No membership. No deposit. No money, period. Just show the folks at Tri-County Bicycles a valid driver's license and give them a working phone number; they give you a bright-yellow Fuji cruiser, and off you go.

"We believe we are the only ones in the country doing something like this on this level," Tri-County owner John DiRenzo said. "It's downtown, it's a historic area, it's run out of a bike shop, and it's free."

Bike Pottstown grew out of a Greater Valley Forge Transportation Management Association study that showed such a program could work. Preservation Pottstown lined up about $33,000 in grant money to launch it, and in June the first bike was checked out.

Last week, Sandra Pfeffer, 46, of Pottstown, showed up with two friends, Brittany Lutz, 19, and Brendon Miller, 21, for a leisurely ride on the Schuylkill River Trail to Douglassville and back.

"I'm excited," Lutz said. "I hope I remember how to ride a bike." Lutz, who is studying meteorology at Millersville University, said that someday she could be delivering TV weather reports from the trail.

As the trio rode off, a woman picked up a bike to run errands around town. That's typical for the business, DiRenzo said: half recreation and half errands.

DiRenzo, who moved his bike shop from Norristown a couple of years ago, said Pottstown was a perfect town for bike riding. The streets are flat, bike lanes run along the main street, and the popular river trail, now open from Pottstown to Reading, is in his backyard.

Problems with the free bikes have been limited to a couple of flat tires, he said. The deal with Preservation Pottstown calls for him to run the program and maintain the bikes in exchange for $8 an hour during daylight-saving-time months. But DiRenzo said he intended to keep the free bike program running all year.

Long-range plans call for more bikes to be available around town, and an eight-mile loop for riding through the neighborhoods, said Tom Carroll, president of Preservation Pottstown.

Carroll, a retired construction manager, tools around on a sleek recumbent bike. "Everybody's enthusiastic about this," he said of the program. "It's taken off."

If You Go

Tri-County Bicycles, 248 E. High St., is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, call 484-941-6000 or visit www.bikepottstown.org.