about us

Most of our staff at the start of fall semester 2008 (l to r: Tim, Fai, Jon-Marc, Mike, Mel and Rachel). Photo by Harley Seeley, University Relations. Click here for more photos of our Center. Watch a video tour of our Center. Service Center Hours: Summer semester: Mon. - Thurs. 10 - 5 pm Fri. 10 – 3 pm Phone: 517/432-3400 B10 Bessey Hall/ Michigan St. University Along the N. River Trail, 300 ft. northwest of Farm Ln. Bridge E. Lansing, MI 48824-1033 GPS Coordinates: Latitude:  42°43'40.55"N Longitude:  84°28'43.32"W We accept Spartan Cash, Visa and MC!

More Staff & Center Photos The whole crew (minus a couple) took a shop ride in early spring 2008. Click here for more pics from this ride along the Lansing River Trail (no, that's not a wine bottle, that's some fancy Euro water in that bottle). Our new head mechanic, Jon-Marc Eyer, posing with his awesome K2 MTB outside the Center. Jon-Marc joined us from working approx. 20 yrs. in the bike industry, most of them in Florida. Yes, he's enjoying the snow! More staff photos here... Mel, Asst. Coordinator, on a replica Stingray she recently restored, with Mariame (Director of First Impressions [Customer Svc.]) and Ben (mechanic). More staff photos here... Exterior photo of MSU Bikes Service Center; stairs lead up to south entrance of Bessey Hall. ... from the other side of the river with canoes (photo courtesy Steve Troost) Below, views of the retail areas and repair shop w/ mechanic Ben.

MSU Bikes Coordinator, Tim Potter (R), with Matt Jaglowski, the Service Center's 1st head mechanic and recent MSU alum (since moved on to bigger things in Iowa). (Photo by Kurt Stepnitz, University) Photo of the entrance to the Demonstration Hall workshop; click photo to enlarge. This shop is no longer open to the public. Volunteers continue to work on recycling/ restoring abandoned bikes here; click here to learn more about volunteering. Relations, copyright 2006)

In the fall of 2006 MSU Bikes became a service of MSU Transportation Services, a division of MSU Physical Plant. MSU Bikes is an expanded and official service of MSU dedicated to promoting bicycling on the MSU campus. Tim Potter, long-time MSU Bike Project volunteer, was hired as the full-time coordinator of MSU Bikes. The MSU Bikes Service Center, a full-service bike repair and rental facility, opened a day after Labor Day '06 in the canoe rental facility located under the Bessey Hall auditorium right on the river trail 300 ft. NW of the Farm Ln. Bridge.

The MSU Bike Project continues to operate as usual as a volunteer group based in the Demonstration Hall workshop. So volunteers still have plenty to do, learn bike mechanics, and earn time to work on their own bikes in. See our Volunteer page for more information.

More news about MSU Bikes can be found on our Events & News page.

Click here for location/ parking information for the MSU Bikes Service Center.

Click herefor our mission statement and strategies/ goals.

Click here for a PowerPoint presentation (30 mb) of MSU Bike Project/ MSU Bikes history and plans for the future as presented to the Big Ten and Friends Energy/ Mechanical Conference on Sept. 24, 2007.

Dec. '08
For those of you wanting to know the basics of what MSU Bikes is all about journalism sophomore Hailey Schaldach has created a new video (.mov format) and written a well researched article about MSU Bikes and other universities with newer up and coming bike programs. Nicely done Hailey.

Full-Time Head Mechanic Joins MSU Bikes

Nov. 26, 2007 - We're happy to have a new head mechanic, Jon-Marc Eyer. Jon-Marc was raised in the Lansing area, so he's enjoying the fresh snow we're getting now. He's spent approx. 20 yrs. in the bike industry, mostly in Florida, so the change of temperate zones is no small thing! On top of his years in the business, he's an experienced bike racer (in most every form) and extensively trained at Barnett Bicycle Institute and United Bicycle Institute as well as a certified Campagnolo mechanic from the Campagnolo School of Mechanics in northern Italy.

First Ever MSU Bike Resource Map is Out!

Sept. 04, 2007 - The first ever bike resource map of the MSU campus & brochure of MSU Bikes services is out and available for your reference and viewing pleasure! Stop by the Center and get a copy. Click the following links to view the brochure & map online: cover, page 2, back/ map. Another exciting new official MSU mapping resource that is searchable and very interactive using Google Map technology is here; check it out! Tip: as you type in the search box you'll see a list of matches; use "bike" to locate our Center. Finally, in other mapping news, the main detailed MSU campus map has been recently updated and expanded to include our Center and the entire MSU campus (ALL of the MSU property). Check that out here.

History:
The MSU Bike Project was founded in the spring of 2003 by Gus Gosselin, Director of Building Services for MSU Physical Plant and Terry Link, Director of the Office of Campus Sustainability as an effort dedicated to transforming (recycling) abandoned bicycles into fun, economical, environmentally friendly and healthy transportation alternative for the MSU campus community. The Bike Project recycled/restored then leased out the following approx. numbers of green bikes:

2003: 25
2004: 115
2005: 175
2006: 200
2007: 110 plus 100 short-term bike rentals (thru June 30, 2007)
2008: 153 plus 70 short-term (thru June 30, 2008)

The green bike leases were for faculty/ staff only in 2003 and then opened up to everyone else in the campus community starting in 2004 (for a $30 donation which included a lock) which resulted in the jump in numbers of bikes leased out. The Bike Project volunteers also began public bike repair workshops in Dem Hall (see photo of entrance to Dem Hall workshop below right) in the late winter of 2004 which eventually grew into bi-weekly workshops that serviced hundreds of bikes on a donation basis.

Here's the Bike Project's original mission statement.

The MSU Bike Project was a subcommittee of the University Committee for a Sustainable Campus. The aim was to make bicycles available to members of the MSU community for a small donation to cover costs of fixing up the bikes and a lock.

Click here for a PowerPoint presentation (30 mb) of MSU Bike Project/ MSU Bikes history and plans for the future as presented to the Big Ten and Friends Energy/ Mechanical Conference on Sept. 24, 2007.

Annual Reports:
• 2005 (PDF format; as printed in the Tri-County Bicycle Assoc. November '05 newsletter)
• 2004 (PDF format; as printed in the Tri-County Bicycle Assoc. January 2005 newsletter)

Web Site Info:
This web site was graciously re-designed by volunteer Susanna Tellschow, a web coder here at MSU. The site is maintained by Tim Potter who can be contacted here with bugs, update requests, etc.