Boston bikes to get second cycle in New Orleans
They'll be used as tools for rebuilding
Like the battered New Orleans residents who will receive them, the used bicycles stacked in the brick garage in Roxbury seemed to have memories masked in misery.
Some had deflated 26-inch tires, others just the rusted remains of a cold, aluminum frame. There were the 10-speeders with broken spokes; the classic-style bicycles with the wide seats, curved handlebars, and dented bells; the dingy purple and pink kiddie bikes with the tangled chain and ''Barbie" written in glittery letters.
All of them looked as if they hadn't seen the light for some time. But none will go to waste.
The storage garage, where nearly 600 bicycles awaited their fate, is the beginning of the assembly line. The end will be New Orleans, where mechanics and volunteers will repair them for residents to ride as they rebuild their lives.
About 12 volunteers lined up yesterday afternoon unloading more bikes from a truck and putting them in the garage to have ready for today's pickup. The bicycles come from all over Greater Boston: police stations, public works departments, churches, universities, and basements and garages where for years they've been left for dust, rusted and forgotten.
Instead of hauling the scrap metal to a nearby dump, Bikes Not Bombs, a 22-year-old bicycle recycling and youth training center based in Roxbury, collects them and sends whole bikes or spare parts to places where they may come in handy.
''People lost everything in New Orleans," said Carl Kurz, the technical coordinator and founder of the center. ''[A bicycle] gives people the mobility to put their lives back together."
When hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the city last year, more than 130,000 residents lost their homes. As many look to return and rebuild their houses, the bicycles would make getting around in a ruined city more efficient than walking and cheaper than a car, Kurz said.
''You don't want to give them to the dump; they're not worth selling," said volunteer Susan Lynch, who in April will have a bike drive of her own with her family in Medfield. ''Somebody really could use them."
The bikes will be delivered to PLAN B, a community-run bicycle organization in New Orleans. They will fix up any bikes that need help, and sell them for a minimum of $15 at one bike per person.
Bikes Not Bombs has sent 4,000 bicycles to eight countries, including Guatemala and Ghana. When the 53-foot-long trailer arrives in New Orleans Tuesday carrying the bikes, it will mark the company's first shipment within the United States.
Three of the bikes will be donated to the ''PEPY Hurricane Relief Ride," a seven-day event starting on May 23 that will raise money for the YMCA of Greater New Orleans.
In Roxbury yesterday, Brian Paul worked on the line, gripping 28-pound bicycles by the frame and passing them along. Paul, 22, of Portsmouth, N.H., has done community work before, mostly filling plastic bags with trash along the highway. This service, he said, was more personal. ''It's directly affecting another person," he said. ''Somebody will actually say 'thank you for this bike.' Nobody says 'thanks for cleaning my ditch.' "
When Dorothy Fennell was growing up, her parents sent medical supplies such as shunts, stethoscopes, and syringes to Third World countries. She understands what it means to take something old and make it new for someone in need.
Fennell, 25, of Jamaica Plain, a volunteer for Bikes Not Bombs, said that by making an old bicycle work again, it becomes a tool for recreation and rebuilding. ''It's recycling it for a new purpose," she said. ''It's kind of giving it new life."
Russell Nichols can be reached at rnichols@globe.com. 
