DALTON GARDENS - The tiny sign jutted out of Jim Watson's lawn contains a simple, tidily scrawled promise: "Bikes for Sale."

But the phrase doesn't start to cover the quixotic undertaking on the Dalton Gardens homestead.

As Watson cleaned out his metal-sided shop on Monday, it looked like a tornado had whisked every bike in a 10-mile radius onto his manicured grass.

A jumble of kids' bikes here, a cluster of road bikes there. About 20 were dangling from hangers inside.

He heaved a tarp off his porch revealing still 30 more that he has collected and personally restored.

"This took about a month," he mused.

His wife, Linda, watched with a shake of her head.

"It's kind of a hobby that got out of hand," she said with a chuckle.

It will only get worse.

Watson just arranged a contract with Kootenai County Solid Waste to take on the loads of bikes that accumulate at the transfer station.

As he has done with used bikes over the past two years, Watson will wheel them into his shop, repair and refurbish them, sell them and, on occasion, give them away to needy kids.

"I hate to see people throw these away," he said, nodding to a decades-old Schwinn from the transfer station he had fixed up to look brand new. "People are collecting these."

This is a nice alternative to dismantling the bikes and recycling the metal, said Roger Saterfiel, Solid Waste director.

And the department has always been inconvenienced by the steady influx of old bikes, he added.

"I would say in a 10-day period, we probably have between 20 and 30 bicycles," he said. "It accumulates quickly."

That's why the arrangement with Watson is just a pilot project for now, he added, without Watson getting paid.

"We've tried this before, and most people don't realize how many we accumulate," Saterfiel said. "They got overwhelmed."

If anyone is capable, it's worth betting on Watson.

The 70-year-old already has plans to hole up for the winter in his cavernous shop, to tinker on the 100-odd bikes he has to spruce up.

Some he bought after trolling the classifieds, others he purchased from folks just in need of cash.

"You collect one over here, two over there, then pretty soon you've got five, 10, 20," he said. "Then people came by saying, 'Hey, you want a bike?'"

Come good weather, he'll set them on the lawn and let folks come to him.

He'll sell on a subjective basis, weighing folks' economics, their need for a bike and how big a jerk they are in the haggling.

"I am giving some smaller ones to kids," he said of his rare freebies. "I don't like to see kids without a bike."

Collecting clunkers from the transfer station has already brought in some classics, he said, like a 1960s Schwinn.

Those are what collectors search for, he said, some paying up to $40 for wheels now near impossible to find.

But he'll sell at a reasonable amount to whoever asks, or maybe trade it for an old one that needs fixing up.

"It's worth it to fix an old clunker like that," he said. "A lot of people would want that because they rode on it when they were a little kid."

It isn't a business, he said. What he pockets in sales is just enough to break even with his cost of tools, buying old bikes and mileage picking them up.

As for labor - he's hunched over gears and seats and handlebars in his shop from roughly 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, he said.

"This is my spot," he said simply as he rested a hand on a stack of bikes.

The retired logger just enjoys an excuse to stay busy, he said. He likes to get his hands dirty, likes to communicate with the bikes in their own language, and transform a weary, broken-down thing into a dependable source of transportation and fun.

"I go the extra mile for the better ones," he said, as he paced beside a line of Schwinn, Fuji, Mongoose, Trek and Redline models.

He's still unsure what do with the stunning 1948 rickshaw from Thailand parked out front, which someone dropped off but would cost $1,000 to restore.

Oh well. He's got time.

And when folks meander up his driveway to check out his stock, he said, he promises a steady and comfortable ride.

"You can buy a good used bike for the same price (as new), and it'll last forever," he said. "I guess you got to trust the guy selling the used bikes."