The English riders, beat-up Trek hybrids and Barbie-festooned girls' bikes were rolling in, and High Bridge's champion of world improvement was talking about how he could see the wheels go full circle.
"Bicycles in the U.S. have no resale value," said David Schweidenback, sweating and grunting earlier this month as he swiftly cranked a wrench to remove the pedals to flatten a bike for shipping.
The morning sun was already hot, the work being done by Pedals for Progress volunteers at First United Methodist Church of Somerville was gritty, and the cars kept pulling around with once-desired, now unloved, two-wheelers pulled from garages, sheds and porches.

"No one wants a used bike, but we can send this bike to a poor country, where someone will ride it every day for 20 years," he said. "A bike is a way to get to work, to get to school, to get to the health clinic."
Julianna Miller, 12, of Hillsborough looked amazed to hear that her discarded fuchsia bike would turn an African child's two-hour walk to school into a 15-minute ride.

"It makes me glad to know they can get to school quicker," she said.

This weekend, Pedals for Progress is hoping people will donate enough bicycles to put the organization over the 100,000 donations milestone. Schweidenback, a former schoolteacher, home builder and Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1977 to 1980, takes nearly every bike he's offered, unless it's an abused, rusting hulk. Because Americans use them for pleasure, most come his way in pretty good condition.
"You can tell by the nubs on the wheels, this one's hardly been ridden," he says as he surveys the wheels of an elegant hunter green pre-1970 three-speed Sturmey-Archer, with a basket.

Schweidenback, a 1997 Sargent Shriver Humanitarian Award recipient and the father of two kids in college, is a red- and silver-haired gearhead who can rattle off all kinds of trivia about American-, Japanese- and English-made bikes and the oversaturated U.S. bike market. He also says it's a simple fact that two wheels and a seat can bring dignity and economic power to people in faraway villages in Nicaragua, Moldova and Namibia.

Recipients purchase the bikes on affordable layaway terms from shops he has set up that are run by local people. Some bikes are transformed into carts, wheelchairs and tourist taxis. He keeps smaller 24-inch kids' bikes especially for Guatemala, because the women are shorter there, he said. Three-speed bikes with fatter tires go to rural areas, where there often are dirt roads and cobblestone streets.
A shy, young boy brought in a rusty Clodhopper II, a beat-up bike that probably had been left outside in the rain too many times.

"It's kind of ugly," Schweidenback said as he started to take it apart. "But if I only stocked brand new bikes, I'd be out of business."

Pedals for Progress also distributes sewing machines. Pedal or electric, they can give a woman paying work, Schweidenback said. "A sewing machine is not just a job, it's a job for life."
A sewing machine wrapped in duct tape and Styrofoam caught the eye of Theresa McCarthy of Raritan Borough in Somerset County. McCarthy brought in a bike but returned home for her 20-year-old Singer in a cabinet, pleased to know it would go to some good use.

"I didn't really make a lot of things, but I mended a lot. Now it's just sitting there, not doing anything," she said as Schweidenback unceremoniously chopped off the legs of the wooden cabinet for shipping and bundled it up.

Donors are asked to bring along $10 per bike or sewing machine to help cover the cost of shipping the items. The real cost is $28, Schweidenback said. In return, they are offered tax-deductible receipts.
The Somerset Hills Kiwanis is sponsoring a collection Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Sunset Inn, 1831 Route 31 in Clinton, Hunterdon County.

For more information, visit the Pedals for Progress Web site at www.p4p.org.

Christina Johnson works in the Somerset County bureau. She may be reached at cjohnson@starledger.com.