2008 Woodie Awards
Free bikes offer students transportation, but frequent repairs becoming cumbersome
Peter Zunich
Issue date: 11/4/05 Section: News
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Hendrix's Community Bike Program offers bikes to students The program's basic idea was to supply free, non-polluting transportation to Hendrix students. Just leave the bike on a bike rack or in front of a building when you are done with it, so that other students can use the bikes, too. Although the Community Bike Program has been encountering maintenance difficulties Bonnie Garrigan, who founded the group with Russ Montgomery, feels good about the future of the community bikes.
Unfortunately, the Program has encountered more difficulties than expected. At the time of writing, there are currently five bikes that are broken, meaning that only three community bikes are on campus. Garrigan hopes to get them back in action as soon as possible.
"The major problem we're having right now is the quality of the bikes was poor to begin with," said Garrigan. "The pedals are breaking off in ways that we never expected, and we think that it would help if people used the kickstands instead of throwing the bikes down when they're finished with them."
Garriagan also said that using the kickstand use prevents the chains from falling off. But, while chains, tires, and handlebars can be repaired, replacing seats and pedals are a more complicated problem.
"We're working on contacting Huffy, the manufacturer, to replace the bike pedals under warranty," said Garrigan. "But until then we can't really do much with them."
Garrigan hopes students will volunteer to repair the bikes. Volunteers would carry a wrench and an air pump with them so they can perform repairs when they see broken bikes on campus rather than having to bring the bikes back to the Eco-House.
Tesuansey Link agrees. "I know they had to go cheap," he said, referring to the poor quality of the bikes. But he also says that students mistreat them. At the time of the interview, Link had ridden a community bike, and one of his two experiences involved broken handlebars and a missing pedal. "I guess people are not really taking care of them," he explained.The Eco-House has been serving as a base and repair shop for broken bikes.
Garrigan said that the Eco-House has tools, and that any student may use their cache to repair their own two wheeler.
Despite the program's troubles, students agree that the Community Bike Program is "a great idea," as Sarah Novak said.
Even with a few wrenches in its spokes, the Program's members are excited by the future of the Community Bike Program. Sarah Novak thinks that the bikes could be more accessible.
"I've seen people riding them, but I've never seen them parked in front of a building or on a bike rack," she said.
Others worry about the bike's convenience to those not planning on returning their bike. Dustin Holden thinks that a buying a lock for each bike and programming each lock with a common would prevent theft.
Garrigan keeps thinking of improvements to the Program and plans on varying the size selection.
"The bikes are too big for a lot of people," she said.
Call the Eco-House at 501-328-2454 to become a bike repair volunteer, to attend the bike maintenance class, or to report a broken bike.