We support everyone who pedals!
RPI Cycling loves riding for recreation, but as college students, commuting via biking is one of the best and fastest options we have. No need to spend money on gas, walk across Troy, or worry about the campus transit being on time. This page also has some general information about bikes & campus.
Why Commute by Bike?
East Athletic Campus Village (ECAV), City Station, Polytechnic apartments, and Blitman has over half of on campus upperclassman housing (not to mention all the off campus housing too), but are relatively far from campus and boasts a big hill climbing in and out of campus if you don’t want to wait for the inconsistent shuttles.
If you live just out of 10 minutes walking distance, and you think that parking on campus is a nightmare, bike commuting is one of the best ways to get to and from classes and your apartment or dorm! RPI Cycling tries to make this as easy as possible with bike shop hours to fix your bike, weekly meetings with open discussion on biking, maps, and even casual bike rides if you want to ride your bike for fun and not just for transportation.
Commuting Support
We have bike shop hours every Thursday 7-9pm in the ’87 Gym Bike room during the Fall semester and by request in the Spring Semester. We have the tools and the know how to true wheels, replace tubes, de-rust chains and metal components, and pump up tires. Anything else is just a YouTube video away, and more than likely we still have the tools to do it.
Campus & Cycling
Map of Bike Racks on Main Campus
List of RPI Dorms with Indoor Bike Racks
- Barton (Freshman)
- Bray (Freshman)
- BARH (Freshman)
- Cary (Freshman)
- Hall (Freshman)
- Warren (Freshman)
- Blitman (Sophomore)
- Brykwyck (Sophomore)
- Quadrangle (Sohomore)
- City Station (Junior, Senior)
Any apartment-style (RHAPs, Stackwyck) dorm should have enough room for you to store your bikes. RHAPs includes a wide entry hallway that many members use to store bikes with easy in and out access.
Most dorms on Freshmen Hill have a bike rack in front of them.
In a pinch, we will allow members to store their bikes in our ’87 gym bike room. However, ’87 gym hours are not the best for commuting or getting your bike on the weekends.
How to Lock your Bike
Make sure that your FRAME (not your wheels, not your seat post, not your handlebars, and to be extra safe not your fork) is locked to whatever you are locking it to. In the pictures the bike is locked from the rear triangle. With most locks, you can also secure one wheel as well (first picture). If you have two cables, or a U-Lock and cable (which is the safest lock system), you can wrap the cable around the front wheel (seen in both pictures). Even if you do not have a U-Lock the most important thing is making sure the frame is secure, you can get wheels for cheaper than a frame.
Although any good lock deters bike theft and makes it hard, if not impossible, for a thief to steal, it does happen on campus (and almost every college campus for that matter). If you happen to have a bike stolen, keep in mind that the camera systems deletes unrequested footage in 24 hours.