Plug for the Iowa City Bike Library

Big Kid Bike
Originally uploaded by knights_writes

We were thrilled to find this beautiful bicycle for Arlo on Saturday. Even better: we checked it out from the Iowa City Bike Library! Check out their site at www.bikelibrary.org.

My favorite features: whitewall tires, with matching handlebar grips and wide seat. Chrome fenders. A distinct lack of licensed characters.

The bike was made by Peuegot, but I have not yet determined its age. The guy at Geoff's Bike & Ski guessed that it was around 15 years old.

If you don't know how the bike library works, here's the deal. For a nominal fee (actually a deposit) you can check out a bike for 6 months. Within that 6 months, you can return the bike at any time and get a refund of your deposit--and during that period the Bike Library will also provide free maintenance and repairs for the bicycle. If you don't return the bike after 6 months, you forfeit the deposit and you own the bike.

Bikes are donated to the Bike Library by local folks who think that putting more bicycles on the roads will improve the health of our community--and also by people who simply want to get rid of bikes they're not using. We've been popping in there occasionally to look for a bike for Ted (who, being so tall, is hard to fit) and this is the first time I can recall seeing a kids' bike. SCORE!

The takeaway lessons here: if you're interested in taking up the bicycle habit, but maybe you're not yet ready to invest the moolah in buying a new bike, take a look at the Iowa City Bike Library's offerings (or, if you're not a local, see if your community has one). If you have decent old bikes languishing in the dark corners of your garages or basements gathering dust, please consider donating them.

Your donation might just make someone like me (or that person's husband or four-year-old) very happy indeed!