After three years of planning, the volunteer-run University of Winnipeg Students’ Association Bike Lab is off to the races after opening its doors to the public on Oct. 21.

Housed inside a recycled steel shipping container and constructed out of recycled material, the building “presents a pioneer design in shipping container building in Winnipeg,” according to the lab’s co-ordinators.

“We wanted to demonstrate the usefulness of recycled materials as part of the project’s overall commitment to sustainability,” said lab co-ordinator Robin Bryan.

The lab is open weekdays from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday to Friday and is currently running a drop-in style atmosphere. It aims to offer free year-round bicycle support and workshops to students, staff, faculty and community members as well as promote advocacy and awareness around sustainability.

It is also an educational facility with a hands-on approach to bicycle repair and maintenance. 

“The focus is on teaching. It’s not a place you will go drop off your bike,” said Andrée Forest, a lab volunteer.

Following in the footsteps of other community bike shops, the bike lab will be run by a well-established volunteer base. Most of the volunteers belong to the Ice Riders, a support group on campus for winter cyclists that started in March 2010.

The Bike Lab is still in its beginning stages and in that respect opening in the fall is a good thing, said Ted Turner, outreach and special projects co-ordinator for the UWSA.

“By spring we’ll know what we will be able to do and be able to do it well,” he said.

The lab is funded by an annual $2 student fee, which was voted in during the 2008 campus election. A $100,000 private donation along with capital from the UWSA and the Mass Climate Change Action fund also helped pay for the project.

But whether or not the new lab catches the eye of the average student remains to be seen.

“Personally it’s 50-50 as to whether I’ll use the lab, but $2 isn’t a big deal. It’s what I would spend on a coffee,” said Marina Goodwin, a fourth-year international development studies student.

“I didn’t realize that the construction I was walking by every morning was the bike lab until I saw people in there doing repairs and I put two and two together,” added Chantal Hogue, a fourth-year arts student.

Bicycle registration will be available so volunteer mechanics can have access to information about every bicycle that is worked on. The registration will also be a way the different groups “can get a better idea of the demographics of cyclists on campus,” said UWSA president Lauren Bosc.

For more information about the bike lab, visit www.theuwsa.ca.

Published in Volume 66, Number 10 of The Uniter (November 2, 2011)