For a couple years now, Charlie Crystle has been wondering whether a community bicycle program could work in Lancaster.

While chatting recently with friends at his local hangout, the Chestnut Hill coffee shop, the city businessman began talking about rehabbing old bikes and making them available to the public.

That was a month ago.

Since then, the community bikes idea has taken off like a 21-speed Cannondale whizzing down a steep grade.

A bike mechanic who works at Chestnut Hill offered his tools and expertise.

A city designer suggested ideas on bike racks and customizing the two-wheeled rides.

A city painting company donated warehouse space to store and repair the bikes.

And the Boys & Girls Club of Lancaster and Spanish American Civic Association offered to get kids involved.

On Friday, a crucial component of the program — 152 abandoned or stolen bikes found on city streets — joined the fledgling effort.

Now Crystle and his band of bicycling enthusiasts have to figure out what to do with them.

Ideas are not in short supply.

Organizers of what, for now, is being called Lancaster Community Bikes want to recruit city youths to learn to repair and maintain the bicycles. The apprentice workers would either be paid or receive a bicycle in exchange for their efforts.

The bikes would be made available for city residents to ride on short trips to Lancaster Central Market, city parks and, of course, neighborhood coffee shops.

Distinctive bike racks emblazoned with a giant "B" could be erected around the city, and participants could sign up for the program through their local library.

How the effort would be funded and staffed and how the bicycles could be secured to reduce thefts are among the many details to be worked out.

"There's no real rush to make it perfect out of the gate," said Crystle, who serves on the School District of Lancaster board.

"We haven't made any decisions, except that we know we have to get the bikes up and running, and we want the kids to be able to work on them."

The bikes came to the program via an unusual arrangement between the city and School District of Lancaster.

Crystle was talking with Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray six weeks ago about the dozens of stolen, lost and abandoned bicycles the city accumulates each year.

Instead of auctioning off the unclaimed bikes, as the city does at the end of each summer, couldn't Lancaster donate them to a community organization?

The state municipal code prohibits that, but the city could sell the bikes to another government entity, Crystle learned.

Crystle suggested SDL, a government entity, purchase the bikes for $1 and donate them to the community bikes program.

The school board last week OK'd the purchase, and Lancaster City Council is expected to follow suit at its meeting Tuesday.

According to city officials, the bike auction was hardly a moneymaker, netting, at best, a couple hundred dollars a year for the city.

And unloading the bikes freed up storage space for the city.

Friday morning, county prison inmates on work release delivered the bicycles — ranging from a tiny pink Barbie model with glittery handlebar streamers to a high-end Gary Fisher mountain bike — to a Poplar Street warehouse owned by Two Dudes Painting Co.

One of the Dudes, co-owner Peter Barber, offered the space for the program after learning about the project while chatting with Crystle.

Word of mouth brought others on board, including bike mechanic and Chestnut Hill barista Jacob Yohn; designer Roche Fitzgerald; cycling enthusiast Brad Zuke; and Bill Gleason, a former Lancaster city bicycle policeman who now works as SDL's school and community safety coordinator.

Gleason recently visited Allentown to check out that city's Community Bike Works project, which teaches kids ages 9 to 17 how to work on bikes that are donated for community use.

In addition to earning a bike for their participation, the children learn business and computer skills and receive after-school tutoring.

Lancaster kids could be recruited for the local program through the Boys & Girls Club and SACA, which has offered to establish a satellite bike repair shop in another location in the city.

The Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board also might become involved in hiring bike repair apprentices, Crystle said.

Few children ride bikes in Lancaster city because of the lure of video games and other electronic entertainment and the upkeep required to keep a bike rolling, Gleason said.

"What if a kid in the city has a bike and it blows out a tire and it needs a wheel trued up? He doesn't have the finances to get that fixed," he said.

"The more they learn and take ownership of their bikes, I think the more it will benefit the kids."

Crystle admits the program has a lot of missing pieces, and the core group of supporters needs to get bigger.

"It's a work in progress, and we need a lot of fun, smart, dedicated people to join us," he said.

But he's optimistic that rehabbed bikes eventually will make their way into the hands — and feet — of those who need them.

More information on the program is available at lancasterbikes.com.

bwallace@lnpnews.com