_Emmett Ferguson is a freshman journalism major at MU. He is an opinion columnist who writes about student life for The Maneater._
Owning a bike has significantly changed my college experience. It has honestly made more of an impact than finding out that there is a late-night Subway on campus. Yet whereas the Subway has only presented me with the good glory of a 1 a.m. steak and cheese melt, owning a bike has had its many ups and downs.
I obsess over things. When I want to learn about something, I learn the heck out of it. I have stayed up an entire night during finals week in high school researching cuttlefish. I now know everything there is to know about them. So when I decided to buy a bike, I was going to know what I was doing. After about five minutes I realized I was, as many college students are, too broke to get anything halfway decent.
I scanned Craigslist and the Letgo app to an extreme point. I emailed dozens of people. I lowballed. I made up a bike store and said I was a longtime employee who “really knew what he was talking about when it came to prices.” A few Craigslist users whom I’ve never actually met hate me now.
Finally, after about a month of keeping tabs on all two-wheeled vehicles for sale in a 20-mile radius, I found one. It was admittedly an older bike, but it was a very reliable brand. A street bike with hybrid tires allowing me to go off of curbs and on brick roads, and potentially even trails. I emailed the guy. He didn’t threaten me or curse at me when I offered a slightly lower price and didn’t seem like he was going to kidnap me. As of this moment, things were going better than ever. We met at Lowry Mall, and he even let me test ride it. He gave me the bike; I gave him some money. We went our separate ways, both happy.
About a week later, I went to bed knowing full well that the following day would be a complete and utter nightmare. I had three classes, two hours of radio, one test worth 25 percent of my grade and 10 photos to print, all running off of very little sleep and one cup of two-day-old coffee. This is the day that I needed my bike to really pull through and perform. It didn’t.
On the way to my first class of the day, the back tire popped and I was forced to walk a whole 20 yards (something I haven’t done in a while and a sobering reminder of life as a pedestrian) to the nearest bike rack. After class I took it to the free bike repair on Lowry Mall, and I found out that my bike had much more than a flat tire. It had a whole myriad of issues. After three hours of working on it, I eventually gave up on totally fixing the thing and took solace in my admittedly jerry-rigged, but rideable bicycle.
You are dependent on your bike to get places quickly, just as your bike is dependent on you for maintenance. It also costs money. Quite a bit. Between having to buy new tubes, new tires, locks and headlights, having a bike will be a miracle diet pill if you find your wallet to be too fat. It really is a fair trade-off, but it is nonetheless a trade-off. Having a bike on campus is helpful, but it definitely has its downsides just as walking has its upsides. However, if you really want a quick way to get to Dobbs for some T-Ravs, it’s probably your best option.
