Valley Regional Transit’s bike-share program, Boise GreenBike, suspended operations last September and is now selling some of the signature green bikes to the public.
The Boise GreenBike Garage Sale is on the Auction Frogs website from now until March 28. Up for sale are 70 bikes, kiosks, solar panels, batteries, and other equipment no longer needed since Valley Regional Transit ended its contract with Social Bicycles.
Shortly after suspending operations, Boise GreenBike donated about 40 bikes to area nonprofit organizations. That still left an inventory of 70 bikes. All the bikes have had the controllers and locking units removed, and proprietary nuts and bolts have been replaced with standard hardware, enabling the new owners to more easily service the bikes.
“When we suspended operations, I got lots of phone calls from people interested in acquiring one of the bikes,” said Dave Fotsch, founder and director of Boise GreenBike. “We’re finally making the bikes available and hoping to put a little money aside for whatever comes next.”
The garage sale proceeds will go into a fund to help bring to Boise the next generation of bike-share. VRT is trying to recruit corporate sponsors to support a larger and all-electric fleet of bikes. The pandemic has adversely impacted those efforts, so there will be no bike-share program in Boise this year. VRT is now working to launch a bike-share program in the spring of 2022.
To access the online auction, go to: https://boisegreenbikegaragesale.afrogs.org/#/index and register to bid. The bikes and other equipment will be sold in two phases, with the second phase opening up on Saturday, March 21.
