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A weekly show from the folks at East Lansing Info breaking down all the news and happenings in East Lansing, Michigan.
Welcome to this week's episode of East Lansing Insider. I'm East Lansing Info's deputy editor, Anna Liz Nichols. And today, I'm joined by Tim Potter, Michigan State University's sustainable transportation manager and manager of the MSU Bikes Service Center, which is celebrating its twentieth year of operation on MSU campus. What started as a small volunteer run project in the early two thousands fixing and loaning out bikes has grown into a full blown university resource. It supports students, faculty, and the broader community helping to make biking more accessible.
Anna Liz Nichols:In this week's episode, we're talking to Tim about how the bike center has evolved, the role it plays in campus life today, and how something as simple as riding a bike or helping with a repair can have a lasting impact on community and sustainability. Tim, I know that you were, you know, involved in in the bike center before it was the bike center when it was a volunteer project. I was wondering how have things changed since, you know, 2003 when it was the volunteer program versus 2006 when it became the bike center. And even now in 2026, now that it's gone two decades Yeah. Even longer if you include the the volunteer portion.
Anna Liz Nichols:How have things evolved? What do things look like today?
Tim Potter:Well, from '03 well, the first spring and summer, we were actually working outdoors. We we were under a kind of an overhang on at a facility that was owned by our by what is known as IPF. They had a big storage building, and it had this kind of long overhang. And so we we were doing our work under this overhang. We had a little bit of coverage from the from the wind and rain, but not a whole lot.
Tim Potter:And so by that fall, we we were able to get some indoor space where there was heating and electrical and access to a restroom and stuff like that. So the very beginning, it was very spartan in the sense that we didn't have hardly anything. And we brought our own tool the volunteers, we brought our own tools, we brought parts and things, and we had just one little cabinet that we could keep some of those items in in between coming. You know, we we would show up in, like, maybe once a week and wrench on bikes together as volunteers. So after that fall when we got the indoor space, which we still oversee, MSU Bikes still has that as a as a workshop over in the basement of Dem Hall or Demonstration Hall.
Tim Potter:Once we were able to get inside, then we were able to build out a proper workshop too, actually. We had two benches with two stands and two sets of tools. We we partnered with the MSU Cycling Club at the time, and they helped build things out and helped us construct things. And so that was a really good partnership that worked really well for the for the club and for the the volunteers. And so for three years, we just operated out of this space that was down big flight of stairs.
Tim Potter:So it was very inconvenient and not terribly safe to wheel bikes up and down these 15 steps down into the basement of Tim Hall, but it was much, much better than what we had out in the dirt under an overhang. So then, you know, we finally were able to get this above ground space thanks to the efforts of a faculty person at one in particular, Diana Tweedy. She's an East Lansing resident and retired faculty of professor emeritus of the packaging department or college. And she put together and wrote a recommendation that went to the vice president of finance and operations, doctor post Fred Posten, that she really thought that the university could really needed a proper bike shop above ground that would be easier to get to for everybody. And and so doctor Posten authorized it, and here we are, you know, just twenty years now.
Anna Liz Nichols:You know, twenty years is a long time to be dedicated to being the bike guy.
Tim Potter:Yeah.
Anna Liz Nichols:Where does the passion for for bicycling come from?
Tim Potter:Well, you know, I started biking as a little kid like most of us, and it just I lived out on and still do live out on the East Side Of Okemos where it's pretty rural, and it just really opened up my my world so that I could it allowed me to to go visit my friends who lived a mile or two away. I I could explore the woods and other roads, you know, just as a little kid, my parents back then, they weren't too concerned. And so I I would it just gave me so much freedom that it it it really, started, I guess, the passion for me when I as a little kid. And then as I grew older, I started using it wasn't long before you know, I was starting to use my bike for work. When I got my first paper out when I was 12, 13, I I was using, a bicycle to help deliver papers, you know, just the baskets and bags over my shoulders.
Tim Potter:And and then one of my paper route customers was in his driveway working on a bike, and he's he's a neighbor of mine. He sadly passed away a while ago, but his family still lives next door. And and so he was out working on an old bike in his driveway, and I just it just caught my imagination and my attention. And and ever since then, I really started getting interested in working on my own bikes and did since I was 12 or 13. And and and and then later in high school, my my best friend and I actually came to MSU to buy a bunch of bikes at at auction, which MSU surplus used to be known as MSU salvage.
Tim Potter:And they used to do a big bike auction once or twice a year. And we bought a 100 bikes at one of those auctions. How we got them home, I don't know, but we bought a 100 bikes for $500 and got them all to my parents' house, jammed the basement full of them. And then we also bought out the tools and small parts and whatnot from a local shop that was getting out of the bike business. So we had all the tools, small parts, and a 100 bikes to fix up.
Tim Potter:And so I started what I still do today, you know, fixing up abandoned or old bikes and selling them. So we did that, and then we both went on to work for local bike shop together, and then we moved went on to work for a different, bigger local bike shop. And so that was through my early years, and then I ended up going to Japan. And me and my wife through bicycling, her family was all tied to had her brother and father were really high level bike professional bike racers along with her a bunch of her cousins and uncles. So bicycling connected me with my wife and as well, and and I've done guided bike tours.
Tim Potter:Actually, my best friend and I went up to Mackinac Island and worked at one of the bike rental places on the island. So I also got an early exposure to working at a bike rental operation when I was 18. So the bike rental business is also fairly well well known to to my brain as well as the bike repairs. So, yeah, bike bicycling has been a big, big part of my life, and I always bike to work. Even when I wasn't working in the bike world, I was biking to work for my transportation when I had other jobs and other fields.
Anna Liz Nichols:Who comes to the MSU bike shop? What are the demographics, and what are they coming for? Is it mostly repairs? What does the day to day look like, and what does that look like, you know, year after year?
Tim Potter:Demographics. I haven't really analyzed our demographics as much as I can tell you, though, that probably a three quarters or a large majority of our customers are international students, faculty, and staff. And I think that's because in their growing up in in in most countries outside of The US, they look at bicycling as just kind of the way that they get around. And when they get here, oftentimes, they tell us that we're, like, the first place that they are visiting to as they go around and get set up for life here in Michigan State. And so a lot of times, they look at it as just, I need a bike, you know, I need a bank account, I need a bike, I need an apartment.
Tim Potter:It's it's one of the four or fundamental things that they need with for life. And so that's one demographic that's always been very important for us are the our international customers. And I'm bilingual. I speak Japanese. My wife's Japanese.
Tim Potter:And so that's I also we've had a lot of of our staff who've been bilingual, trilingual. One of our Chinese students just graduated and left just yesterday. It was his last day. We have another Taiwanese American young lady who works for us, Gloria. She has also grew up in Bolivia, so she's she speaks Taiwanese.
Tim Potter:I think they speak Portuguese, and she speaks very good English. Like, you wouldn't even know that she was trilingual. It's just natural American English. And we've had others who speak other other languages as well over the years. So we we we try to cater to our international customers as well.
Tim Potter:But our day to day, you know, we're we're here for any bike shop. The the probably the most common thing that we do are flat tire repairs. Flat tires are the most common thing that any bicyclist will have, you know, the most common problem. And so we'll do twenty, thirty a day when we're busy. A lot of flat tires.
Tim Potter:So we actually have a little sign over our workshop that says flats are us. It was just kind of a joke. But, yeah, flat flat tire repairs, very, very common. Our so our repair services are maybe the where the most business, so this week, comes from. The other really big thing that probably buys for first or second are rental bikes.
Anna Liz Nichols:So, Tim, after twenty years of of the MSU Bike Center, what's next for the center? What's next for you?
Tim Potter:For the center, I'm not really sure totally. I mean, I hope that it continues to follow the same mission, helping people discover the joy of the bicycling. We added on campus and beyond, kinda like the superhero parts of mission. Yeah. I I'm hoping that it will continue to do just that for another twenty years or more.
Tim Potter:So, you know, I think that we've Okay. Proven that if there's a lot of demand for our services throughout the year and and a lot of faculty and staff and students rely on us. So I I think it's we may not have as much of a fan base as the ice cream store, which is not too far from us, but we've become a pretty well known service for the university, which I think, you know, we'll have a a bunch more years of in its future. And who is going to lead it from here on out is gonna be decided probably within a week. They they went through the interviews just this past Monday, and the the HR department is still going through their their decision making on on on who's gonna have that that
Anna Liz Nichols:You're leaving, Tim?
Tim Potter:And what's that?
Anna Liz Nichols:You're leaving?
Tim Potter:I am. Yes. A couple months, retiring early July. Yes.
Anna Liz Nichols:Oh, gosh. What's next for you?
Tim Potter:So what's next for me? So yeah. I mean, with last year, I had twenty five years in with the MSU. I had a another job on campus prior to the bike center. And I turned the age 62 last summer that allowed me to retire both either in years of service or my age, and so I checked two boxes.
Tim Potter:So it started me thinking. And so I after almost a year of thinking about it, I finally decided to pull the trigger and and announce and make the decision to retire. So I really would just like to in my remaining healthy years, I wanna be able to enjoy some some of the bicycling and more bike adventures like I've helped so many others over the past twenty years. So I'm planning to do a lot more bike adventures where I don't have to worry about getting home and using up all my vacation time. You know, my wife and I have also gone back to Japan every fall for the last few years, and she's been going back because her mother's and family's all there.
Tim Potter:Her mother's getting older, and she's been going back twice a year. And so I'm I'm looking forward to joining her at least twice a year to go back to Japan to visit family and friends. So in order to do that, I'm hoping to start some bike tours. I've I've I've led couple bike tours in Japan, guided tours for small groups of people, and that's I I plan to do that to help kinda pay for airfare and or expenses to go to Japan more often. So if you're at all interested in going on a bike tour in Japan, it's they're gonna be very small groups, like four to six people.
Tim Potter:And I will be the guide, interpreter, the mechanic, which I've done before, and it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that kind of work. So I'm also thinking of doing more volunteering with we have several different nonprofit bike organizations in the Lansing area, so I plan on helping them more than I've done in the past since I've been working here.
Anna Liz Nichols:What would you consider the legacy of the MSU Bikes Service Center? How has it impacted sustainability on campus and and the broader community and also maybe even its role in community building?
Tim Potter:Wow. That kinda stretches my mind. The legacy of you know? I mean, I would like to think that we've created hundreds of students who have continued to bike, you know, for their own transportation as they go out into the world. And I I try to ask them and encourage them when, like, our renters are bringing bikes back.
Tim Potter:We've got maybe a 100 renters that are bringing their bikes back this week, and I I try to engage with them and say, are you gonna be graduating or you're you're coming back in the fall? Are you gonna be renting again? And try to have a little conversation with them and and sometimes they'll say, oh, I'm not gonna ride a bike again. I'm like, oh, no. You know?
Tim Potter:So I I have a little opportunity to encourage them like, oh, you know, you should continue to bike. You know, if you live in a urban area, it's such a great way to get around. You know, great for your health and save money and so much more fun than being trapped in a car. So, you know, I'm hoping that a a bunch of our customers have gone on and realize, you know, that riding a decent bike that's maintained can actually make it more fun than riding a bike that's not maintained and is not a quality bike, you know, that can, I think, turn people off? So I'm hoping that we turned a lot of people on to to biking for their regular transportation.
Tim Potter:So I hope that's one legacy with lots of people out there. I'd I'd also hope that MSU, you know, we became a a bike friendly university along the way. We we started up we, being MSU Bikes, helped start up community bike bike party, which became the Lansing bike party, but it started at MSU about seventeen years ago in response to a outrageous state news student editorial.
Anna Liz Nichols:I'm laughing because it was me. I'm laughing because I know about this.
Tim Potter:You know about the case. Really?
Anna Liz Nichols:For for listener oh, it's prolific. For listeners, do you wanna you wanna let the listeners know what happened?
Tim Potter:Yeah. So in the 2009, there was a student editorial writer for the state news that wrote this outrageous column where he basically said, you bikers who slow me down, I'm gonna run you over. Get the hell out of my way unless you're unless you're as fast as Lance Armstrong. Like, what? And he went on and on.
Tim Potter:And then he repeated his threat at the end of his column just in case we missed it at the beginning of the column. And he would run us over, and then he even gave gave the make, model, and color of his car. He was not very bright. Oh, no. Within twenty four hours, he had the hate mail coming from all over the country from bicyclists saying, what?
Tim Potter:Are you tight? Like, you're gonna run us over. You're gonna kill us if we slow you down. So that Friday so that came out on a Wednesday. And that Friday, a 100
Anna Liz Nichols:remember it well?
Tim Potter:Yeah. So that that Friday, we got together Beaumont Tower,
Anna Liz Nichols:and there
Tim Potter:were a 100 of us. And we had banners and signs and and, you know, it was a big deal. And we rolled over to the MSU Police Station. Were you a part of this?
Anna Liz Nichols:No. I that's why I was like, I I am a state news alum,
Tim Potter:but it's one
Anna Liz Nichols:that me.
Tim Potter:You're an alum of the State News. Okay.
Anna Liz Nichols:I've got my hands up. It wasn't me.
Tim Potter:I I kind of I've well, anyway
Anna Liz Nichols:They might not they might not know about this over at the State News now. This is this is a little
Tim Potter:All of them is still in their archives. You can find it.
Anna Liz Nichols:Tell them.
Tim Potter:Oh, I did. I couldn't believe it that they didn't even they didn't retract. Well, let me get to that. So we rolled over to the MSU Police, and one of us went in there, I think it was me, and I I said, can you please come out and assure us, you know, that we have the right to ride in the road and that we don't have to be as fast as Lawrence Armstrong to not get run over. And no none of nobody came out from the police department to reassure us.
Tim Potter:So then we decided, okay. What do we do next? Well so we rolled over to the state news, and a 100 of us were right in front of the state news and just kinda jammed up Grand River Avenue. And and nobody from the state news came out to apologize or retract or anything. So we're like, okay.
Tim Potter:Well, I guess we'll just ride around. And so we rode down Grand River, you know, ringing our bells and just kinda making a show of it. And we didn't completely block traffic on Grand River, but it was kinda like a critical mass, but just not a full critical mass like used to happen. But then we we just said, okay. We're gonna just keep riding every Friday.
Tim Potter:And just to let people know that bikes belong and we're we have the legal right to ride in the road. And and so every Friday for, you know, when it's nice out, generally above 40 degrees and decent weather, we've been riding every Friday ever since April 2009. And it morphed into what is now known as the Lansing bike party. So that's become a pretty big community. We got over 3,000 members.
Tim Potter:Unfortunately, we only get about twenty, thirty riders, you know, in a on a Friday ride, but it's been really fun to introduce a lot of people to the the Lansing community. We ride all over the area, and it's it's just for fun. And, that's, I think, quite a nice legacy I'll continue to be involved in.
Anna Liz Nichols:What I'm hearing is the state news and student journalism is is a a big catalyst to the the the bike culture in the Greater Lansing community.
Tim Potter:Yes. It became yes. So the guy
Anna Liz Nichols:you're like, yes.
Tim Potter:So one of the things that I may I don't know. I've been doing for almost as many years as this job. I've been the webmaster for the ride of silence, which is an event that comes in February, the May. So it's coming up May 20, and it's a global event that happens all over the world. So all over the world, we have events, and up we've had some years three three hundred to 400 events all over the world.
Tim Potter:And we ride in honor and to remember bicyclists who've been seriously injured or killed. And so it's a it's a very important thing to me personally because I ride on the streets, and I'm very concerned about being hit and killed or seriously injured myself, but also for the for others. So I've been their webmaster and running their website for close to twenty years, And that's something that I feel strongly about and that I spend a lot of my personal time working on throughout the year because I also handle all of the submissions of from family and loved ones of those who've been hit and killed to put them in our memorial database. So I interact with these people, family and friends of those who've been hit and killed. And so it's a very sobering job that I have to do, and it reminds me of of, you know, my own mortality.
Tim Potter:And and so it's something that I'll probably continue to be involved with. But I also am the organizer here for the local Lansing East Lansing, or we call it the greater Lansing ride of silence. We've been hosting it here at MSU for, I think, this is our eighteenth year. The whole thing is I think we're in our twenty third or twenty fourth year since it started actually in 2003 in down in Dallas, Texas.
Anna Liz Nichols:Again, Tim, thank you so much for coming on. I've so appreciated this conversation, and I wish you luck in retirement.
Tim Potter:Thank so much. It's been a pleasure. And as I like to say these days, go green, go bikes.
Anna Liz Nichols:We'll miss you.
Tim Potter:Yeah. Well, you should come into the shop and get your flat tire fixed. Oh, I can help you. You say you you don't ride a bike, or you don't know how to ride bike?
Anna Liz Nichols:Don't know how to ride a bike.
Tim Potter:I have taught one of the things I've done here just after hours, just as a community service, I guess, is to teach people how to ride bikes. And so I went we've had a lot quite a few women from The Middle East who are not allowed to ride bikes by their laws, local, or whatever. Mhmm. So they they come here and they see everybody riding bikes, and and they wanna learn how to ride. So I've taught quite a few spouses, I guess, of other you know, people who are here studying or researchers.
Tim Potter:And then I've even taught a woman in her eighties. She had she came in wanting to get a bike because she wanted to ride go for rides with her friends. Mhmm. So, you know, I pulled out a bike. I'm like, okay.
Tim Potter:This this looks like it'll fit you. And, you know, we got her down on the flat ground. I'm like, okay. Here. You can go for a little test ride.
Tim Potter:And and she had completely forgotten how to ride, and so she was all, like, unsure of herself and wobbly. And so I said, you know, I could help you, like, after hours. And so we scheduled the time, and I spent like, within a half an hour, I got her riding again. So I can I'm I'm sure I could teach you how to ride.
Anna Liz Nichols:That's too fabulous. Well, I hope I would be a good student.
Tim Potter:Yeah. We we have a little grassy hill behind our shop that I use. We'll go up and down that a bunch of times on a balance bike. You you've heard of Striders for little kids?
Anna Liz Nichols:I've seen them. Toddlers used them.
Tim Potter:Yeah. Without pedals. So, basically, you you can make an this is what I'll do. I I take one of our rental bikes for adults, and I take the pedals off, and I basically make a balanced bike for an adult out of a an adult bike. Lower the seat so you can touch ground real easy, and then you just kinda walk along until you figure out your balance.
Tim Potter:And as soon as you figure out the balance, then we raise the seat, put the pedals on, and off you go.
Anna Liz Nichols:There would be many people in my life that would be very glad if I learned how to ride a bike.
Tim Potter:We're gonna do it. I got two months. You got two months, and I'll I'll I'll help you learn.
Anna Liz Nichols:We got this. Yeah. Well, thanks so much. I know I I've taken you away from a busy day, so I really appreciate your time. You're gonna be real sad when I come trying to learn how to ride a bike and realize that I can't.
Tim Potter:Well, nice to meet you, Anna.
Anna Liz Nichols:Nice to meet you too, Tim.