Thinking about taking a bike to uni?
Posted by David | Filed under University Life
If so, its a great idea for getting around places quicker! There are a few things to consider before taking your bike though.
Storage
You will need to make sure that there is a safe place to store your bike both at university itself and in your hall or flat or house. While at university it will hopefully be easy, with many bike storage areas, it may be more of a problem in halls or private accomodation. Many halls have special bike storage sheds which you may have to pay extra for to use, they may also not permit you to store a bike in your room itself.
Some landlords and letting agencies also write clauses in their contracts forbidding the storage of bikes within the home. If you have to store your bike outside or in a shed make sure its secure and hopefully out of sight. I would seriously advise against storing a bike outside open to the elements, unless you fancy watching the process of rusting occurring over your time at uni!
Safety
A helmet is always a must on a bike, especially if you are going to be riding in a busy city or on busy roads. Secondly if you are going to be coming home late at night on your bike then a good set of bike lights is a must as is a reflective jacket for yourself.
Preventing your bike getting stolen
Its one thing being able to store your bike, but you also need to secure it. While the university campus has lots of storage they are also the most likely place your bike is going to get stolen if you don’t lock it up properly! The proper way to lock your bike up is to do so through the bike chain/frame and wheel and the solid ground post you are supporting the bike against. This makes it hard for anyone to steal part of your bike. For added security a second lock should go around the front tyre to prevent that from being stolen too!
If your bike has an Easy-Lock type system, then you will also need to lock your saddle down or simply take it with you when you leave your bike.
When choosing a lock or locks for your bike do not compromise on price! A cheap puny looking lock is probably not worth the money it costs. D-locks are the best kind of lock as they are the most difficult to remove and are not possible to remove casually with bolt cutters.
A simple way of reducing the chances of your bike being stolen is to park it with lots of other bikes, and in an area that is busy, this will hopefully reduce the chances of anyone having the time to steal your bike without being noticed by someone.
Also don’t take your new £2000 carbon fibre road bike down, its practically asking for it to be stolen, if your going to ride regularly to uni then a £200 bike tops is what you want, the older the better the less appealing to steal the better!
Minimising problems if it does get stolen
A simple way to try and reclaim your bike if it is stolen is to get it tagged, you can do this yourself with a kit from the website Immobilise, they will send you a kit which once placed on the bike is impossible near enough to remove. Then if your bike is stolen once you report it through the Immobilise site if your bike is found abandoned then there is a higher chance it will be able to be returned to you.
Insurance is also a good thing to get, unfortunately bike insurance tends to be expensive, but if you can find a reasonable deal with a reasonable excess then it can save you a small fortune.
Cycling is a great way to get exercise and especially when your busy can be a good way to fit it in to a busy schedule, and as a bonus it gets you home much quicker!
Tags: biking to uni, riding a bike to uni, riding to uni, should i take my bike to uni, thinking of taking bicycle to uni, what do i need to take my bike to uni
Student Discounts & Student Discount Cards – An Update for 2010
Posted by David | Filed under Student Saving Tips, University Life
Since my previous article on student discounts some two years ago, there have been a significant number of changes on the high street, some of the shops I mentioned then simply don’t exist any more, while there are a few new players to the student discount market.
Still offering Student discount with the simple production of an NUS card are Staples (10%) and Schuh (10%). Many companies now though require the addition of a second “student” card which you have to pay a certain amount of money for.
NUS Extra
NUS Extra is a £10 card you pay for and pick up from your students union. It offers a wide range of discounts such as a 5% discount from online retailer Amazon.co.uk, as well as discounts as JJB Sport (10 %), Superdrug (10 %). There are also various offers from the likes of McDonalds, Game and Comet. To make the NUS extra card worth its while you would have to spend £200 at Amazon a year or £100 at JJB Sport or Superdrug or a combination of all three… bare this in mind before purchasing! A long list of other places that accept NUS Extra can be found on their website which is fairly clear and easy to follow.
Student Discounts Card
studentdiscounts.co.uk
Cheaper than the NUS Extra card, but searching their website I cannot find what high street stores they offer discounts in. They do seem to have a cashback scheme, but I would still recommend the use of Quidco itself as it has a much larger range of cashback offers and while they also charge a yearly £5 they take this money from your cashback earnings instead. According to the NatWest website the discounts offered by this company are Game.co.uk, STA Travel (15 % cashback), 3 mobile and New Look (7.5 % cashback).
If anyone working for the company Student Discount Card would like to add what high street shops your student discount card works in, in addition to those of the standard NUS card please feel free to email me or leave them in the comment box below and I shall add them.
Student Beans
Student beans is a free website offering a wide range of offers for students and just other general money saving vouchers, such as for popular restaurants and cinema tickets. Its a very good and worthwhile site and unlike the card schemes does not require any cash in advance making it probably the best form of student discount around after the nifty NUS card itself! One of their best offers at the moment is a two for one voucher at Cineworld, saving you up to £5 a time at the cinema!
Apple Education Store
Worth noting that if you login via your campus computer to Apple’s education store you are already entitled to a significant discount on your Mac (10-12%) with an NUS Extra card this goes up to 15% discount. Likely when buying a Mac the NUS Extra card at £10 would pay for itself with one purchase due to the cost of a MacBook or iMac.
Tags: Apple Education Store, NUS Extra, Student Beans, Student Discount, Student Discount Cards
5 Myths about Uni
Posted by David | Filed under University Life
As it gets nearer and nearer the start of term, I thought I’d compile a list of 10 myths about university, which simply aren’t true.
- Everyone has sex in Freshers week – This simply isn’t true, while there are many people that do, they is still a large majority of people that do not. Don’t feel you need to have sex and certainly try not to go out every night in Fresher’s week with the aim of having sex at the end of it.
- You can only have fun if you get drunk and enjoy nightclubs. Again not true, most university have absolutely loads of clubs, some more wild and drunken than others, go along to the sports and activities fair and chose a few that might be right for you.
- I have multiple choice exams in my first year, they’ll be easy right? Wrong! Multiple choice and university is substantially harder than any multiple choice you have face before! Be warned!
- I will be mega stressed at uni, too much work and no time to make friends! You will have loads of time to make friends, uni doesn’t take up too much of the day, and as long as you keep on top of the work load your should be able to get a fair number of days a week free from uni work.
- I’m going to miss my boyfriend/girlfriend and family too much! You may within the first week but give it time and you will find that you are able to cope with living away from your family and friends back home. I would recommend strongly not bringing boyfriends/girlfriends or friends from home with you in Fresher’s week as you need to make new friends within your halls or house, and Freshers’ week is when everyone is trying to make friends, so its a much easier time to try than at any other time in the year!
If you have heard any other myths, please share them below and any good ones I’ll add up to this list!
Tags: myths about uni