We’re thrilled to be featured in the latest liveWELL quarterly newsletter, which highlights organizations that promote kindness, respect, and health on campus! This edition spotlights the great work being done to embed health and well-being into daily life—and we’re honored to be part of it.

Check out page 10 to read about how the Bike Library fosters community, sustainability, and active transportation. Find the full newsletter here: liveWELL Newsletter.  

Read the full article HERE. 

On Wednesday, Hussam and I went to Walmart to look for bikes, and we also visited the Iowa City Bike Library. Audrey Wiedemeier at the Bike Library was quite relieved that we didn’t buy a bike at Walmart because, as she put it, “Friends don’t let friends buy bikes from Walmart,”. Instead she suggested that Hussam keep looking for bikes on Facebook Marketplace and bring in whatever he finds to the Bike Library by Friday so we could fix it up.

On Thursday, Hussam called me and told me that he had found a $70 road bike—an ancient Panasonic road bike with downtube shifters.

Fixing up Hussam’s bike at the IC Bike Library. Shout out to the Bike Library! They are amazing

Read the Gazette article here.

IOWA CITY — Laura Crossett wheeled her electric bike into the Iowa City Bike Library, past the front desk and into an area with benches, tools and stands. She hoisted her bike onto the stand with a little help, grabbed a rag and a spray bottle, and started cleaning.

The 48-year-old Iowa City woman has been riding bikes since she was a kid, but never gave a lot of thought to maintenance and upkeep — until her electric bike, or e-bike.

“I really decided I needed to learn to take care of it myself,” she said.

Read the Little Village Article here.

If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you give a man a bicycle, teach him how to keep it in tip-top shape, and advocate for there to be safe spaces for him to ride, you’re a bike collective.
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Iowa’s bike collectives are nonprofit community programs that focus on making bikes and cycling opportunities more accessible and giving local commuters an alternative to cars.

Volunteer, Ren Stinson submitted this photo to the Escape Collective's photo contest. “A patron using one of 5 community benches at the “Iowa City Bike Library” – our local community bike shop. Patrons are taught to work on their own bikes that they borrow or buy from the library. Bikes are donated and rebuilt by volunteers to be repurposed for those in need of a bike for transportation and/or recreation. We teach community members of all ages, genders, and races to work on their bikes, ride their bikes on organized rides, and to connect with an inclusive community of bike riders.” Ren Stinson @drrenjamin

Pedal Power PODCAST - Iowa City Bike Library Shop Coordinator, Walter Linares, was a guest on the From the Front Row podcast to discuss how biking contributes to personal and community health. In summer 2023, the TRIPS Lab team worked closely with Linares as he instructed 42 children in Bike Club Safety Camp, the intervention component of an NIH-funded youth bike safety education study.

Youth ages 14 and under have over 100,000 bicycling-related emergency department visits annually in the United States. The ICBL works with the TRIPS Lab team on a bicycling safety study funded by the National Health Institute.

Watts Happening PODCAST - Whether you’re looking to get your first bike, join local rides, or learn to do your own repairs, the Iowa City Bike Library is a great resource to get started! 🚴

We are excited to be joined on the podcast this week by the Executive Director of the Bike Library, Audrey Wiedemeier. Join Gary and Audrey as they discuss the various services that the Bike Library provides, cycling safety practices, ways to give back to the local cycling community, and much more!

The Iowa City Bike Library received a Climate Action Grant to reduce its carbon footprint by making energy efficiency improvements to the building.  Learn how the organization complete a comprehensive energy efficiency audit, which resulted in LED lighting upgrade and replaced windows and doors.

Learn more about Climate Action Grants at icgov.org/ClimateAction.

The Little Village article posted July 13, 2021 by Brian Tanner - In early July 2021, the Iowa City Bike Library is releasing the first in a series of four bike rides touring the Iowa City area intended to create awareness of calls to action in the community. The Raise It Up Rides are audio-guided routes visiting points of interest relating to racial inequities, identifying systems of oppression, celebrating artistic works of the community and demonstrating how bikes can be applied to these causes. Participants are invited to contribute to constructive conversations and learn how they might be able to make a difference in the community.

The Little Village article Posted on Feb 9, 2021 by Emma McClatchey After more than five years of location insecurity, the Iowa City Bike Library (ICBL) is ready to settle down in its own “vast, ethereal space.”

“It is true! The Iowa City Bike Library has purchased a building at 1222 South Gilbert Court,” ICBL posted to its Facebook page Tuesday morning. “Situated South of CommUnity, two blocks away from Big Grove, and still within the Blinky Light District–we are very happy about our new location and can’t wait to give you a socially distant grand tour.”