About us & Our Story

MSU Bikes is a full-service bike shop owned and operated by the university which is dedicated to promoting bicycling as a healthy and environmentally sustainable transportation option for the MSU community as well as visitors and area residents.  It started out in the spring of 2003 as a volunteer-run project and then received funding from the university to open its doors at the present location in the fall of 2006.

MSU Bikes makes its home in the MSU Bikes Service Center, a full service bike shop on the campus of Michigan State University.  It is a department under MSU Surplus & Recycling which is a division of MSU’s Infrastructure Planning and Facilities department.

Michigan State University was upgraded in February 2021 as a gold level Bike Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists.  Read the MSU press release about the award here.

Hours

Open Mon. - Fri. 10 am-5 pm year-round (Except for University Holidays)

History

In the spring of 2003 Gus Gosselin, then director of Building Services for Infrastructure Planning and Facilities, and Terry Link, former director of the Office of Campus Sustainability, founded the MSU Bike Project. This all-volunteer effort was dedicated to transforming abandoned bicycles into fun, economical, healthy, and environmentally friendly transportation alternatives for the MSU campus community.

The Bike Project volunteers met in the basement of Demonstration Hall to restore and repair abandon bicycles. The bikes were painted in MSU colors – hence the nickname “green bikes.” Green bike leases were originally offered only to faculty and staff but became available to the entire campus community in 2004. The Bike Project began public bike repair workshops in the late winter of 2004, which serviced hundreds of bikes on a donation basis.

The value of the Bike Project was recognized in 2006, when the MSU Bikes Service Center was created as an official service of MSU under the Department of Transportation. The Service Center, a full-service bike repair and rental facility, opened the day after Labor Day 2006 in the old canoe rental facility located under the Bessey Hall auditorium.

In July of 2012, MSU Bikes joined Surplus Store & Recycling. The Bikes Service Center still operates out of Bessey Hall.

In July of 2020 the Surplus Store reorganized due to the effects on the operation caused by the COVID pandemic and MSU Bikes became the sole-source for bikes on campus going forward.