It’s the same technology that retail stores use in anti-theft tags. Riding past these scanners enough times can earn students and staff gift cards and university insurance discounts.
O’HARA: Students, staff, faculty, everybody can sign up for it at the Bike Center. We have the tags there that we’ll go ahead and install on your bikes, as well as that’s kind of the location for gift card pickups or any sort of inquiries.
MARSE: The Bike Center reopened this summer and is ready for a full crop of students to arrive in the fall. O’Hara says that they are excited to educate students on biking and help coach them through the process and hopefully teach students how to service their own bikes.
I hope this episode inspired you to get that dusty old bike out of your parents’ garage and give it a spin around the Big M. Visit the Bike Center to get a quick tune up, replacement parts and a new helmet before you hit the trails, and hopefully not pedestrians. Happy biking!
It’s about time I hop on my bike and head back to Dinkytown. The Dinkytown Greenway will take me right back to my apartment. You guys should check it out; it’s pretty convenient.
That’s all for now on biking in the Twin Cities. This episode was written by Atticus Marse and produced by Ceci Heinen. Thank you so much for tuning in.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns don’t hesitate to drop an email in our inbox at [email protected]. I would love to hear your thoughts.
My name is Atticus Marse, and this has been In The Know.
Correction: A previous version misstated the discount amount for students. The correct amount is 10% off.
