A recent call to the Lab raised a question about the Lab shuttle bike racks: who built them?

A Berkeley resident recently noticed the bike rack on the back of a Lab shuttle and called the Lab to ask where he could buy one since he could use one for his business. The answer: we didn’t buy them; we built them. But who did the fabrication?

Looking into the Lab’s electronic archives, the newsletter Magnet had an article in 1973 about Lynn Stevenson, who was in Physics, designing the rack, or as it was called, the bicycle tree. But there was no mention of fabrication. 

“Using the shuttle bike racks makes it possible to get your bike up the hill without having to break a sweat,” said Andrew Tritt, Data Engineer, Computing Sciences. “I also like the fact that by using the bike rack, I can get my bike up the hill without having to ride next to cars.”

To round out Lab history, if you know more about how the shuttle bike racks were designed and fabricated, contact commute@lbl.gov. We would love to talk with you.

If you are considering trying out the bike racks, watch the video to learn the safe steps to load and unload a bike. For those of you riding e-bikes, most e-bikes will also fit into the shuttle front bike racks. 

Resources:

Watch the shuttle bike rack video

Read the bike rack instructions

Read the original Magnet article