Houghton’s hills and winters are unforgiving on the bicycles relied upon by students to get from place to place while attending Michigan Tech. When bikes become worn out to the point of being inconvenient, many people will simply replace them.
Waste generated by discarded bikes and their parts became the focus of research by Grace Rickauer, a student with MTU’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience. She started looking for effective ways to reduce waste caused by discarded rides, and “it was just bike maintenance.” She says that if people take the time to attend to the issues their bikes are experiencing, they can extend their useful lives, saving money and reducing waste. “If it’s making a sound, just take a look… even 15 minutes will help a lot.”
“Last week, both days we were out here, we had a line,” says Rickauer. The Campus Bike Lab, held at the entrance to the Van Pelt and Opie Library on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-7 p.m., is an effort to help students while teaching them some of the skills needed to maintain a bike. However, it only runs during the fall on select days. Rickauer addressed concerns that the tool stations on campus aren’t up to standards. “There is hope,” she says, explaining that talks are getting started about revamping the stations to a reliable state for on-campus repairs.
The project’s long-term goals extend beyond walk-up repairs, though. Rickauer wants to pass along the skills students need to make repairs on their own. “We’re working on doing workshops… lessons to fix your shifting or fix your brakes.” In addition to teaching sessions, consideration is being given to repairing and donating bikes left behind on campus by students. “A lot of people just leave their bikes on campus, and then they just get thrown away.”
With the efforts of the Office of Sustainability and Resilience, bikes collected on campus may have a chance at a new life, and Michigan Tech’s students are gaining the know-how to keep their wheels efficient and safe for years of use.
