ArtBike : Its not what you HAVE to do, its what you GET to do!

Once upon a time, we all loved to bike. We relished in the freedom, the happiness, the speed of hopping on two wheels and heading to the park, to the pool, or just around our block. We couldn’t stop wondering when that all changed: when biking turned it to something we felt like we had to do, should do, or needed to do, instead of something we loved to do.

So Libby and collaborator Jo Davis began salvaging old used bikes—gathered from Craig’s list, dug up from friends’ basements, and donated from kind neighbors. We assessed each two-wheeled machine (some had no wheels….), developed a plan for repair, then transformed them from unwanted pieces of metal into a fleet of mobile artwork, each with a with a life and story of its own. Maybe if we could just get people to hop on one of these crazy two-wheelers, they would remember that youthful feeling of freedom and ease.

Our first Artbike fleet included The Lionel Ritchie, Yarn It!, Gold Yeller, The Nugget, Cupcake, The Mischa Barton, Metal Machine, Ghost Bike & The Pretty Lady. During Lancaster’s ArtWalk weekends, we’ve parked all of the ArtBikes out in front of Modern Art and invited people to take one for a spin – free of charge. 

We’ve had all sorts of participants: biking enthusiasts, new bikers, people who haven’t biked since they were 12, random passers-by and folks who were just excited to be able to borrow something for free. Everybody returned on the bikes happier than when they left. And since our first Artbike, we’ve seen palpable progress in our city’s bicycling infrastructure (BIKE LANES!). While its surely not ALL because of a flashy bike sporting Lionel Ritchie’s mug, we like to think it had something to do with it. Cuz biking is easy. Like Sunday morning. 

(That said, the project wasn’t always easy….read more about the origins, ups, and downs of the project here.)

Special THANKS to Invoking the Pause for funding the project; Chris, Brad, Tim and Jessica for all the help fixing up the bikes; and all the wonderful folks who donated their old bikes, and came out to ride. Here are some of them:

Our original fleet...

The Nugget

Cupcake

The Lionel Richie

The Pretty Lady

Metal Machine

Gold Yeller

The Bookworm

The Letterman

The Nicole

Ghostbike