LEASE A BIKE

Need a bike to get around campus?
Click here for lease information and application ...
 


VOLUNTEER
Would you like to volunteer to help repair, paint, or maintain  bikes? Volunteers learn a wide variety of bike maintenance skills and earn access to work on their own bikes. Click here for details.

DONATE A BIKE
We welcome donations of sturdy bikes that are in good working condition. If you have a bike that you'd like to donate, please click here for more information. To drop off donated bikes (contact us first please) here's location information to the MSU Bikes Service Center.

Bike - Related Treasures

'bent dog
Neal Fegan's "Dog" 'bent design; features 8-pt. steering.
bike blender
A bike-powered blender! Courtesy of Maya Pedal.
steampunk trike
The Brass Lion - Steampunk Recumbent

bottle openers
Bottle openers by Resource Revival...in the shop now!
Trail Atlas of Mich
The Trail Atlas of Michigan


Lovely new book by Vintage Bicycle Press, “The Competition Bicycle

Momentum cover
Latest issue of Momentum - one of the great new bike mags to come out this past year...

Levi pic
One of Mark Adkison's great racing pics (Levi Leipheimer in the '08 Tour of Calif. TT (which he won) in Solvang.

wolverine sports club pic
A couple Wolverine SC members in the 70's; click to enlarge or here to view the "Catch the Wind" trailer.
(photo courtesy of the WSC web site)1986 tour de france DVD
Bicycling DVD Library
One of the classics now available for check-out from our DVD library.
brooks saddles

Bicycle Repairman

Queen's "Bicycle Race" Tune

Awesome Bike Parking


You'll be amazed and inspired by what this one-legged rider accomplishes.

The Women's Phebus design from an 1896 poster available from the Retro Image Apparel Co's Horton Collection of jerseys. Fabulous!

Some of the vintage bicycle posters available from the Horton Collection.


The Horton Collection's book, "Cycling's Golden Age"... "captures the magical time period of road racing after WWII through 1967. Both the images and writing bring everything to life. From Coppi's maglia rosa to Hugo Koblet's yellow jersey to the drop dead gorgeous photos, this book is a view of racing never before told."

Bike Furniture... Rocks!

Detail of a Richard Sach's Pista frameset... one of America's greatest frame builders (click photo for more pics of that frame). Click here for the NAHBS 2007 exhibitors list for more frame builders.
72 Masi opened
'72 Masi for Christmas?
Old Campy sticker
Lovely old Campagnolo parts, tools, catalogs you name it.
Old pedal
Wonderful collection of photos and information on bicycle pedals
bamboo trailer
A lovely bamboo trailer that you can make yourself!

 

Art on 2 or 3 Wheels

Check out a new intriguing artsy design for a recumbent ('bent) bicycle by the Montana Transit Authority (Neal Fegan). He also makes some very cool 'bent trikes.

Bike-powered Machines

A guy named Matthew Corson-Finnerty contacted us recently saying he had just returned from a 3 month volunteer stint at Maya Pedal in Guatemala. Maya Pedal is a non-governmental organization located in San Andrés Itzapa, Chimaltenango, Guatemala. It started in 1997, working with a group of Canadians from the organization PEDAL. Following a vision for sustainable development in Guatemala. They recycle used bicycles to build pedal-powered machines, bicimáquinas, which support and help facilitate the work of small-scale, self-sustainable projects. We're talking to Matt about coming to MSU possibly this fall ('09) to do some workshops where we'll actually build some bike-powered machines. Stay tuned!

Brass-era Recumbent?

Introducing The Brass Lion - Steampunk Recumbent. From the site: "...how one would go about steampunkifying a bike?  Well Eric and Alan - a.k.a. Steuben's Wheelmen have done it.


Bike-related Gift Ideas...

  • We've now got the very handy, hip & inexpensive recycled bike art from Resource Revival in the shop. Stop by and check it out.

  • The 3rd edition of the Trail Atlas of Michigan is the only comprehensive guide of non-motorized trails for Michigan. The Atlas covers hiking, x-c skiing, mountain and road biking, in-line skating and nature trails. Over 680 trail systems, 789 pgs, 11 " x 8.5" & 4.5 lbs!. The Atlas covers trails in every corner of the state from Monroe County near Lake Erie to Keweenaw County in the Upper Peninsula and hundreds of places in between. Another bonus: it's published by an MSU Phys. Plant employee, Dennis Hansen.

  • Awesome & lovely new book by Vintage Bicycle Press, “The Competition Bicycle.  We’ve now got a copy for the Center’s library that you’re welcome to look at (washed hands only ;-); sorry, no checking this one out for a while).  It’s the 2nd coffee-table photo book by Jan Heine, (founder/ owner of VBP) with stunning photographs.  The 1st book (also in our library) “The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicyclesquickly became known as the “bike porn book” by lovers of classic/ vintage bicycles; I couldn’t put it down for 2 hrs. when I first saw it.  “The Competition Bicycle” rivals and possibly exceeds the earlier book; it  “explores the history of competition bicycles through the actual machines ridden by great champions and amateurs. Vintage Bicycle Press, hardcover, 176 pages, $60 plus shipping”.  I’m proud to note that my brother Jeff was one of the editors on both books.  Jan founded VBP in 2002 and his Bicycle Quarterly magazine (an affordable $30/yr) quickly became the defacto magazine for cyclotourists in N. America and possibly the world.  BQ is “about the enjoyment of the sport we love.”  MSU Bikes is now a subscriber, so you can stop by and check out the latest issue.   Check out their “Samples” page for a very good idea of the type of articles this pub. features.

  • The Glamour (Bike) Sport of the 1910’s, 20’s, and 30’s — The Six-Day Bicycle Race (Book, DVD, Sound-track; the book $39.95, DVD $29.95, book and DVD $59.95)
    For those of you (or your friends/ significant others) really into fixed-gear/ track racing, this looks like a must have.
  • Consider a subscription to one of the great new(er) hip bike magazines:  COG ($30/yr), Momentum ($19.95/yr) & Urban Velo ($18/yr).  We’ve got samples of all these in our Center if you’d like to see them first.
  • How about a beautiful bike racing photo? I saw some lovely prints in a bike shop in Davis, CA, recently by a Davis photographer named Mark Adkison (Hors Categorie Photography) who apparently does this as a hobby; WOW!
  • Buy yourself or your biker friend admission to the N. American Handmade Bicycle Show coming up the end of this Feb. in Indianapolis; the FIRST time in the midwest for this premier show of the most gorgeous bikes you've ever seen.

New Documentary about Mich's Premier Bike Club

The Detroit Wolverine Sport Club has been the ruling powerhouse bike racing club since the 1930s to the present day. It's produced most of the champions to have come out of Michigan, not only in bike racing but speed skating and XC skiing as well. The club was long coached by Mike Walden who insisted on all of the club members to compete and train in all 3 sports to be well-rounded athletes. Anyway, a new documentary movie, "Catch the Wind", was shown in Oct. '08 in Detroit and is scheduled to be released on DVD in the spring '09. Stay tuned! In the meantime, watch the trailer and see other info. about it here. Here's a longer featurette that you'll enjoy as well.

Bike Movies!

Don’t forget we also have a great bike videos here in our library that you’re welcome to check out for free for something more inspiring to watch while you ride your trainer or rollers, etc. We've got bike racing classic documentaries like "Sunday in Hell" or the classic battle between Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault in the 1986 Tour de France, as well as more modern bike flicks for your viewing pleasure.

Click here for a complete list of what we have (Excel file).


Beauty of Brooks Saddles

Check out these videos (part 1, part 2) created by Brooks showing some joyful Brooks riders and an in-depth look at how they're made. Very nice videos if you're into Brooks saddles. Go here to visit the Brooks' official web site; here for a big US distributor (Wallingford Bicycle Parts) that also has lots of other good Brooks info. if you're wanting to learn more about why people love these saddles.

Bikes as Martial Arts weapon?

Here's Jackie Chan's classic bike chase scene from Project A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBlgFJSBva4


Bike Dancing

I've located a number of videos of bike dancing; enjoy!
- An incredible ballet-like dance of a German woman on a fixie
- Amazing Bike ballet group of 4 guys on fixies
- Bach with Bicycle
- Videos from a show produced to promote the- Mountain Bike Ballet. Highlights from the City of Calgary show | World Police Fire Games FAM Tour in Calgary


Bicycle Repairman

The classic Monty Python skit that's required viewing by dedicated bike mechanics everywhere. A must see. (This version has a bonus performance by John Cleese). Click here to view larger version direct at Youtube.com

 

Queen's "Bicycle Race" Tune/Video

OK, OK, I'm on a retro/ classic kick. Click here to view the classic rock video of the tune direct at Youtube.com.



Awesome Bike Parking

OK, this might not be a bike treasure, but it sure looks like a system that cost a king's treasure to build! Also looks like it'll help keep many 2-wheeled treasures dry and safe! Straight from the robotic experts overrun by bicycles - Japan! It's in Japanese, but don't sweat it, the visuals tell it all. Direct YouTube link here.

 

Emmanuel's Gift - Great flick

If you're looking for something extremely inspirational and bike related on the lower end of the price scale consider "Emmanuel's Gift", an incredible story of a young man born in Ghana with a disfigured foot who refuses to become a beggar and decides to encourage others with disabilities by riding a bike across the country and ends of changing Ghana's treatment of disabled people at the highest levels.

Vintage Bike Art Jerseys

A number of the wonderful posters held by the Horton Collection (see below) are available as jerseys by Retro Image Apparel Co. We're discussing a possible MSU-themed jersey with a mix of vintage and modern cycling graphics. Stay tuned!

The Horton Collection

Check out this incredible collection of vintage bicycle posters and other memorabilia. Incredible! We now have a copy of a book published by the Horton Collection, "Cycling's Golden Age" in our library if you'd like to see a copy before getting your own.

 

Bike Furniture... Rocks!

A member of our MSU Bikes Yahoo group sent a link to us for this upper- Michigan based company called Bike Furniture. From their site: "Working within the vernacular of classic modern furniture design, BFD founder Andy Gregg has continued to refine this comfortable and durable furniture since 1990." This company has some great stuff for the cyclist who needs to have bikes everywhere around them and under them. Check 'em out!

For the Cyclist Who Has Most Everything...

Perhaps you or the significant cyclist in your life is ready for the next phase of their cycling obsession, a hand-built frame. Nothing compares to the experience of having your own name on a lovely custom-made frame between your legs. But where do you begin looking if you're in the market? The best place to go would be the N. American Handmade Bicycle Show. This year it's being held in Portland, OR, one of the best cities in the USA for bicycling and bicyclists. But what if you can't make it to the show? Well, check out their exhibitors list from the 2007 show and they're all hot-linked to their web sites and you can go virtual shopping to your hearts' content!


'72 Masi for Christmas?

Ever wonder what it'd be like to get a brand-new '72 Masi for Christmas and get to unwrap it? Check out this photo series to vicariously live the experience (unfortunately, the own sold the bike before he could finish setting it up...). This guy's (John Barron) Velo Stuf web site is a true treasure box of classic racing steel bike wonders.

Old Campy Stuff

A good friend and bike collector sent me a link to this Japanese web site that features lovely old Campagnolo parts, tools, catalogs you name it. Excellent photos; great for researching an old restoration. The link takes you to an automatically translated page which has some pretty humourous English, so if you can ignore the text, the photos are wonderful. Check it out here.

The Pedal Museum

Wonderful collection of photos and information on bicycle pedals courtesy of the folks at Speedplay. Yes, just pedals.

Bamboo Bike Trailers?

Yes, you can make a bike trailer out of bamboo or other similar materials. Free plans and examples and other free trailer plans on this page here.
(Thanks to Thomas Harpstead for sending us this one)

Bamboo bikes?

Yes, you can make a bike frame out of bamboo, and there have been people doing so since the late 1800's apparently. Check them out here.

Truly Classic Bike Music

Ever wonder what the Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" would sound like played exclusively on bike parts? Well, San Francisco-based composer Flip Baber has this rendition to offer for your listening pleasure. It was created as an advertising ditty for Specialized coming soon. (Click on the little white on red arrow next to the speaker symbol; uses Flash Player).

One Impressive Bike Collection

The Rydjor Bike Shop Bike Collection is one of the most complete and beautiful collections I've ever seen. Starting with an 1868 Boneshaker it includes gorgeous examples of every significant type of bike and most of the notable manufacturers known to mankind. Have a spare hour or two to kill?

 

Work Bikes Galore

Just happened across the Worksman Cycles web site. These guys have been making all kinds of industrial work bikes, trikes, ice-cream trikes, trailers, etc. and a full range of heavier-duty tandems and single bikes here in the USA since 1898. Check 'em out!

Spoke Bracelet

Recently discovered spoke bracelet design in E. Lansing that is simple & yet elegant. We sell these in our shop now. They're made by an MSU student! Click the photo or here for more pics of it.

 

Bike Art by Recycle-A-Bicycle students

Bringing you recycled glamour from Washington Heights (Brooklyn, NY)! A group of junior high girls has been meeting in the Recycle-A-Bicycle shop at the Mirabel Sisters' School in Washington Heights. Every Monday they work on design and production of their original line of jewellery made from presta valves and headset spacers. Click here to check them out...



Cycling in Heaven - Portland, OR

Messenger Joel Metz in between jobs with his very cool heavily customized Sycip. Check out his web site for a LOT more info. on this amazing bike & others. Portland is also home to the Community Cycling Center, which claims to have started the first "yellow bike" program in the USA years ago.

Killing some time in Portland in Oct. 2005 the webmaster was delighted to see so many bikes and facilities promoting/ accomodating bicycle commuters. The first commuter he spoke to had just locked up her baby trailer after riding in with her child and locked it up inside a parking garage; intrigued with seeing my first car garage with bicycle parking facilities inside she explained that it's Portland code for car parking garages to provide X number of bike parking facilities inside their garage; how cool! He captured those parking facilities & a number of very unique bikes, mostly messenger bikes (photos). The number of bikes using fixed gear was pretty amazing; having ridden track bikes quite a lot both on the track & road for training he can't imagine riding in heavy city traffic loaded down w/ stuff on a fixed gear, but apparently it's The Way to go if you're a messenger!  He ended having coffee with a cycling gentleman on a fully-loaded touring setup who'd ridden back and forth cross-country a couple years ago and decided to just stay in Portland and has continued his daily camping routine ever since and enjoying the experience to boot!

 

 

Bike-related e-Cards

Have bike-buddy who's sick? Having a birthday? Have something else you need to congratulate them about? Check out the bike-related e-cards on The Bicycle Site. Check 'em out and send some to your bicycling friends.



Awesome Collection of Gorgeous Classic Steel Bikes...
This site features the collection of one very lucky man, Raymond Dobbins, who's done a wonderful job photographing his collection over the years. He also shares his photography setup and tricks which is amazingly affordable and low-tech for the incredible look he achieves. Check it out...



Unbelievable German Bicycle Dancers...

You won't believe what these 4 guys can do on their fixed-gear track bikes. Watch the video...



Bicycle Film Festival

The Bicycle Film Festival has expanded the viewing locations around the world every year and now includes showings in NYC, LA, London, San Francisco, and Tokyo, and as part of RESFEST Seoul, so maybe it'll get close to E. Lansing someday or perhaps you can schedule it into an upcoming trip to one of these cities. Check out the trailer (helmet cam work by Lucas Brunelle, the same guy who's done the amazingly crazy bike messenger videos noted below); sign up for their email newsletter to find out when you can get a copy of their DVD.



Insane Videos of Bike Messenger's @ Work


So, you think you're daring for riding down Grand River Ave. at rush hour? Guess again! Check out the helmet-cam work of Lucas Brunelle in these amazingly crazy bike messenger videos.




Bicycle-theme ASCII Artwork

Add a bicycle theme to your emails & other online messages with some ASCII-character artwork. Click here for a master archive for some pretty awesome work....



Jeff & Craig Wilkinson fording a river during a month-long tour in 1979 after discovering the bridge was out. (photo by Tim Potter). See article about another tour Jeff took around the same area, summer '05.

Out Your Backdoor


Out Your Backdoor is a locally owned adventuresome publishing company owned/ operated by Jeff Potter (brother of Tim Potter); his interests in bicycling of all flavors dates way back to our youth jumping Schwinn Stingrays and continues in publishing the most amazing print and online material. Check out OYB's new web site for bikes called "Allbikemag.com". This article features a ride on a couple 70's vintage touring bikes by Jeff and Tim the fall of '05. Tons of great bicycling-related content!





The Beauty of Custom

Joseph Ahearne builds frames, racks, stems and other stuff with "...love and fury in Portland, Oregon". He was one of many bike craft artists at the BikePortland BikeCraft Faire & Shift Winter Social. Check out his site and sit back and enjoy.

 



Michigan Cycling Podcasting

Darryl Wattenberg started up the Michigan Cycling Podcast service in early 2005 which is a great service for Michigan cyclists. The May 30th podcast interview is a great plug for the BP and our Farm Daze Tour that was held in May, 2005.



Bike Forest

• Funky bikes for rent to promote cycling of all flavors; very cool site, probably one of the best I've seen.


Bike Works NYC

Bike Works NYC - What a incredible site for bike enthusiasts around the planet; apparently home to some very big-time cyclists in NYC. Huge archives of bike photos, collectible bike parts (check out their Chainring Archives) or the Rollers Archives; incredible pics!)

BikeWebsite.com's Online bike repair test

BikeWebsite.com's Online bike repair test - Try your hand at this excellent test of bike repair knowledge; get some wrong and you're immediately linked to very well written and illustrated bike repair tutorials. Reload it and you'll get a bunch of new questions, or go directly to the Tune-up and Repair section of this site for massive info. on this topic. There's also Tips for Buying a New Bike, interactive puzzles, Bikeopedia, Bicycle Trivia, Bicyclists Unite Against (safety advocates') Tyranny, Oxy-Acetylene Welding, 25 Ways to Make Money with Bicycles,


Mikes' Mega Bicycle Links page

Mikes' Mega Bicycle Links page - Awesome collection of bike related resource links; maybe the largest out there.


Bikes in Tuscany, Italy

Bikes in Tuscany, Italy - Tim hosted a short trip to the Tuscany region of Italy in Oct. 2001& forgot about these misc. photos of bikes and a velodrome he happened across til now. Enjoy!


Old Bicycles

Old Bicycles is an awesome site full of great resources for those of us interested in old bikes. Their links page is truly amazing.


Umbata Falls, Ontario Trip

• A new bike project volunteer, Susanna Tellschow, and her friend Stephen, took a recent MTB trip to the Umbata Falls just outside of Canada's Pukaskwa National park in Ontario on the Lake Superior shore. Click here for their trip report & photos... and here for more waterfall photos in Ontario by Stephen.



 

Toronto Trip & Bikes

A trip (Aug. 2004) to Toronto to help some friendsmove into their new digs there revealed some pretty awe inspiring sights; first off my jaw dropped when I saw a gorgeous suspension bridge over a river purpose-built for peds/ bikers along the lake front; it was a work of art. Then there were the cool bikes; they were everywhere, and great bike shops too. Here's a few pics of some of them that you might enjoy. Here's some more photos from Toronto from an Aug. 2005 trip showing the ped/ bike bridge.






Encycleopedia


Encycleopedia, is a multimedia mix of interesting new products, the people who make and sell them, and especially commissioned editorial features on associated themes. Online archives of previous issues full of great content for reference. "Encycleopedia is an important resource for learning about and finding things in the cycling world, especially those that are a bit hard to find." - Richard Ballantine

 

Mentomy Vintage Bicycles, Inc. at OldRoads.com

Menotomy Vintage Bicycles, Inc. at OldRoads.com, a mother-lode of reference info. on vintage bikes, discussion boards, serial no. charts, repair diagrams, bikes/ parts for sale, searchable Vintage Bicycle Picture Database, Stats and Features Database, Vintage Bicycle Literature & Videos, cleaning kit for old rusty rims, etc.


Velo Vision Magazin Online

Velo Vision magazine online, covering specialised bikes, cycling as transport and human power. It's a quarterly dose of cycle inspiration.


Cyber Cyclery

Cyber Cyclery, Over 1.5 million times a month people use Cyber Cyclery, your global cycling community & resource.

 


Tim's brother & father in law out road training, mid-80's, in Japan.

Tim's Bike Photo Gallery

Tim's Bike Photo Gallery - some scans (not very good unfortunately) of some old bike-related photos by Tim Potter (Bike Project web guy).


Redbike Photography

Redbike Photography - excellent bike racing pics by West coast photog Eric Smith.



Graham Watson Cycling Photography

Graham Watson Cycling Photography - this guy has been the premier competitive cycling photographer for VeloNews and other big publications for years. Excellent collection of Tour de France photos and lots more.


BikeMagic.com

BikeMagic.com (in association w/ Marin) - packed w/ lots of MTB content, forums, etc. Also have an AvantGo channel to download to your PDA.


Out Your Backdoor

Out Your Backdoor, a totally unique web site created for & by folks who enjoy home-built fun stuff including but not limited to bikes (traditional, recumbent), skiing, kayaking, fishing, hunting & just about anything else you'll probably never find written about in the slick magazines. OYB is a publishing company & passion of Jeff Potter (Tim's older brother) who used to publish OYB as a paper 'zine for many years.

 

Adventure Cycling Association

- Adventure Cycling Association - Cyclists need quiet, scenic roads and trails to enjoy. They research and develop the routes, and then produce the finest bicycling maps in North America -- and they've been doing it for going on 30 years.

 

Sheldon Brown (RIP)

Tons of bike related articles, tips, spoof products, etc. by Sheldon Brown (1944 - 2008) was considered to be the most famous online bike expert; a must see bike-related site if there ever was one! His bike photos section is incredible. His Bicycle Humor will have you howling and scratching your head at the same time. Consider donating to the Sheldon Brown memorial fund to give back to this amazing man's favorite groups.


Bike Plan Source

Bike Plan Source, help improve community bicycling conditions. Includes a growing and evolving online bicycle planning and program guide, an extensive reference library, etc.