Borrowing and buying bikes on the campus

To start his company Cykl, Ewout Oonk simply placed eight refurbished bikes outside WUR buildings and the student accommodation provider Idealis. You can use your smart phone to buy bike rental credit, find out where the bikes are and rent one if you wish. The service is currently only available to people with a WUR account. This enables Cykl to verify your identity so you won’t have to pay a deposit.

All the bikes have a combination lock and a number. Simply key the number into the app and click ‘rent’, and you’ll be sent the code for the lock. The bikes cost €1 per half hour. The app will be tested throughout the summer period.

Second-hand city bikes

If you’d rather buy a bike, try Trade Frm in Campus Plaza. Trade Frm is a wholesaler with sales rights for bikes that have been abandoned in the Amsterdam bike depot. This is the place where illegally parked bikes are taken after they have been removed.

Every year, 70,000 bikes are removed in and around the city of Amsterdam, 30,000 of which are subsequently collected by their rightful owner. Until a year ago, the remaining 40,000 bikes were destroyed. Nowadays, they are sold to social workplaces or foreign dealers via Trade Frm. Some 60 percent of these ‘orphaned’ bikes from Amsterdam are sold in the Netherlands. The company RijwielNL has opened shops in Amsterdam and Vianen, but Wageningen is the first campus to open a shop.

€69

The plan is to open the shop in August, before the introduction period. A good bike costs €69; totally refurbished, technically sound and includes a 3-month guarantee on the moving parts. The shop also stocks more expensive models, sells accessories and spare parts, and has its own workshop for repairs.