The bike fleet at the UREC Student Recreation Complex will be rejuvenated if Student Government passes legislation to fund additional bikes and repair old ones.SG President Stuart Watkins said SG purchased the original 20 bikes four years ago, but they were not maintained.LSU University Recreation approached SG and said it was running out of bikes to offer students, he said.”The initial bike fleet was purchased, and they didn’t buy the right bikes,” Watkins said. “They deteriorated faster than other brands.”Watkins said he and SG Vice President Martina Scheuermann are teaming with Senate members to get the money.Tiffany Compagno, Committee on Finance chair, said legislation will hopefully move along in the next few weeks.Compagno said she expects the Senate to pass the legislation, and the bill already specifies what the money will pay for. 
The current legislation will allocate $5,000 to purchase 15 bikes, 20 bike locks, 20 bike tubes, 20 helmets and replacement parts for the old bikes.Instead of buying more of the current bikes, the new request asks for single-speed hybrid bikes that contain aspects of mountain bikes. These aspects make the selected model “an ideal bike for commuting in and around campus,” according to LSU University Recreation’s request.The request also said LSU University Recreation is committed to the University’s green initiative and will recycle the damaged bikes and transform them into single-speed bikes.Melissa Longino, LSU UREC associate director of recreation services, said University Recreation made plans of which bikes are preferred.  “We are down to a very limited bike fleet,” Longino said. Students can rent a bike for free for the first two hours, and rates  increase to $5 for a half day and $10 for a full day for students, she said. Students rented the bikes 1,100 times during the spring 2009 semester and 608 times during the fall 2009 semester. The drop in usage during the fall was because only four good bikes were available, Longino said. “Students are always very eager to use the bikes with all the development around the University lakes,” Watkins said. “Because of LSU’s location around such great recreational areas, it gives us more of a reason to invest.”Watkins said 80 percent of University students utilize the UREC Student Recreation Complex, and the bike fleet is attractive to students who don’t want to go inside to work out. —–Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]