It could be one of the most unique recycling efforts in town, but it makes perfect sense on a college campus.

Take an abandoned bicycle, give it a tune-up and sell it as cheap transportation. At the end of each semester, offer to buy it back. Repeat.

Such was the simple genius behind Cycle Manoa, a campus organization at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, that hopes to increase bicycle use. So far, the effort has been a hit with students.

When the group held its first sale last fall, it sold all 35 of its bicycles in 45 minutes. The only constraint was how fast a student could fill out registration papers. Most of the bikes sold for $30.

"The idea is to subsidize them," said Michael Kimmitt, a 32-year-old graduate student who helped create the group. "We want to make bike ownership cheap."

The group came together quickly after the idea came up at a meeting of students interested in sustainability issues in February 2008. A $1,000 grant from the student government allowed them to buy replacement parts — cables, chains, tires, tubes — and hire a mechanic who would teach the group's organizers how to repair bicycles.

By summer, they were working on a batch of bicycles, including 25 that were abandoned by their owners at the East-West Center's dorm, Kimmitt said.

"They had been building up a stash for years and they didn't know what to do with them," he said. "When they heard of us, we got a lot of positive response. Once they knew they were going to get fixed up, they were thrilled."

Cycle Manoa also fixes bicycles free of charge every week and regularly holds how-to clinics. And at the end of each semester, it buys back old bikes, as available, for a flat fee of $20.

Kimmitt, who is working on a doctorate in economics, is a relative newcomer to regular bicycle use. He got into riding about three years ago, but struggled at first when it came to doing his own repairs and adjustments.

"I made a lot of dumb mistakes," he said. "Therefore one of the things we are committed to is helping people know what they can do. Bicycles are a freedom, but they don't work unless you know how to make them work for you."

Now he commutes about three miles a day between his home on Kapi'olani Boulevard and campus.

The group concluded early on that most students who used their bicycles lived within a mile of the Manoa campus and did not use their bikes for errands, relying instead on a car. But using a bicycle for short trips, even to shop for groceries, is easily done if the rider isn't shopping for a family.

And it's good for the environment, too, said Daniel Alexander, a Cycle Manoa founder.

"As cyclists, we understood that it's an incredibly sustainable way to get around," he said. "And in Honolulu, almost no one does it. If we could increase those numbers, it would be a big step toward making this city more sustainable."

But riding too far beyond the Manoa campus can be so scary that it has prompted bicyclists to quit riding, said Alexander, a 24-year-old graduate student pursuing a master's degree in urban and regional planning. Alexander doesn't own a car and uses his bicycle to commute between campus and his home in Palolo.

"Ultimately the biggest reason people don't ride in Honolulu is it is unsafe," he said. "I talk to people all the time and the reason I always get for why they stopped riding or don't ride is they are afraid. I would say it's a valid fear."

In response, Cycle Manoa has organized monthly rides for novices that take them through Waikiki and Manoa.

"It is meant to be an outreach for people who are maybe not so comfortable on the road," Alexander said. "We teach them good riding practices."

Steven Downing hadn't owned a bicycle in 15 years when he decided to buy one of Cycle Manoa's recycled mountain bikes last September. He wasn't thinking green, though. He was thinking cardio and convenience. And the price was right: $50.

"It was exercise as well as transportation," he said. "I am a student and I am not a working student, so I don't need, nor desire, to own a car."

But Downing, who doesn't plan to sell his recycled bike anytime soon, is exactly the kind of student Cycle Manoa is trying to recruit to the bicycle culture.

"Riding a bike is freeing," he said. "You can get places quicker. You don't have to depend on a bus schedule. You don't have to worry about parking."