What to do with unwanted bikes
What should I do with my bike when I graduate or move away? There are a number of places to donate an unwanted bike, and students are strongly encouraged to donate or sell their bikes. Please consider donating your used bicycle to the Campus Bike Center (51 E. Gregory Dr., Champaign) or the Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign (202 S. Broadway Ave., Room 24, Urbana). It only takes a few minutes to drop off your bike. No appointment is needed. All donations are tax-deductible. All donated bicycles will be refurbished or recycled properly with as much of the bike saved for reuse as possible.
You cannot leave your used bicycle on-campus. If you do, it will be considered abandoned and forfeited. Each year after graduation, the Parking Department collects hundreds of abandoned bicycles across campus. If the original owners cannot be identified or do not retrieve the bike, it is donated to The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign, a 501c(3) nonprofit.
Summer Bicycle Roundup
Every summer after graduation, Facilities & Services (F&S) tags all bicycles left on campus property with Orange tags that say, “Remove this tag by 6/30 or your bicycle will be removed.” Any bicycle that still has this tag after that date, is considered abandoned. University Parking cuts the lock and impounds the bicycle, thereafter.
F&S conducts the summer bicycle roundup to clear any clutter of bicycles on campus property and to accommodate new bicycle users in the fall semester. By the end of every spring semester, all students, faculty, and staff are notified by various methods that they must not leave their bicycles on campus property over the summer.
How to retrieve your impounded bicycle
A student/user must send an email to bike@illinois.edu with their bicycle information, including where they left the bicycle, make/model of the bicycle, color, and serial number (if possible). They also need to tell us if the bicycle was registered or not. If it was, we need to know the Registration sticker ID. We also want to have a picture of their bicycle, preferably when it was unlocked to show that it was owned by the user.
Once we have that information, we will look for the bicycle in the inventory. We will then schedule a time for the user to meet at the Round Barns to collect their bicycle.
If the bicycle was not registered, the student will be required to register it (https://bike.illinois.edu/register-your-bike/) before collecting their bicycle. Retrieving an impounded bicycle will require an active bike registration in accordance with the University Bicycle Ordinance. Starting September 1, 2023, there will be an official warning citation issued to those who want to reclaim their impounded bicycles.
Deadline to reclaim your bicycle: Friday, September 22, 2023! All unclaimed bicycles will be donated after that date.
Starting Fall 2024, there will be an associated fee for those who want to reclaim their bicycles:
- Registered bicycle users: $40
- Unregistered bicycle users: $50 ($40 impound fee and $10 bicycle registration fee)