Gays Mills Bike Share
Gays Mills Bike Share
If you are here on this site it's no secret we really enjoy building bikes. We were trying to find a way we could use this to do some good and got the idea to do a bike share here in our home village of Gays Mills WI. Gays Mills has a community imrovement board called Connect Communities, which seeks opportunities to make the community a better place for everyone. This was a natural fit as a host for the bike share program. Everyone's involvement on the board has been very supportive and fantastic since we started. Our goal is to have at least 4 bikes being used by Spring 2025. Rather than just raise a bunch of money and buy new bikes, We wanted to resurrect discarded bikes that would otherwise be thrown out. This makes the bike share not only cheaper to start, it also helps keep these older, unloved bikes on the road with a new purpose- and We love that. This did however, mean most of the bikes we found for the program are absolutely trashed when we first get them and need to be completely rebuilt, and if I am honest...I kind of love that part too! We decided to go with cruiser style bikes with coaster brakes to keep them simple and low maintenance.
Here is how most of the bikes look when we first acquire them.
After they are all torn down they get sand blasted and a fresh coat of primer and paint. The colors we selected are the color of three common Gays Mills apples- Golden Yellow, Red Delicious and Green Granny Smith. Gays Mills is known for our orchards so it only made sense to use these colors. It also makes spotting a bike share bike very easy.
Once they get paint every component is polished out and rebuilt. The hubs and bearings are cleanded and repacked with new grease. The wheels get re-laced and straightend. New tires and chains are the only components that are new, this is a must for safety. The bottom bracket bearings and crankset are cleaned and rebuilt with new grease. In the end they become almost good as new and ready for new adventures!
Update as of 4/20/2024 - I had intended to repurpose used/ discarded bikes for the entire bike share program, however a local big-box store chose to liquidate 4 bikes at $50 each and it was too good to pass up. I usually have more than that in chain, paint and tires on a single bike when I refurbish them so I made a choice to pick them up and repaint them. They have already been racking up miles with our Spanish exchange students Maialen and Lidia.
As of right now we have a total of 8 bikes which is enough to get the project "live" this year. We just need to find a way to get insurance and these will be available to ride soon! More to come on this project!