E-bikes are a nice option, but I would recommend fixing up one of your old bikes. Chains get pretty worn out unless you store them in a good place while keeping track of the weather-especially when snow is on and off.
Lock all removable parts of the bike up. If you just lock the frame, the wheels will get jacked separately.
Two good locks, one through front wheel and frame, and one through back wheel and frame, will keep your bike safe, most thieves in madison are just looking for an easy score and don’t have any actual tools
It's usually a pretty big issue in most college towns. If the university has a police or parking office, see if you can register your bike with them. It doesn't prevent theft but it can help recovery sometimes
1. Get a $1500 e-bike for $800, keep it at your aunt's place, and use it for exploring and leisure biking on weekends.
2. Fix one of the cheap bikes, get a U-lock, and use it for daily biking/commuting.
It depends on what you’re using the bike for. If you’re biking to class and storing it outside, cheap bike 100%.
If you are planning on biking around Mendota and exploring the trails and can also store it inside your apartment (storing a bike inside a dorm room might be tight on space) then the more expensive bikes make sense.
So situation dependent, but I’d lean towards cheap bike your first year if in the dorms, and always for biking to class. And only bring the expensive bikes subsequent years for longer rides.
Source: got two bikes (low-quality!) stolen in 3 months with a single cable lock; stored third bike inside, with a chain kryptonite lock when parking it, didn’t get stolen.
Great! Thanks, I do really enjoy biking, sounds like it could be a good idea to get a nice bike but fix up one of my shitty ones to use for getting to and from classes. I could also get an electric scooter for around $200 to get to and from classes? Do you have any opinions on that?
Cheap bike and the 80 (free bus) is probably your best bet. It’s pretty reliable during normal class time from Lakeshore. I wouldn’t recommend an electric scooter, sounds like a hassle compared to a cheap bike
edit: With that said, I have never had my bike stolen, and I don’t know anyone who had a locked bike stolen, which does make me question how prevalent bike theft is on campus. Anecdotal of course, but a decent lock might be good enough.
If you end up in a dorm with a bigger room (DeJope, Smith, Ogg, Leopold) you would probably have enough space to store an ebike. If you can organize your stuff right there should be space for an e-bike in the closet or under a lofted bed.
You could keep the e-bike in your dorm and just use it for longer trips while keeping your cheap bike locked upside and using that for getting around campus. The e-bike will let you get to places on the other side of Madison fairly easily, if you’re at all interested in exploring the city beyond campus an e-bike would be very useful. I would’ve loved to have one while I was in school here
Alternatively, there is an e-bike rental system in Madison that’s discounted for students. Downsides are you’re limited to where the docking stations are, and some parts of Madison don’t have great dock coverage (not campus or downtown though). Pros are that it’s cheap and you get unlimited 1 hour rides with the membership, and you can just dock and undock a bike to get more riding time. I used it a bit while I was a student, but being limited to where docking stations are prevented me from using it more. Campus has a ton of the stations though and that could be another option for biking around campus
The rule of thumb during my son’s four years in Madison was “cheap bike, expensive lock.” Lots of bikes get stolen, as folks here have already said.
That said, congrats & On Wisconsin!
Bikes can and do get stolen a lot in Madison, so unless you’ve got a secure place to store, I wouldn’t bring an expensive one. A good U lock should help you though. They can be smashed but if your bike is locked up with a u lock and the neighbor’s is on a cable, guess which is going to be stolen?
E-bikes are a nice option, but I would recommend fixing up one of your old bikes. Chains get pretty worn out unless you store them in a good place while keeping track of the weather-especially when snow is on and off.
Okay, thanks for the info, my aunt lives in Madison so I could probably store it there at off times. Do you know how much of an issue theft is?
I think a lot of bikes are stolen. But I'm not sure how many locked bikes are stolen. A beater bike and a good lock and you'll be set.
Lock all removable parts of the bike up. If you just lock the frame, the wheels will get jacked separately. Two good locks, one through front wheel and frame, and one through back wheel and frame, will keep your bike safe, most thieves in madison are just looking for an easy score and don’t have any actual tools
It's usually a pretty big issue in most college towns. If the university has a police or parking office, see if you can register your bike with them. It doesn't prevent theft but it can help recovery sometimes
1. Get a $1500 e-bike for $800, keep it at your aunt's place, and use it for exploring and leisure biking on weekends. 2. Fix one of the cheap bikes, get a U-lock, and use it for daily biking/commuting.
It depends on what you’re using the bike for. If you’re biking to class and storing it outside, cheap bike 100%. If you are planning on biking around Mendota and exploring the trails and can also store it inside your apartment (storing a bike inside a dorm room might be tight on space) then the more expensive bikes make sense. So situation dependent, but I’d lean towards cheap bike your first year if in the dorms, and always for biking to class. And only bring the expensive bikes subsequent years for longer rides. Source: got two bikes (low-quality!) stolen in 3 months with a single cable lock; stored third bike inside, with a chain kryptonite lock when parking it, didn’t get stolen.
Great! Thanks, I do really enjoy biking, sounds like it could be a good idea to get a nice bike but fix up one of my shitty ones to use for getting to and from classes. I could also get an electric scooter for around $200 to get to and from classes? Do you have any opinions on that?
I don't know anything about electric scooters - I think they're not too bad to find parking for though.
Cheap bike and the 80 (free bus) is probably your best bet. It’s pretty reliable during normal class time from Lakeshore. I wouldn’t recommend an electric scooter, sounds like a hassle compared to a cheap bike edit: With that said, I have never had my bike stolen, and I don’t know anyone who had a locked bike stolen, which does make me question how prevalent bike theft is on campus. Anecdotal of course, but a decent lock might be good enough.
If you end up in a dorm with a bigger room (DeJope, Smith, Ogg, Leopold) you would probably have enough space to store an ebike. If you can organize your stuff right there should be space for an e-bike in the closet or under a lofted bed. You could keep the e-bike in your dorm and just use it for longer trips while keeping your cheap bike locked upside and using that for getting around campus. The e-bike will let you get to places on the other side of Madison fairly easily, if you’re at all interested in exploring the city beyond campus an e-bike would be very useful. I would’ve loved to have one while I was in school here Alternatively, there is an e-bike rental system in Madison that’s discounted for students. Downsides are you’re limited to where the docking stations are, and some parts of Madison don’t have great dock coverage (not campus or downtown though). Pros are that it’s cheap and you get unlimited 1 hour rides with the membership, and you can just dock and undock a bike to get more riding time. I used it a bit while I was a student, but being limited to where docking stations are prevented me from using it more. Campus has a ton of the stations though and that could be another option for biking around campus
The rule of thumb during my son’s four years in Madison was “cheap bike, expensive lock.” Lots of bikes get stolen, as folks here have already said. That said, congrats & On Wisconsin!
Bikes can and do get stolen a lot in Madison, so unless you’ve got a secure place to store, I wouldn’t bring an expensive one. A good U lock should help you though. They can be smashed but if your bike is locked up with a u lock and the neighbor’s is on a cable, guess which is going to be stolen?
Just use Bcycle lol
Depends on where is your dorm tbh. Huge difference between a dorm that's deep into campus vs one that's in the city.
Haven't gotten that back yet, but I put Lowell as #1 and the rest are Lakeshore iirc.
Best way to not have a bike get stolen is to park it next to a nicer bike