Affordable cycling resources for MSU students

The annual MSU bike auction closed on Wednesday Sept. 23. This event, held by MSU Parking Services, sells impounded bikes collected from campus. Though the auction gives students an opportunity to purchase an affordable used bike, there are only so many, and a small handful even sold for upwards of $300. For anyone who missed it or didn’t get the bike they wanted Bozeman has several places to get a good set of affordable wheels.

Used gear stores like the Gear Wizard and Second Wind Sports offer a selection of used bikes for reasonable prices. The range of bikes available (mountain bikes, cruisers, road bikes etc.) changes on a daily basis, but both shops offer low-cost transportation solutions. Both companies carefully examine the bikes to ensure they are in functioning condition before being sold. The Gear Wizard even fixes and tunes all of the bikes that they sell.

The Bike Kitchen—a local non-profit—has provided affordable bikes to the Bozeman community for 16 years. The Bike Kitchen offers bikes for purchase, parts (generally priced around $5 per part) and a do-it-yourself service area complete with tools and knowledgeable volunteers to help guide customers through the process of bike maintenance. There is an $8 per hour fee for the shop’s use.

Now is a particularly difficult time to find an affordable bike because “there’s a huge demand for bikes right now from COVID-19,” according to Art Schwaller, a manager at the Bike Kitchen. With gyms operating under heavy restrictions, many people have turned to cycling during the pandemic as a means of safe exercise. Unfortunately, that means more competition between consumers in the low-end market. “I don’t even know if you can easily get cheap department store bikes right now. The stores are sold out,” Schwaller said.

However, the Bike Kitchen still has plenty of bikes for anyone in need. Patrons can even trade volunteer hours in exchange for a bike through the Earn-a-Bike program. Typically this means 16 hours of work for a bike. This program is also intended to teach participants the skills needed to maintain the bike that they earn.

Luckily, now is the time of year that “many people begin clearing out space in their homes and preparing for winter,” said Schwaller. Even in the midst of the high demand brought by the coronavirus, many good bikes are still available to those on a tight budget. There’s no need to wait for next year’s University Police Department auction. Bozeman  has a variety of shops to get you rolling.