Courtesy of Portland Gear
Though the club may currently be a bit under the radar, the Lewis & Clark Bike Co-Op is preparing for the future with ambition and planning know-how. Like many student organizations recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, membership and participation were slow to rebound. Today, however, the club’s leaders are excited to continue the mission of their predecessors and to provide resources to cycling enthusiasts on campus.
The club’s services fall into three main categories: repair, events and rentals. Appointments are available for those looking to repair their bikes, to learn mechanic skills, or to share space with other bike enthusiasts. The Bike Co-Op also currently has four bikes available for rent, which can be reserved using an appointment on the club’s Google Calendar. The bikes can be rented for up to two days during the week and for the duration of the weekend.
The Mossy Log spoke to Chris Riley ’29, the co-op’s current vice president, about the work that the club does and where they hope to focus their efforts in the future.
Riley mentioned that the rental bike program remains quite active, with an average of three bike rentals a week. He also outlined the club’s bike repair and maintenance skills events as a regular activity.
During the Huckleberry Moon Skillshare at Tryon Life Community Farm earlier this month, the club’s leaders led a bike mechanic workshop where they taught skills such as bike safety and tire repair. This event was one of many mechanic workshops the Bike Co-Op has organized. Riley explained that these sessions are very inclusive to all attendees.
“We have a once monthly mechanics workshop, and that’s just (an) open session. If no one pulls up, it’s just the leaders and we just work on bikes. If people pull up, we’ll teach them what we have, and then we’ll see if they want to jump in on a bike or what they feel like. It’s very, very tailored, you can also pull up with your own problems,” Riley said.
The Bike Co-Op also spends time organizing events and sponsoring student participation in cycling events in the greater Portland area. In the co-op’s office, Riley showed off the club’s two cyclocross team bikes and two mountain bikes, both of which are available to students who want to participate in cycling events but do not have their own bike. The Bike Co-Op sponsors student entry into these events; and the Portland Trophy Cup, a cyclocross competition that the club sends members to in the fall, offers free admission for women and non-binary individuals.
The Bike Co-Op has struggled recently with resources, particularly with obtaining appropriate funding. However, this has created a need for resourcefulness that has given the club a lot of experience in ingenuity and problem-solving.
“We try to be as resourceful as possible, Riley said. “That’s the whole point. We take old bikes. We fix them up as well as we can, and we get people riding them.”
Riley elaborated on the co-op’s history, as well.
“Actually, (L&C Bike Co-Op) is a conglomeration of LC Cycling, LC Bike Co-Op and LC Bike Club, and LC Cycling usually did cyclocross in fall semesters,” Riley explained. “And I think that just because of the way leadership has shaped out over the last, I don’t know how many years, we made it one club.”
Riley hopes to usher the Bike Co-Op into a new generation of leadership and to focus on a new goal. The club’s current president, Tully Jones-Wilkins ’26, is set to graduate this year, leaving the co-op in Riley’s hands. He hopes to onboard new members and mechanics for the upcoming year.
Riley wants to create support for international students looking to move around the city via bike, a major mission of the club in the future as well. He credits Jones-Wilkins with expanding the club’s support for commuter students, but has noticed that many of the bike renters are international students and hopes to teach these members skills that will allow them to engage with the city of Portland.
The Bike Co-Op had their first ride of the season on April 4, a collaboration between the co-op and the International Students of Lewis and Clark. The event included a ride to Sellwood, a lesson on bike safety and a chance for cyclists to bond over a shared hobby that offers connection to the city. This reflects the larger philosophy that Riley hopes to lead with.
“I’m pretty optimistic. I think that there’s a lot of interest, this is the bike city, and there’s so many people on campus that are really into biking. I think that at the end of the day, the whole point of this club is to get people going on rides, because that’s so much fun,” he said.
The Bike Co-Op and its members are putting in effort to become a more prominent student organization on campus. There are many avenues to become involved, including as a mechanic (a role that always needs to be filled), a casual rider or as a competitor. If you are interested in joining or in getting assistance with your own bike, you can email the club at cycling@lclark.edu or make an appointment and visit them in the bike shop in JR Howard room 131.
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