Anyone at the University of Kansas who pursues mountain biking as a hobby, and especially those who ride at Clinton Lake, will tell you that biking on the trails around Lawrence causes serious wear and tear to any bike.

To help serious bikers, the Outdoor Pursuits program at the Student Recreation Fitness Center now offers a self-service bike shop downstairs in the outdoor rental division.

Every spring and fall, hundreds of students head out to trails with mountain bikes of every quality to enjoy the trails at Clinton Lake or along the Wakarusa River. But before and during every season, those same students spend maintenance money that they can save if they know how to perform repairs on their own.

The recreation center opened up its self-service bike repair shop this fall. The center equips all students who have a valid KUID with more than $2,000 in tools, vices and other equipment needed to repair any bike. There is a truing stand (used to mount wheels to check the alignment and balance of a wheel), a vice for inverting a bike to work on it and all combinations of wrenches and other tools one might use to perform common repairs.

Whether it’s a street model 10-speed or an advanced model made to endure the wear and tear caused by logs, ramps, rocks or braking while rolling downhill at break-neck speed, the repair shop offers bikers the opportunity to make repairs for free.

One catch is the shop offers no consultation. Students are provided with all the equipment, but the rest is up to the owner of the bike. Bike parts must be bought and brought in to the shop.

Katy Sharp, the outdoor pursuits program manager at the recreation center, said that the policy had to do with liability.

“We provide all the tools and equipment, but can’t give you any advice or help,” Sharp said. “This is to prevent us from being liable in the event of something going wrong.”

Nic Swindler, Prairie Village senior, said the importance of having a consultation depended on the severity of the damage being repaired.

“It’s pretty easy to get online and look up how to repair things when it’s not complicated and you know exactly what the problem is,” he said. “I just got online and found out how to mount a wheel and check to see if it’s spinning true in 15 minutes.

But Swindler said he could see both sides of the issue.

“If they offered consultation it could turn into a full-blown bike mechanic shop, repairing Huffy Schwinns and other bikes used for everyday purposes,” Swindler said. A lot of people use trails and don’t know how to make bike repairs, he said.

Swindler said that he had to make repairs to his bike every spring. Now some of those minor repairs can be free of charge.

Sharp said the center was open whenever the outdoor rental division was open, including Saturdays from noon to 2 p.m. and Sundays from 6:30 to 9 p.m. To use the center, students must take their bike and KUID to the loading docks in back of the recreation center and ring the doorbell.