Over the past six months or so I have been working on establishing a bicycle collective in Conway. The primary purpose of the collective is to recycle old bicycles. There are several things we want to do with the old bikes and one of the projects is to create a community bike share.

To get things started I created a prototype bike to show how the bikes will look and function. The basic idea is to reduce all of the bikes to single speeds, or internally geared hubs depending on the bike. Each bike will have the same color scheme: blue frame with an orange fork, and handlebars if they are not chrome. I also want to put a rack or basket on each bike but those cost money. The prototype bike was created to show off so it has mostly new parts that are clean and shiny. That said, the frame, fork, handlebars, stem, seat post, and barrings are all original. Not bad for a 20 year old huffy that has been sitting in the rain for at least a decade.

Since I am going to be the one riding this bike, I built it to suit my taste. There is no rear brake and the chain ring is a thigh blasting 52. The ratio is 87.7 and not suitable for most folks. The actual share bikes will be something in the ballpark of 65.

I still want to get some decals for the bike: a logo on the head tube, our group name “Conway Advocates for Bicycling” on the top tube, and a list of sharing rules to put on the down tube. If you know of a place where I can get a small quantity of three color vinyl decals for cheap, please let me know.

Rebuilding the bikes is a slow process at the moment. Each one has to be completely disassembled, sanded, painted, and put back together. The construction, deconstruction parts are easy, the paint takes the better part of a weekend because of drying times and such. Hopefully we will have a few ready in the coming months.