Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Bike Friendly Colleges?

any ideas on what schools are bike friendly? where do you all go? im looking for a transfer.

I think UCdavis is the most bike friendly campus I've been to. I go to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo which is not very bike friendly at all. there are not enough bike racks, then when you lock your bike to a pole because the rack is full, you get a ticket.

K-state is very bike friendly.

uc davis is good, csu sacramento isn't bad either I am just a community college kid sooo ( I am more slacker than you will ever know)

indiana university is

University of Wisconsin Madison. Big bicycling town, also has a good race scene.

Will you be majoring in bicycling then?

UC Davis is known for it's bicycle transportation.
http://www.taps.ucdavis.edu/bicycle/chem194.jpg

Second Indiana. Good times.

UC Davis is known for it's bicycle transportation.
http://www.taps.ucdavis.edu/bicycle/chem194.jpg
yeah but the cops are dicks bui dispensing arrrgh

Will you be majoring in bicycling then?

scrolling through, waiting(hoping?) for this post to happen....

There is no such thing as a "bike friendly" campus. One hit rider or stolen bike anecdote is all it will take to apparently sway you away from this campus or that.

Go to the school with the best program within your major that you're able to get accepted to. The rest(parties, biking, "cool area" etc) won't matter when you're done with school and applying for jobs. It won't matter if you had a bike culture around your campus to your prospective employers. If you choose a school based on that, please beat yourself up for me.

Go to the school with the best program within your major that you're able to get accepted to. The rest(parties, biking, "cool area" etc) won't matter when you're done with school and applying for jobs. It won't matter if you had a bike culture around your campus to your prospective employers. If you choose a school based on that, please beat yourself up for me.

I couldn't disagree more. College is not (or at least shouldn't be) only about job training. Life isn't about figuring out what some hypothetical prospective employer will want. Follow your passions and you will lead a good life.

The college or university you will do best at is the one that most fits your personality and interests. For some people this is a research university with 35,000 students just outside of a major city. For others it's a small liberal arts college in the middle of Iowa.

That said, colleges are bike friendly and even if they are not, it's fun to ride bikes places that are not bike friendly.

+ 1 to the pope and LeMans. You are presumably going to college to get a job that you want.
that said, Huerro's point of finding a school that fits your personality is also valid. I went to a really small campus of a huge school, and was very happy. That was only part of my decision. You may want to go to grad school, and the choice you make now will definitely influence where you can go.

+ 1 to the pope and LeMans. You are presumably going to college to get a job that you want.
that said, Huerro's point of finding a school that fits your personality is also valid. I went to a really small campus of a huge school, and was very happy. That was only part of my decision. You may want to go to grad school, and the choice you make now will definitely influence where you can go.

I really have to disagree again. I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass, but you are wrong. Unless you are going directly to grad school, admissions committees will be much more intereseted in what you have been doing with your life, what you plan to work on and how it fits with that program's resources, faculty, and mission, and how well you can communicate these things in writing. Where you went to undergrad means very little. Show your passion, talent, and dedication and you will get into the grad program that is best for you.

I say this based on experience.

Purdue is fine for bikes but there is not a huge scene here or anything.

Nobody's wrong.

To the OP. Perhaps look at this through the other end of the telescope. Start with colleges that have your major or intended major as a program. If you miss out on that, no amount of biking around campus will ease your frustration. Assume that will be a big number of schools, but who knows. If you haven't decided, suggest you choose a school with a lot of choices. Then, look at finances. Can't afford Middlebuy at $50K a year? I went to a nice state school for a lot less. Then from that pool, eliminate what are likely poor biking schools. As previously stated, this will likely be a minority. From the remaining schools, balance quality of programs in your likely major and quality of biking around. Pick.

IMHO, picking a school only for it's biking has about the same potential for drop-out as picking a school only because a girl you have a crush on goes there.

IMHO, picking a school only for it's biking has about the same potential for drop-out as picking a school only because a girl you have a crush on goes there.

I did the latter. We broke up. I graduated.

See? You'll ditch the bike for rollerblades anyway.

See? You'll ditch the bike for rollerblades anyway.

Yeah, but I was actually pretty happy with my college experience. When I was deciding where to go, my high school guidance counselor actually told me that choosing a school for that reason was not crazy. After doing it, I agree. Many people end up doing something completely different than what they studied in school that it almost doesn't matter. I suppose if you have your heart set on being a doctor or an engineer this method may not work out for you though. Now that I think of it, the OP probably shouldn't be taking advice from random people on the internet.

I see the logic in both.

One hard truth though. The better the school you go to, the less number of people will have chosen it just because it's a nice place to bike around. Them brainiacs will screw a person right into the ground in calculus lab.

we have a couple bike racks and around here... and sometimes i see people on magnas and huffys.

Where do you go now?

If you are looking for great road and mountain riding, Athens (Ohio University) is a great place. Bike theft isn't a real problem.

The school is pretty good, the town is great, bar scene is hopping, but the University administration is out of control.

http://www.iugear.com/img/giftIU.jpg
http://202.63.38.246/opea/library/infophotos/IndianaUniversity_Bloomington_USA.jpghttp://www.pacific-cycle.com/sa/uploads/images/news/little500.jpg

When I went to visit my friends at UC Santa Cruz, it seemed really bike friendly.

University of Missouri at Columbia. I go there (here?).

Columbia MO is a pretty bike friendly town too. It's often touted to be the number 1 college town, however that's decided.

+1 for all the people telling you to choose a college based on your passion. Last I checked, most college campuses were firmly attached to solid earth, which, in my experience, is typically adequate for riding a bicycle upon.

I love riding bikes as much as the next guy - I'm posting a cycling message board, after all - but if number one on your list of college necessities is "bike friendliness," you, my young Jedi, have your priorities misaligned.

I'd say it's important to look at the city that the campus is in. I spend most of my time biking around the city, not the campus.

On that note, I go to Oregon State University, which is in Corvallis, OR. Corvallis is considered an incredible bicycling town, and is ranked #5 in the United States for percentage of bicycle commuters. So as you can imagine, the city, and the university, cater to us quite nicely.

I think all colleges are bike friendly. I always find the coolest bike shops by colleges. Maybe campuses in the north are less approachable by some people in terms of cycling due to the weather.

When I went to visit my friends at UC Santa Cruz, it seemed really bike friendly.
It is.

And I'm going to Sacramento State, seems pretty bike-friendly.

University of Toronto is pretty bike friendly. Which is good, since it's huge, and some classes may be km/s apart.
Lots of Lock up rings. But need a good lock. Theft is fierce.
Free student run bike repair joint on campus (Bike Chain). Lot's of LBS

don't pick a school based on bikeability. you'll find a way to make the bike work wherever you go, focus on faculty and programs first.

[QUOTE=3MTA3]http://www.iugear.com/img/giftIU.jpg

absolutely

Bard's not bike friendly enough with me gone, eh?

UC Irvine is not bike friendly at all
this is what is on the ground around campus:
http://photos-598.ak.facebook.com/ip002/v71/0/20/6000362/n6000362_33331598_151.jpg
of course the bunny was a protest to the anti-bike rule, but it was sprayed over the next day.

And people get tickets ($20) for riding in the improper places (which is basically everywhere around campus) and pesdestrians get fined walking in the bike lanes.

I live in Corvallis, Oregon as well, (Jonny Pockets hit me up), This town has been given high ratings as a bicycle friendly town but I think those merits were given by folk that have never been here. On the other hand we do have five bike shops which is rad for the size of the town. There is also to some extent an OSU cycling team

URI, and VCU in richmond VA

Bard's not bike friendly enough with me gone, eh?
bard's not friendly enough period.

bard's not friendly enough period.
It's cyclical. The freshmen come in friendly but become jaded by the upperclassmen. They those freshmen become upper classmen and turn the new students into awful people. I wish I had left when I had the chance.

U Texas at Austin is really bike friendly. There are about 4 bike shops quite close to campus, the campus cops have never bothered me, there are a lot of bikers. The only problem is peds who think they have a god given right to walk into the road without looking (which I'm sure you'll find at most colleges).

I go to the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. It's pretty bike friendly. For one thing, you can get anywhere you need to go on your bike.

University of Wisconsin Madison. Big bicycling town, also has a good race scene.

http://www.bikelikemad.org/

UC Santa Barbara.

UC Santa BarBRO.
Watch your spelling.

Watch your spelling.
hahahaha

any ideas on what schools are bike friendly? where do you all go? im looking for a transfer.

Let me guess: You are not paying for your college education yourself.

Dude, picking a college based on bike friendliness is like picking the college with the best water fountains.

If you've picked the right college, your interests and priorities will be far different than what they were 4 years ago.

my $.02.

Let me guess: You are not paying for your college education yourself.

Dude, picking a college based on bike friendliness is like picking the college with the best water fountains.

but if i was looking for schools with, say, a sports team to play on, that would be alright? im looking for the same thing with bike schools.

ok, harvard's out.

Where do you go now?

If you are looking for great road and mountain riding, Athens (Ohio University) is a great place. Bike theft isn't a real problem.

The school is pretty good, the town is great, bar scene is hopping, but the University administration is out of control.

I'll second Ohio U. as a bike friendly campus. I graduated there in 1995 and stayed there for work until 1999. After graduating, I moved 13 miles outside of town and rode in to work most days.
Consider a setup with some good vibration dampening if you're moving there, because Athens has a lot of brick streets (at least it did back when I lived there.) And if you're riding a fixed or SS, go with a low gear because campus is full of steep hills.

Univ. of Oregon