Easy Repairs at New Bike Fix-It Station

Remember that time that you wanted to fix your bike, but the Bike Shop was closed and you had to walk, drive, or hunt for a ride to wherever you urgently needed to be? By early November, a new addition outside the bike shop by Adirondack Circle will enhance student mobility and possibly decrease student carbon footprints, making such inconvenient situations a thing of the past. Look out for the new Dero Fixit station proposed by the Student Government Association (SGA) and funded by the Environmental Council.

This service includes everything you need to carry out basic repairs, such as changing a flat tire or adjusting brakes, while suspending your bike from the station’s hanger arms.

The idea for the installation of the Fixit began last fall from then-SGA President Rachel Liddell ’15, who presented it to her cabinet’s Director of Institutional Affairs Harry Zieve Cohen ’15.

Zieve Cohen then applied for a $2,200 grant from the Environmental Council, one of the largest sums ever granted by the group. Afterward, Cook Commons Senator Tiff Chang ’17 was brought onto the project to manage logistics such as the installation process and publicity. She researched Fixit stations, contacted and visited other schools using them to find out what would best fit our needs and the associated costs and helped pick the Bike Shop as a practical location for installation. Director of Sustainability Integration Jack Byrne made the orders.

Currently, the station is with Facilities, who plan to put it in place when they pour concrete for a new gate at ADK by the end of this month. The Environmental Affairs Director, Lindsay Warne '15, and her committee are now creating signs to inform students of how to use the facility and will soon organize an event to introduce them to it.

Chang, a fan of bikes and a member of the College’s Casual Cycling Club, believes the Fixit will be a significant student-directed initiative on campus that will promote biking by making it easier to own a bike.

“Currently, it’s really hard to have a bike on campus,” she said. “A lot of people don’t have access to bike parts … don’t have time to spend searching for tools to fix our bikes … so it is nice to be able to provide that service. People are more likely to own a bike on campus if they know that there are the resources. Cycling on campus has been growing since I’ve been here.

“I hope that we continue to build infrastructure that improves people’s quality of life. I think it’s another example of how the SGA plays a role on campus and serves students better.”

Director of Institutional Affairs Julia Shumlin ’17.5 added that the Fixit was a necessary means of catering to the College’s biking community.

“A lot of students rely on bikes to enjoy Vermont’s beautiful landscape, get around Middlebury and get to classes on time,” she said. “Our rural location makes alternative forms of transportation kind of hard, so we need to make it easy for people to get around and one of those ways is through biking. Being fairly knowledgeable about how to use your bike and how to fix it is a useful skill that can be applied later in life,” she said.

Shumlin also pointed out that by making biking more feasible, the Fixit advances sustainability and lower carbon footprints on campus and beyond.

“Promoting biking and alternative sources of transportation in general is a useful way to promote environmentalism on campus,” she said, “because students will take the skills they’ve learned and apply it to life outside Middlebury rather than use cars and other forms of transportation.”

 

*Please note, an earlier version of this article misstated the correct titles for Julia Shumlin, Lindsay Warne, and Tiff Chang. Shumlin '17.5  is the director of the Institutional Affairs Committee, Warne '15 is the Director of Environmental Affairs, and Chang '17 is the Cook Commons Senator.