September Updates

Hi friends! As usual, we have some fun updates for you this month, including:

1. 2025 Report (our impact so far)
2. Visit from Chicagoans Who Bike
3. New Bike Alert: Benno RemiDemi
4. Reminder: Booking at our Brackett Park location
5. October bookings now open (get your last rentals in before our winter hibernation!)
6. Events and Ways to Support the MCBL

1. 2025 Report (our impact so far)

Thank you to everyone who completed our member and community surveys last month! And special congrats to those of you who won MCBL merch. We’re excited to share our 2025 report on our impact so far. Some highlights: we’ve onboarded 75 members who have ridden our library bikes 3,425 miles so far! In total, our members have taken about 580 trips.

2. Visit from Chicagoans Who Bike

This last week Laura got a chance to meet up with Viktor from Chicagoans Who Bike to share more information about our program. Check out the video below:

3. New bike alert: Benno Remi Demi

Thanks to an incredibly generous Minneapolis resident, we have a new bike in the fleet: a Benno RemiDemi! This bike is a class 1 and a true joy to ride! You can read more about more of its features on Benno’s website.

Due to repair budget, storage and volunteer capacity constraints, this bike will not be available to borrow until we reopen in the 2026 season… unless we get a surprise influx of donations to help us cover it all! (Donate here)

4. Reminder: Booking at our Brackett Park Location

As you may remember from our previous updates, we have officially expanded into a second location near Brackett Park! That location is currently hosting our Lectric Trike AND our Xtracycle Swoop.

Due to scheduling logistics for our Brackett Park librarian, these bikes are not bookable on the site BUT we can arrange for custom check out/check in times for October.

If you’re interested in borrowing the Lectric Trike or Xtracycle Swoop, please reach out to us so we can get you on the wait list. The Xtracycle is only available to members (those who’ve completed orientation). The Lectric Trike is available to anyone – you do not have to have completed orientation as we offer 1:1 orientations for anyone looking to borrow this specific bike (to ensure accessibility for those who can benefit from it). Please note: These bikes need to be picked up/dropped off at Brackett Park, not Lyndale.

5. October bookings now open (get your last rentals in before our winter hibernation!)

October bookings are now open and anyone is welcome to put in a request (including those who’ve already borrowed from the library). We’ll be putting the library into hibernation mode at the end of October (or earlier, if winter hits) to allow our volunteer team some time to focus on grant applications and planning for next year. If there’s a bike you’ve been wanting to try, get your booking in ASAP!

As a reminder, bike pick up is at 1pm on Saturdays and drop off is between 6-7pm on Thursdays. We can be flexible with drop off on Thursdays, but please aim to book a bike for a week where you can make the pick up time at 1pm on Saturdays. This helps ensure we don’t overwhelm our volunteers with lots of custom pick up/drop off times. If you’re able, please also charge the battery before returning the bike. This helps decrease the logistics for our volunteers between rentals.

We will not be offering any orientations for the remainder of this year (with the exception of 1:1 orientations for those who borrow the Lectric Trike), but the best way to stay up to date on future orientations is to subscribe to this mailing list. We always share our updates here first, so you’ll be first to know when we relaunch in the spring.

6. Events and Ways to Support the MCBL

We had a blast attending BikeMN‘s Loons Loop and Twin Cities Bike Tour this past weekend! We’ll also be attending the following events:

• Gillette Children’s Adaptive Recreation Expo: Saturday, September 27th in St. Paul
• Week Without Driving event: Monday, September 29th in Rochester
• AARP E Bike Workshop: Saturday, October 4th at the Hopkins Depot

Thank you to everyone who has supported our program through one-time or recurring donations, purchasing merch, spreading the word to your friends/family/neighbors/others, and by participating as a member and sharing your experiences/ideas/feedback with us.

If you have ideas/suggestions for us or want to join our small volunteer team, please reach out via the contact page on our website!