Free bike rentals might be coming to MU, as long as Tyler Ricketts can sift though all of the logistics.

As the chairman of Missouri Students Association’s Student Affairs Committee, Ricketts is working to bring a few of the abandoned bikes MU’s Surplus Department picks up each year out of storage and back onto the streets.

Ricketts said the department agreed to allow MSA to take two or three bikes each month for free. Over time, the committee hopes to build an effective system wherein students can rent bikes on a daily, weekly or semester plan free of charge.

“The way I envision our system is a student service that is of no cost or nominal cost to students,” Ricketts said.

MSA Senate Speaker Jake Sloan said the program is still in its beginning stages.
 
“It’s not happening for sure,” Sloan said. “We’re in talks about it. A lot of people are interested in it, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work.”
 
Ricketts said Student Affairs has been working closely with the Residence Halls Association, specifically with RHA Sustainability Coordinator Jordan Glasgow.
 
Tiger Wheels, a private bike rental business, launched last summer. It operates under the same premise as the yet-to-be-named MSA project, with slight variations. 

Tiger Wheels receives its bicycles through donations, garage sales and MU Surplus auctions, Tiger Wheels manager Logan Hepburn said in an email.

Hepburn offers wheels at $35 a semester, $50 if the buyer wants to include the optional maintenance coverage. The money earned tends to go back into Tiger Wheels, as the business is still growing, Hepburn said.

Hepburn said he had a few meetings with MU about his business, but it ultimately landed off-campus.

“We ended up just becoming a business in Columbia,” he said.

Hepburn said he thinks MSA’s plan will be “great for the university,” but questioned the longevity of the proposed program.

“I think (a free bike rental program would be) tough to maintain,” he said. “Unfortunately, services like that don’t seem to be a long-term solution because they lack funds.”

As for the future of his business, Hepburn said its fate depends on the amount of bikes MSA plans on providing.

“I think there will be enough students that Tiger Wheels should still be able to conduct business,” he said.

Although Ricketts said he realizes the similarities between Tiger Wheels and his proposed model, he said his model would deviate from the business because of its relationship with MU.

“We’re looking for a university-sanctioned, university-sponsored program,” he said.

MSA’s bike rental program will have advantages Tiger Wheels doesn’t, Ricketts said.

“We have the resources of the university to help make this program successful,” Ricketts said.

The program has already worked out a way for MU to supply its bikes, and Ricketts said he hopes space for the bikes and some kind of management could also be arranged.

“Those resources can only come from a program sponsored and sanctioned by the university,” he said.

Ricketts said the program is just now finding its footing. Student Affairs still needs to meet with the Sustainability Office, as well as Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs.

“I think we can realistically expect, by the end of the semester, to have concrete plans of what a pilot looks like,” Ricketts said. “Then (we’ll) gage that reaction and see if it’s a feasible thing to continue.”