Cape state park bike barn fleet upgraded with nearly new cycles

The Friends of Cape Henlopen State Park Borrow-a-Bicycle program received an early present this year.

In a major upgrade, 31 adult bikes have been replaced with near-new Electra and Sun cruiser bikes. All bikes are now outfitted with baskets and bells. Ian Friedland, bike barn coordinator, said this upgrade couldn’t have happened without assistance from the great folks at Lewes Cycle Sports, Seagreen Bicycles and Rehoboth Cycle Sports. All three shops continue to provide outstanding support for the program.

For 25 years, visitors have been able to visit the bike barn adjacent to the nature center and borrow a free bicycle to tour the park’s paths. The bike barn holds a fleet of 44 adult bikes, 12 kids’ bikes and three commercial-grade bike trailers. The Borrow-a-Bicycle program has always relied on donated equipment, maintained by the talented bike mechanics who are members of the Friends’ all-volunteer bike barn ambassadors group, but the trusty cycles had lately been showing their age.

Some 26 of the replaced bikes have moved on to serve a different population, as the Friends group donated them to the Delaware Department of Transportation’s J1 bicycle program. This outreach effort provides bikes to many of the foreign students who come and work in local shops and restaurants during the busy summer months.

The bike barn is currently open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, weather permitting.