By Charlie White, Staff Writer

Sick of fumbling for change while getting on one of our public buses? Too tired or in too much of a hurry to walk? Are you skipping over several gas stations looking for one that costs just a few pennies less per gallon? Well, there is a solution for you that costs $0.00 and 0/10 per gallon: the ancient art of bicycling. And MacBike is the gateway to your new lifestyle.

MacBike is a student organization that works to develop a sense of community, environmental awareness and mechanical knowledge through bike use here at Macalester.

"MacBike is a program that has been around for over a decade," said Claire Stocheck, '07, a student who is especially involved in MacBike. "But when I got here, it seemed to be in hibernation. So a few other people and I just thought `Hey, this is a really cool program!' and then we worked to get it running again."

Thanks to Stocheck and some fellow bike enthusiasts, the MacBike program this year has evolved into one of the largest and most organized groups on campus, and has more programs and events planned than ever.

Traditionally, MacBike has always done a weekly bike ride. But this year, the number of students participating in the bike rides every weekend has skyrocketed.

"During the September Critical Mass, we had more than 40 people on our bike ride," Stocheck said. "It was just amazing."

Stocheck also explained one MacBike's main goals. "It's unfortunate that so many people go around town in their cars, and spend so much money on something that is so energy consuming when we can just share with each other while building our community for free," she said.

A newer aspect of MacBike is the bike share program, which allows anybody on campus access to a free bike.

"We started the bike share program last semester. We just provide a fleet of bikes for anybody in the community to use," explained Stocheck.

MacBike gets its bikes from several different places in and around St. Paul, but most of their bikes come from Sibley's Bicycle Depot in downtown St. Paul. Sibley's donates or reduces the price of many of the used bikes that Macalester uses for bike share.

"We have about 40 bikes or so from donations around town," said Anna Raithel '09, another student who is involved in the program. "We're outside on the Bateman Plaza between 12 and 2 on Fridays. Students can just come by and talk to one of us, and we'll give them a bike."

Raithel said she got wrapped up in MacBike from the moment she realized what it was actually all about. "I met Claire [Stocheck] at the Mactivism 101 meeting during my first week here. I had just thought MacBike was an organization that ran around on bikes, but it's really a social movement that does so much more than just bike around. After the first couple of meetings, I found myself completely absorbed by the club. I'm learning so much about biking and having such a great time with the people that I just absolutely love it."

The big change MacBike will be making this year involves the way its bike share program is run. Rather than being run by students out on the Bateman Plaza once a week, it will be integrated into the services provided at the information desk in the Campus Center.

In the past, Macalester's administration has been hesitant to allow bike share to work through the info desk. Cindy Darrow, Director of the Campus Center, implied that in the past, MacBike has only had the idea of bike share being run through the info desk rather than actually having the interest and need.

"This year, MacBike successfully demonstrated that there's a need for something like this to happen here on campus. They've showed that there is a bigger interest than ever," Darrow said.

MacBike's goal is to have the new bike share program implemented by the Monday after fall break, Oct. 31.

Not only does MacBike lend out bikes for free, they will also fix your bike for free between 12 and 2 p.m. outside of the Campus Center. And at the same time, they'll show you how to fix it yourself.

Jason Tanzman '06 is a MacBike member who is also knowledgeable of the mechanics behinds bikes. " We just bring all sorts of random bike parts, and we'll grease up your bike and fix it the best we can for free," he said. " It's a service available to the whole campus. We also show you how to fix the bike while we're actually fixing it."

Over fall break, MacBike plans to take a trip with MULCH (Macalester Urban Land and Community Health), another student organization.

Julia Eagles, '06, a student helping to administrate MULCH, explained the trip at the MacBike meeting on Monday night. "We'll be biking out to a farm together, and then doing some planting and work while there."

There are several different possibilities for the trip destination. Ideas brought up at the meeting included a farm in western Wisconsin, and one near Rochester, Minnesota.

For MacBike, reaching outside the Macalester community is also important. Stocheck expressed an interest in linking up with an after school biking program at a local high school.

"Our next goal is to start working with after school programs and give them the use of some of our bikes," Stocheck explained. "It's very important to us to expand beyond Mac and spread our ideas throughout the Twin Cities area."

If you are interested in getting involved with MacBike, meetings are on Monday nights at 10 p.m. in Campus Center 214.