Green Bike Program Olympics

Robbert Little- San Francisco, CA

The official mission statement of the Green Bike Program is centered “the reuse of old bikes and parts” providing “community members free access to bicycles, tools, repair lessons,” any member will tell you our bike-related events exhibit the spirit of the Pitzer GBP.  Two weeks ago, the GBP hosted the second annual “Green Bike Program Olympics.”  The structure of the Olympics was simple and ridiculous – open to all Pitzer students, teams of two represented countries from all around the world, including Nepal, North Korea, Antarctica, Finland, and more.  Of course, costumes were highly encouraged.  Lauren Phipps and I, representing Antarctica, won this contest hands down.

After taking a Green Bike Program photo, contestants began a series of rigorous bike related challenges. First off – Cog Ninja-stars. Contestants lined up ten yards from a painted target and hurled a small bike cog, some with deadly accuracy. Needless to say, through harsh winters and cold summers, Team Antarctica had plenty of practice and won this contest with the first toss (bull’s-eye!). Scores were taken, giving each team a first, second, and third place. From there, we all moved out on to the grassy mounds for our “Huffy-Toss.” Outside of our shop, bike frames litter the concrete, providing prefect props for an event that mirrors tossing a discus. Teams lined up and one by one hurled a heavy and unwieldy metal frame as far as they could. As entertaining as the distances teams could throw the frame (or lack there of in most cases), interpretive and creative tossing-techniques paralyzed the observers with laughter.  

Campus-to-Coast

Robert Little- San Franciso, CA

When I arrived here in early August to prepare for the arrival of our new first years, Pitzer’s campus was eerie. “Pitzer is a shell without you students” was the go-to elevator speech administrators used in lieu of a simple “Welcome back!” I could see it, yeah, the school is a lonely place in the summer – no students clumsily slack-lining on the mounds, no barefoot Pitzer folk walking to class, and no Grove House sandwiches with home roasted turkey and balsamic parmesan spread for several months! 

 When I took a stroll through campus, however, I felt a loneliness that no one else had mentioned. NO BIKES. ANYWHERE. Whereas I occasionally had to resort to locking my pitzermobile (an orange single speed, so fresh) to handrails or my friends’ bikes, the sight of my bike all alone on the ribcage rack outside the residence halls caused me a tiny bit of anxiety. I felt like that dog owner who locks their pup up to a pole outside and walks away (HOW COULD YOU).

At the risk losing your attention by talking about bikes in all my posts, they’re kind of a huge deal here. Students, faculty, and staff ride everywhere – around the campuses, out to L.A.’s monthly Critical Mass, and of course bombing down Mt. Baldy before 8am class. 

One of the most ambitious rides is the first-year orientation trip Pedal to The Pacific – a trip where students bike from a starting point to a handful of beaches over several days. The title is deceiving, however – we don’t actually bike fromPitzer to the beach, but bus from campus to a park along the San Gabriel river and start from there.

Although I had participated on this orientation trip three times now, this Saturday was the first time that I actually pedaled to the pacific. As part of Pitzer’s 50th anniversary celebration, 50 students, faculty, staff, and Claremont community members set out for a casual 50-mile Campus to Coast ride. Starting from the lot adjacent from the Green Bike program, a diverse amalgamation of road bikes, cruisers, hybrids, and even one tandem set out for a pleasurable four hour, mostly down hill ride to seal beach. We toured through sunny Claremont and San Dimas before hitting the San Gabriel River trail, took a pit stop at Liberty Park for lunch, and planted tires in the sand just after one in the afternoon. I felt like a first year again, biking next to fellow Pitzer folks who I hadn’t met before and eagerly tried to get to know. At the beach, students swam and surfed (an awesome reward after a half-century ride!)

Aside from the fact that I can honestly say that yes, I’ve pedaled to the pacific, this ride incorporated so many aspects of why I love this school.  For one, yeah, there’s a collective effervescence when a large group of people hit the road on bikes.  This, of course, happens all over the place; what was unique about this ride was the diversity of participants.  Students from all four grades, graduates, faculty, professional staff, deans, and even two moms who “new some nice kids who went to the Claremont Colleges” came together and bonded over some exercise outside.  Some wore spandex suits.  Others wore flip-flops.  Everyone biked 50 miles; everyone pedaled to the pacific!

The Green Bike Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Little – San Francisco, CA

Once a week, I slowly walk backwards down the Pitzer service road.  “And you can see all around you, Pitzer students love bikes!” I shout, motioning to the filled bike racks to the left and right.  “Each year, the Green Bike Program raffles off one hundred and fifty used bikes for free - you just show up and grab whichever fits your style!”  The members of the tour usually look surprised right about here.  And they should; 150 working bikes is a tall order coming from a student run organization like the GBP.

When I first started here two years ago, 150 was no joke; early one Sunday morning, I sat with dozens of students on the service road, silently picking out my new favorite bike after another student selected my previous favorite.  I ended up picking third from last, riding a Fiori-Frankenstein bike with one wheel bigger than the other, no breaks, and a fixed gear.  Needless to say, I ended up with the most fashionable bike, if not the most functional.

Fast forward to today, I’m a manager at the GBP and in charge of the bike raffle; however, a lot has changed since I was a participant.  As part of the Gold Student Center renovation, the GBP has moved down south for the year to our old vacated residence hall – Holden – and is in rough shape.  Our tool racks are un-mounted and dilapidated, our supplies mismatched in unlabeled drawers, and our decade old Logitech speakers finally blew out (on the bright every song is a dubstep remix now).

Understandably, the task of organizing a makeshift shop and fixing up a few hundred bikes isn’t a good advertisement tool to recruit and retain GBP workers.  I’d been overlooking this reality until the night before our raffle this past Saturday when only five other workers showed up for our final bike fixing party.  With 13 hours to go before our big show, I walked into the shop where eight bikes were in functioning condition.  Pitzer students aren’t known for their math abilities, but we all knew 8/150 bikes for the next morning’s raffle combined with our average fixing speed of three bikes per person per hour meant we had a long night ahead of us.  It was time to change the music in the shop from Frank Ocean to LCD Soundsystem and get to work (FYI ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ is the GBP anthem).

By the end of the night, we had some thirty-odd bikes ready to raffle.   I’ll skip over how 35 bikes is not quite 150, and instead focus on why I deemed this fraction a personal success.  Of the five workers that showed up Saturday night, four of them had participated on the Pedal to the Pacific orientation adventure (OA).  I’m sure all Pitzer students claim their OA they participated in their first year was the best one, but Saturday night I solidified my superlative claim.  As first years, our “69 sexy mile bike ride” down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) cultivated not just a love for anything bike related, but fostered the growth of some of the closest friendships I have here at Pitzer.

As our fixing party dwindled and lost three of the volunteers, I found myself dancing and singing along with James Murphy, “Present company…just laugh it off, it's better than it seems.”  Hours passed.  We were sweaty, greasy, and happy.  By the night’s end, only two of my closest friends and I remained, and we had enough functioning, Frankenstein bikes to equip the Pitzer community with.  
 
I’m not sure what this “Admissions Unpeeled” blog is supposed to look like; it hasn’t been around since I’ve been a student here.  What I can surmise, however, is that it is a space to share not the polished statistics and LEED-certification monologues that make Pitzer look like the best school on earth (disclaimer: it is!)  It’s not a space to say that yes, without fail, 150 free bikes are magically fixed and distributed to the community by the will of a few kooks in their spare time.  What I hope this blog shares are the personal stories that don’t add up nicely in flyers; stories like how I had more fun getting dirty with some OA pals fixing bikes than I did skiing and surfing in the same day (also, awesome).  The reality is that no school lives up to all the statistics it puts forward (which isn’t an inherently bad thing); instead, the people and moments and like these are what make Pitzer an incredible place, and in the words of

LCD Soundsystem, “Present company, makes me want to stay.”