A Bike Repair Station with a handy cradle, bike tools, and an air pump is a welcome sight for cyclists

Adding a Bike Repair Station as an amenity to any community is catching on across the county. Want to encourage more bicycle riders in your town? Want to create goodwill with cyclists by providing a handy place where they can maintain and fix their bicycles? Want to boost your bicycle infrastructure to make life easier for cyclists?

Here are 10 solid reasons to add a bike repair station to your location:

1. ENTICES MORE PEOPLE TO BIKE THAN DRIVE - seems like just about every town has traffic issues. More and more people today own a car. Families don't just own one car. Every family member has one. More and more cities are spending millions to add bike lanes and encourage people to use their bicycles to cut down on congestion and pollution. Adding a bike repair station every few miles throughout a city enhances that bicycle infrastructure. Same goes for colleges and universities. There is never enough parking, period. Add bike repair stations so students have a way to keep their bicycles in shape. That will help persuade them to ride rather than drive.

2. KEEPS CYCLISTS SAFE - a fully-equipped bike repair station comes with plenty of tools, an air pump, and a stand. Providing cyclists a way to repair and clean their bicycles can keep them safe from spills or breakdowns. An air pump can really come in handy late at night when a rider is faced with a deflated tire.

3. FACILITATES REGULAR MAINTENANCE - experts say a regular road bicycle should be cleaned of dirt and grit about every month or after 20 to 25 rides. Chains should be oiled regularly. Obviously, mountain and trail bikes need to be cleaned more often. By offering a fully-equipped bike repair station, you make it much easier for cyclists to perform this critical maintenance on chains, derailleurs, and other bike parts. Many times people might forget to clean their bikes before they hop on them, don't own a repair stand or all the right tools. Offering this service makes it much easier to keep their bikes in excellent shape.

4. MAKE IT EASIER TO INSPECT A BICYCLE - using the cradle in a bike stand allows cyclists to stand upright to get a close, in-depth look at their chain, derailleur, brake pads, pedals, tires, and cables. This is much, much easier than bending over to inspect a bike. Regular inspections extend the life of a bicycle and avoid accidents.

5. DELAYS PURCHASE OF A NEW BICYCLE AS TARIFFS BOOST PRICES -  keeping a bicycle maintained and in decent shape will let cyclists keep those bicycles longer. Bicycles are about to become much more expensive. With the new tariffs on goods from China taking place, new bicycles are about to escalate in price. That's because about 90% of bicycles in America are made in China. Even if the bikes are assembled in the US, most of those parts still come from China.

Cyclists can use these handy bike repair stations to keep their bicycles in working condition and operating safely

Bike repair station is a magnet for cyclists

6. HELPS CYCLISTS SAVE MONEY ON REPAIRS - with a bike repair station and its assortment of screwdrivers, hex wrenches, and other tools, some minor inspections, maintenance and repairs can be performed by cyclists themselves instead of paying the cost of going to a bike shop.

7. ATTRACTS BICYCLISTS TO YOUR BIKE LANES OR TRAILS - perhaps a town spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on building a bike lane or a long connected bike path throughout a city. Or maybe a park just spent a considerable amount of resources adding a new bike trail. City officials certainly want to see residents using these new amenities to justify the expense. One way to attract bicyclists and get the word out is to add a bike repair station as well. Cyclists will notice. That amenity will spread by word of mouth (and social media) throughout the community.

8. PROVIDES HANDY REPAIR AND TUNE-UP AREA NEAR ROUGH TRAILS - speaking of bike trails, adding a bike repair station near a rugged bike trail can be a blessing for avid trail riders. Their bikes take a beating. A bike repair station at the trailhead will be a welcome feature for people to make adjustments before they ride and possible repairs when they finish.

9. ATTRACTS BICYCLISTS TO A BUSINESS - want to instantly make your coffee shop, restaurant or other places of business a popular spot with cyclists? Add a bike repair station.  Also add a bike rack for businesses in front of your establishment. (What a better way to attract customers than to have them park near your front door). Promote the bike repair station on social media. Let bicyclists with a large following know about this amenity. They will get the word out. This free service will be appreciated by the cycling community. The numbers are there. Today, there are more people riding bicycles than ever. About 63 million Americans reported they have ridden a bicycle in the past 12 months. (However, every community is different so research first to see what type of bicycle activity you have in your town. If the bicycle infrastructure is not there and cycling is not safe, there may be fewer bicyclists).

10. APPEALS TO TENANTS - Millennials love to ride bicycles. Indoor bike rooms are becoming very popular amenities in new apartment complexes. And they are certainly much less expensive than building a gym or adding a pool. Add a bike repair station as an added feature. Tenants with bicycles will certainly appreciate this. These bicycle amenities could be just the factor that makes them choose one building over another.

Bicycling is big in America. For city officials, providing better bicycle infrastructure means less congestion, cleaner air and fewer expenditures on new roads and bridges. Most people would rather bicycle around town than drive, sit in traffic, find a parking spot and pay for parking and gas.

A bike repair station is one very noticeable spoke in the wheel of a bicycle-friendly community, business, apartment complex or college.

Note: The Park and Facilities Catalog, a national supplier of indoor and outdoor bike parking products since 2001, has a full selection of bike repair stations here.