A number fell into young hands that held cans of spray paint. Comments Monday indicated the first yellow bikes were released and expected to fend for themselves. The nominal sponsor will be the Community Cycling Center, but the committee made it clear Monday that the project will be separate from CCC and outside support will determine whether it continues. The board of CCC will meet March 5 to make the sponsorship official. In the meantime, volunteers will be setting up for repair work and will be establishing a phone message line for bike collections.
Participants hope to develop a separate program to train youths in bike maintenance.
But he lacks enough bikes to be so specific, and solid tires are unavailable at present, so the fleet will include a varied equipment lineup. In fact, it will be so diverse that the organizers will keep records to see which bikes last longer, in terms of both the need for maintenance and vandalism repairs. Another research project, assigned to Portland State University cyclists, will be to track the migrations of the yellow fleet. Other students may try to track down grants to cover the project's basic expenses. Some participants want businesses to sponsor part of the program, while others want to involve Scout troops and neighborhood associations.