A Full Service Shop - Where It's Needed

In back, working on a bike. 

The National University, known affectionately as La Nacho, is Colombia's largest university and a Mecca for cyclists. But for many years, there were no bike services nearby - either on or off of campus.

That's changed now with some informal repair stands by the main entrances, but mostly by Bicita, a small and efficient place near the university's Teusaquillo entrance.

I visited Bicita years ago, when it was very rudimentary. The other day, they had a dozen that had been repaired or were awaiting repair parked outside. Inside, they sell drinks and pastries and a nice selection of cycling clothing and gear. The small repair shop is in back.

For a people with such entrepeneurial spirit, it's strange that it's taken so long for cycling services to appear here.

Bike jerseys.

Lots of bike gear for sale.

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Finally, a Flat Fixer at La Nacho!

Flats fixed here, finally!

A crowded bike rack on the
National University campus.

Since my first visit many years ago to the National University, with its thousands of bikes, I've been perplexed by the fact that the campus lacks a public bike repair shop. After all, it's not as tho the campus lacked entrepreneurs: the campus's walkways are crowded with food and arts and crafts vendors.

Now, finally, someone has partially filled this inexplicable hole by setting up a flat fixing kiosk by the university's 26th St. entrance.

Perhaps this will inspire a few more ambitious people to set up bike repair shops around this city, where most bike shops are irrationally concentrated along a few streets.

A cyclist on the National University campus.

Blog by Mike Ceaser of Bogota Bike Tours.

Back on the Bikes at La Nacho

Set to pedal. National University students set out on the new public bikes.

A few years ago, the Universidad Nacional's Bogotá campus bought thousands of simple bikes, painted them green and distributed them around campus. The idealistic concept was that students and others would píck up a bike, pedal it to their destination, and leave it there for someone else to use.

Riding in the rain on a public
bike in La Nacho.

Unfortunately, the users were not so ideal. The bikes got abused, damaged and stolen.

Since nobody knew who had used a particular bike, nobody was held responsible. Finally, the the university, known as La Nacho, scrapped the program. 

But now, with 5 lending stations and 115 salvaged and repaired bikes, the program's on again. This time, however, there's responsibility. Users must first register and then show their I.D. each time they use a bike. Eventually, planners hope to have 1,000 public bikes.

Long time coming. Looks like the National University
campus finally has a much-needed bike repair stand. 

The disadvantage of this arrangement is its expense, and the fact that campus visitors can't use the bikes. But that's a small price for having a system which actually works.

Of course, La Nacho never stopped being a bike-friendly place. Thousands of students and others pedal the flat campus every day on their own bikes.

Might this nudge Bogotá officials to actually create a real city-wide public bikes program? Let us hope.

Update: During my frequents visits to the campus I've seen very few people actually using the public bikes. And today, Oct. 29, I learned why. For some senseless reason, the program was not arranged thru the university's central administration, but thru individual schools. As of Oct. 29 only 2 of the campus's 11 schools, arts and engineering, have signed up. Students not in one of those two majors can't use the bikes unless they've registered on their own for the program.

The public bikes program is being administered by the city's Instituto de Recreacion y Deporte (IDRD), which also runs the public bikes on Ave. Septima.

The public bikes can be walked, too.

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Public Bike Prototypes at the National University

Discussing a yellow bike prototype.

Today, National University students exhibited prototypes of bikes designed for Bogotá's perpetually-promised-but-never-realized public bicycles program.

Bogotá officials' latest public bikes promise is to create the system next year - way behind Medellin, which is expanding its own public bikes program.

The students deserve plaudits for the bike designs, altho not all struck me as appropriate to be used as public bikes. A public bike should be inexpensive and sturdy, since many people aren't gentle with borrowed bikes. In a city with a theft problem, the bike should not be particularly enticing, and parts like wheels and chainrings should be unique, so that they can't be stolen for use on other bikes.

This model is designed to have a dynamo in its front wheel and
internal gears in back - too sophisticated and expensive
for a public bike. 

Most fundamentally, tho, Bogotá needs to make itself more bike friendly and give cycling real status if any public bikes program is actually to be used. The National University's own public bikes program, called BicirrUN, was shut down after many bikes were damaged or stolen. (Today, some students told me they hope to bring bicirrUN back.) Unfortunately, as long as streets are chaotic, as long as cyclists must swallow vehicle exhaust, as long as parked cars and homeless scavengers routinely block bicycle lanes, only a brave few will venture out on two wheels - as is the situation now.

The National University, whose walls are emblazoned with murals of leftist revolutionaries, is best known for protests and radical politics. But perhaps now it will lead a transit revolution.

Repairing a flat. Public bikes must be tough, because borrowers don't want or know how to make repairs. 

These simple, sturdy yellow bikes look like they could do the job.

Fenders are useful for Bogotá's frequent rains: but will anybody borrow bikes in the rain in the first place?

And the reality on the road for Bogotá cyclists:

But the reality for cyclists: a homeless squatter squats in this bike lane. 

And this man decided the bike lane, and sidewalk, were a convenient place to park his car. 

Bogotá's only relatively succesful public bikes experiment has been on the 20-block stretch of Ave. Septima which is closed to cars. 

Bikes are lent for free, but can only be used on this 20-block stretch of street. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

To the Nacho by Bike

Learning to patch bike tubes at the National University.

More and more students seem to be cycling to the National University's huge Bogotá campus, but they're still a small minority of the 40,000 who study here. A group of students concerned about the environment and sustainable transport are trying to change that by teaching students how to repair bikes and training them in cycling skills.

The group, who are studying a variety of majors, holds workshops one afternoon most weeks and also arranges monthly group rides.

The project, which started last semester, has attracted about 15 students to each workshop and up to 25 for the monthly rides, said Tomás Suarez, an anthropology student who is one of the organizers.

At the workshop this afternoon a group of students learned how to fix flats, which is a particularly useful skill to have in Bogotá, where most of the bike shops are bunched onto just a few streets. Previous workshops have covered general bicycle maintenance, the best routes for bike commuting and cycling's health and environmental advantages.

The project at Colombia's largest university is one of several initiatives at Bogotá's private and public universities, which seem to be taking the lead in actively promoting two-wheeled transit in the city. For example, groups of students and teachers at the private Jorge Tadeo University, Central University and Los Andes University have promoted cycle commuting and organized group rides to campus.

'A la Nacho en Bici.'

But the National University, fondly known as La Nacho, undoubtedly has the largest number of cyclists, if only for economic reasons. Most public university students are poor or middle class and often can't afford cars or even bus fares.

Suarez says he's noticed more bicycles on the Nacho's campus.

"Today, something happened which hasn't happened to me for a long time," he said. "I couldn't find a place to park my bike because the rack was full."

There doesn't seem to be an accurate count of the number of people who ride bikes to the National University, altho it would be easy to make one just by posting observers with clipboards at the four entrances. A security guard at one of the entrances said that about 500 bikes enter there daily, suggesting a total of between 1,500 and 2,000, or 5% of the university's 40,000 students.

But while there usually are enough of spots to park bikes, Suarez would like to see better security. Even tho guards at the university entrances check bikes onto and off of campus, there have been cases of thefts. (That's not hard to believe, since someone actually stole an adult, pure-bred bull from the university's ag department last week.) Suarez also hopes to see a return of the university's shared bikes program, which was ended after many of the bikes got damaged or stolen. Other initiatives, it seems to me, could include a prohibition of motorized bicycles on campus and the installation of a repair shop on campus.

Perhaps the monthly rides could also develop into a Bogotá Critical Mass demonstration. After all, if La Nacho is known for anything, it's protests and activism. Several years ago, a woman from California tried to organize a critical mass ride at the Nacho, but the idea died after she returned to the States.

A la Nacho en Bici is on Facebook here.

A bike parking rack gets good use evening in the evening.

The university's central plaza, named after Che Guevara. the very leftist National University is better known for loud protests and colorful leftist graffiti. 

By Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours

Where did BicirrUN run off to?

BicirrUN was a program of free public bicycles for use on the Bogotá' campus of Colombia's National University. The Bogotá campus, formally called the 'University City,' is huge, so walking between classes can take time.

BicirrUN, begun in 2006, consisted of some 300 bicycles (at a time) distributed across the campus. These were simple one-speeds (the campus is flat) with only one brake and often just a cable in place of the lower tube and were left in bike racks and by building entrances so that people could grab them and ride to their destinations, where they left them for someone else.

Besides saving time and (human) energy and popularizing cycling, the university bikes program also served as a template for a possible city-wide public bicycles program.

The project was Bogotá's third large experiment for promoting cycling, following the Ciclovia and the Cicloruta bike path system. It could be seen as a pilot for a possible municipal public bicycle system. Unfortunately, so far it has failed.

Unfortunately, in 2009 the program was folded and the bikes placed in deep storage below the university's nursing building. According to reports, the program cost too much - some of the bikes disappeared and many more were damaged by people doing things like going down stairs and leaping from rocks. It became unsustainable.

Fortunately, administrators are looking for a way to restart BicirrUN. They've talked about an education campaign and/or requiring users to check out their bikes, like library books.

How could the program be made viable?

An electronic credit card-type system is just out of reach because of cost.

And having people check out bikes for 20-minute periods also seems impractical. The university would need an army of monitor to administer the system.

But what if bikes were checked out for 24-hour periods? Users might also receive locks, or have to bring their own. Such a system might also permit students to take the bikes of campus, so that they'd become commuter vehicles as well. In case of damage or loss, the user would be required to pay the costs or lose the right to participate in the system.

Another note: Lots of National University students and faculty bring their own bikes onto campus. The campus is crowded with entrepeneurs who rent cell-phones, sell food, pirated music and other stuff. So, why hasn't anybody thot of creating a bike repair shop or stand on campus?

Public Bikes in Bogotá

The National University's Bogotá campus, the nation's largest university, has had public bikes on campus for about two years. The green one-speeds have only one brake - in the rear. But since the campus is flat, not much breaking power is needed. The photos shows a student who is collecting the public bikes to store over a weekend.
Unfortunately, the program began with more than 1,000 bikes but has only a few hundred left operating. Some have been stolen, others suffered abuse and damage.
Now, a city councilmember is proposing creating a public bicycles program like those in Paris and Barcelona for Bogotá. It'll be great if it works, but sadly I have my doubts.
This blog is written by Mike Ceaser, who runs Bogota Bike Tours www.bogotabiketours.com