One of the best-kept secrets on campus must be the University of Wisconsin-Madison Bicycle Resource Center.
“It’s a space for students, employees or really anybody in the community to do work on their own bicycles with our professional repair stands and a full set of tools, and some consumable items like grease and lubricants and rags and those sorts of things,” says Chuck Strawser, UW pedestrian and bicycle transportation planner.
The center is in the northeast corner of the ground-level basement of Helen C. White Library, 600 N. Park St., opposite the Union Theater. It’s staffed with student experts who can offer advice.
“To be clear, we’re not performing repairs for other people,” says Strawser. “This is a space for people to do their own work, and if they choose to learn more they can do that. We have a stack of reference books that cover just about anything you’d need to know.” There are also bicycling maps and an air hose. Bike registration assistance is offered.
UW-Madison Transportation Services estimates that nearly 15,000 bicyclists roam campus any given good-weather day. Surveys show that 22% of them are students and 17% are faculty or staff. At peak, the center serves around 200 of them a month.
“Part of our mission is to help people to get around campus without using a car, as much as possible,” explains Strawser. “One of the things that we’ve discovered is that a lot of students and employees who use bicycles on campus — one of the main reasons they don’t use them is they have some sort of mechanical problem.”
Use of the center is free, as are its occasional classes, offered on a first-come basis. (UW Transportation Services is self-supporting, and does not receive tax dollars.) Upcoming courses include “Shifting and Derailleurs,” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. April 15, and “Introduction to Truing a Wheel” at the same time on May 6. Other events include organized rides and movies.
“If it gets to the point where it gets so busy that we can’t accommodate everybody, we’ll have to restrict [access],” says Strawser. “Right now we feel like it’s open to anybody in the university community.”
If you’re not connected to the UW, you’re not out of luck. Bicycle repair clinics are similarly being planned for the Rimrock-Moorland Roads and Meadowood-Theresa Terrace areas.
Steve Meiers, safety educator at the city of Madison Department of Transportation, is organizing them. Sessions will be held one night a month from late April through September. Specific dates have yet to be scheduled.
“Word will be spread through the neighborhoods and not through the general community,” says Meiers. He’s seeking volunteers, and can be contacted at 608-267-1102, or smeiers@cityofmadison.com.
UW-Madison Bicycle Resource Center
600 N. Park St., 608-263-2969, Open 4-8 pm weekdays for the remainder of the semester. For more information, visit transportation.wisc.edu.
