Need to make a pit stop?
More bike repair stations for cyclists popping up
WITHOUT a personal bike pump or tool kit packed for a ride, Winnipeg cyclists who needed a pit stop a decade ago were out of luck.
“If we go back to five years ago, there may have been one repair station,” said Currie Gillespie, a cycling advocate who co-owns Rackworks, a company that builds and sells made-in- Manitoba bike repair stations in Winnipeg.
Today, there are at least 12 repair stations throughout the city, the latest Winnipeg Cycling Map shows. Published in spring 2018, circles marked with the letter R appear near Winnipeg libraries, parks and schools all over the city map.
However, Gillespie said some stations are missing from the map — including the newly installed Academy Road and Transcona service stops. He estimates at least another five new repair stations (atop the map’s 12) will be available to the public by the end of the summer. Two of his stations are going in at Fort Whyte, he added.
The free stations differ from location to location, but they usually have a stand so users can lift a bike up to work on it, a pump and a handful of multitools.
The pit stops allow Winnipeggers to make “a quick correction” if something happens to their bike during a commute, said Mark Cohoe, executive director at Bike Winnipeg — such as inflating low tires, changing an inner tube and raising handlebar and seat heights.
Cohoe said the on-the-go facilities are especially important for cyclists who can’t afford to buy a bike stand, tools or take their bike into a shop, and Winnipeggers who live in apartments and don’t have room to work on their bikes at home. Another benefit is the stations are available at all hours of the day, he said.
The stations, which Gillespie said started appearing in Winnipeg in 2013, have been funded by private businesses, the local Business Improvement Zones and area councillors. They can cost up to $4,000, a City of Winnipeg spokesperson said on Monday.
Rackworks has “easily” doubled production each year, Gillespie said.
The company charges $1,500 for both the product and installation. That’s what the Transcona BIZ paid for each of its new stations: at the corner of Pandora Avenue and Bond Street and at 135 Regent Ave.
The BIZ used part of its $10,000 active transportation grant from the city towards the new stations to encourage cycling in Winnipeg’s east end neighbourhood, executive director Alex Morrison said on Monday.
She said she hasn’t received a single negative comment about the stations.
“We really want to encourage people to use their bikes and use our trail system,” Morrison said, adding the new infrastructure seems to be doing just that.
“It’s been pretty popular. I often see people using them.”
A recent study conducted by Bike Winnipeg and CAA found 21 per cent of Winnipeggers identify as regular cyclists; the highest self-reported figure Bike Winnipeg has recorded.
“I think it’s becoming a part of the lifestyle here in Winnipeg,” Cohoe said, echoing the findings.
Gillespie said he and Cohoe both agree there seems to be more bikes on the road today than there was several years ago. “We’re thinking that because there are more racks, more repair stations, more infrastructure, the people who are riding their bikes are riding them more.”
There is a station as far north as the Health Sciences Centre, as far east as Transcona, as far south as the University of Manitoba and as far west as Assiniboine Park. While there’s more bike infrastructure around the city, Cohoe said there still isn’t a huge density of repair stations. However, it doesn’t look like Winnipeg will return to the bike repair station desert it once was.
Along with the new Rackworks stations popping up this season, Red River College plans to install a new station at its downtown campus by the start of the fall semester.
“We’re adding one more thing that might be that deterrent for people cycling to campus, the fear of, ‘What happens if my bike needs adjustments?’ Or not wanting to be stranded with a flat tire,” said Sara MacArthur, sustainability director at the college.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @macintoshmaggie