Purple Bikes A Gaudy Sign Spring’s Here

Here’s a guy ready to launch a venture knowing that maybe 50 percent of his inventory will be carted away by thieves or trashed by jerks.

No, Jerry Schuldt is not running for dumb cluck of the year.

Schuldt, 46, is part of Lilac Community Bicycles, a good-hearted group of people who plan to place 50 free bicycles around the city for the pedal-impaired public, possibly as soon as next month.

That’s right - free. It’s a terrific idea that will add a much-needed splash of panache, not to mention color, to our snoozy downtown.

Here’s how it works: Donated clunker bikes are turned into functional one-speeds, then spray-painted a garish lilac to clearly identify them.

Once on the streets, the bikes are available for anyone to hop on and ride off into the sunset. Warning stickers ask users to be responsible, obey the laws and, when their journey ends, leave the wheels for the next rider.

Like any other progressive concept in Spokane, it’s a safe bet this will be branded as a Communist plot by our contrarian contingent.

I’m talking about the flat-Earthers who thwarted the proposed science center in Riverfront Park and whose idea of downtown renewal is bringing back the glory days of the Sears catalogue store.

But this free bike proposal is hardly radical. Similar programs are working quite well in other communities, such as Portland, Missoula and Boulder, Colo.

Those cities regard the idea as valuable on several levels: It encourages alternative transportation, recycles junker bikes and teaches teen volunteers how to assemble and maintain the machines.

The unavoidable hitch is that any honor system will attract some dishonorable people.

“Some bikes will end up in the Spokane River,” says Schuldt, a member of the Spokane Bicycle Advisory Board who works at the Bikeworks bicycle shop, 930 W. Second. “Some will end up stuck in trees. Others we’ll probably never find.

“That’s OK. That’s just part of the cost of making something like this accessible to everyone.”

A similar “Spokes for Folks” program in Boulder, Colo., lost 20 out of 50 lime green bikes put out in 1995. The next season, a Spokes spokesman was quoted in a newspaper as hoping that half of 120 bicycles would be returned.

There’s never any accounting for the low-wattage nature of thieves, but it’s difficult to imagine why anyone would steal bicycles so butt-ugly by design.

The hideousness begins with the monochromatic hue, put on for easy recognition as much as theft repellent. Everything - spokes, wheels, frame, pedals - except the seat is sprayed. Yech! Being the Lilac City, Spokane’s color choice is painfully obvious. Boulder and Missoula went with green, no doubt because of their enviro-earthy ways.

Portland’s “Yellow Bike” program received wide acclaim for being the first major city to distribute reconditioned bikes to the masses.

Apparently there’s no shortage of machines. “It appears there are thousands of old, abandoned bikes in people’s garages and people love the spirit of free community bikes,” a Portland booster writes in the “Yellow bike Story,” a flier explaining the program.

But will these purple people movers fly in Spokane?

Schuldt says yes. He and the other members of Lilac Community Bicycles have spent about two years fine-tuning the details for the first bike release, which should happen when the weather warms.

Over 50 donor bikes have already been gathered. Columbia Paint and Coatings pledged the color that will be sprayed on at no charge by River City Paint and Body.

Liability is probably the biggest worry, one reason the organization filed for nonprofit status with the state and feds.

“I really want it to fly,” says Terry Lawhead, operations director for the pro-business Downtown Spokane Partnership. “I think it creates an extraordinary ambience for the city.”

That’s certainly true. And after a long dreary winter, even some ghastly purple bikes would be a welcome sign of spring.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo