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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Julia 3.5/7.5 mi on July 18, 2014 at 11:16am

There's one on the Lincoln Park campus at DePaul. It's on the south east corner of the quad, near the vertical bike parking spots.

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on July 18, 2014 at 11:41am

There's one at the WholeFoods on Kingsbury just below North Ave, too.  I would really like to see one or two along the lake.

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Permalink Reply by crista lopez on July 22, 2014 at 12:57am

The pump at that station doesn't work. I don't think it ever worked. I just go to the REI around the corner to fix flats.

Tricolor said:

There's one at the WholeFoods on Kingsbury just below North Ave, too.  I would really like to see one or two along the lake.

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Permalink Reply by Bikefreeek on July 22, 2014 at 10:24am

Pumps at FixIt stations don't work all too often.

The valve on most pumps these days work opposite of so many old pumps (e.g. the old red pump with the braided cloth hose) that many people are familiar with. What happens is people flip the lever up on new pumps, force onto the valve, and flip down to inflate. This opposite approach ruins the rubber gasket pretty quickly leaving the most important tool at the FixIt station useless.

Cold and exposure to rain/snow/elements is pretty hard on pumps as well. Water getting in them is not good. That combined with lots of use kills the air seal inside of the pump as well. It's best if FixIt stations are under shelter, but that's not always available (like in the above picture, or outside WTB/Ciclo Urbano)

What many designers fail to consider when designing products is that people will use them in all sorts of ways never imagined, and many of those ways will be wrong and damaging. So how to design for people who break your product in ways you haven't thought of? One way is to include regular scheduled maintenance. I'm not sure if this is considered by institutions purchasing and installing FixIt stations, or even offered by those who are selling them. The reason the pump on the FixIt station outside of WTB/Ciclo Urbano works is because of regular maintenance and replacement when necessary.

crista lopez said:

The pump at that station doesn't work. I don't think it ever worked. I just go to the REI around the corner to fix flats.

Tricolor said:

There's one at the WholeFoods on Kingsbury just below North Ave, too.  I would really like to see one or two along the lake.

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Permalink Reply by Jaik S. on July 22, 2014 at 1:02pm

So there's this one, and right across the street in the parking garage next to all of the bike parking is another one....see my photos for the other image.

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