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West Town Bikes: News and UpdatesThe over-arching goals of West Town Bikes are to promote bicycling in the city of Chicago, to educate youth with a focus on under-served populations, and to foster and serve Chicago's growing bicycling community. While maintaining headquarters and a workspace in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, WTB is a city-wide service provider for youth programs in the city of Chicago. Check out this great video of us on YouTube Access: West Town Bikes. Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for your interest. If you want to contact us, email info@westtownbikes.org, call 773-772-6523 or stop by. Note that we do not put our youth programs on the calendar but you can find events, donation based classes and workshops there.  We're rolling out so many exciting new youth programs this Spring we just have to celebrate! Join CHIRP Radio, New Belgium Brewing Company and The Empty Bottle for an evening of bicycle classes, live music and New Belgium beers. We'll be teaching Basic Bike Maintenance and Winter Bike Revival classes right inside The Empty Bottle as the CHIRP DJs, East of Edens Soul Express, and DJ Scrabblor bump hot jams to melt away the Winter once and for all! The party continues late night when the Velcro Lewis Group takes the stage at 11 pm followed by Obnox at midnight. These wild cats are sure to keep you up and dancing long into the night! Proceeds from the door and sale of New Belgium beers benefit West Town Bikes' ongoing mission of youth empowerment through bicycle education! Please join us as we celebrate a very exciting Spring! The show is 21 and up. Tickets here. Facebook event here. The nice thing about it being frigidly cold outside and only one quick month away from busy-bike-shop season is that Ciclo Urbano has had plenty of undisturbed time for finishing up important shop construction projects and training our new shop apprentices! We've just completed a big expansion to Ciclo Urbano's shop, adding some much-needed floor-space to our retail area! Soon you'll be able to peruse our expanded selection of used bike clothing and shoes, along with a new area displaying used panniers and bags. Please stop by soon to check out how great everything looks!  We'd like to give a warm welcome to Deorey and Hector, both of whom have been coming around to West Town Bikes for several years. Deorey came to us through a Bickerdike youth development bike program way back in 2005 - when he was just 10 years old! During his first time in the bike program, he was the only one in his group to achieve a proper hub adjustment on his first try. Little did he know he was well on his way to becoming a pro mechanic... Hector has been with WTB since 2010 with the Bike Club, and with us he brings his awesome skills and knowledge as a BMX rider and devotee during the past four years as he has worked his way through our apprenticeship program at Ciclo Urbano. Hector's knowledge and enthusiasm for BMX riding has enabled us to increase our expertise so we may better serve fellow BMX riders like Hector, in the community. Hector also happens to be skilled with automotive mechanics, which has certainly come in handy for everyday tasks and activities we find ourselves busy with here. Hector and Deorey are both extremely hard working, and they certainly know their way around bikes. Most importantly, however, they have both quickly learned the difference of what it's like to be working on their own bikes during Bike Club and the responsibilities of working in a high-quality professional repair shop like Ciclo Urbano.  Winter weather has not affected participation in WTB's long-running after-school drop-in program, Bike Club. Bike Club members have been busy with all kinds of winter projects, such as staffing bike valet for GBC's Heels on Wheels and hosting our annual Three Kings' Day kids' bike giveaway. Bike Club provides a safe, friendly and educational environment for students in middle school and high school on Mondays and Fridays. Historically, committed members of Bike Club have also been drawn upon to participate in more advanced WTB programs like After School Matters Bicycle Safety and Repair Training (for high school students). They also move on to staff our full-service bike shop, Ciclo Urbano (where over 75 percent of our staff are WTB program graduates). This spring, select Bike Club and GBC participants will be called upon to teach in-school programs at several nearby middle schools. We are excited to start the new fall program season on March 10th, and we look forward to introducing a new generation of young people to our bikecited culture! Bikes that work correctly are more fun to ride. Keep your bike tuned up! Check out our Calendar filled with classes. Open Shop is every Tuesday and Saturday. Every Wednesday from 7PM-10 is Women and Trans Night. Contact Michael Young at 312-656-1953 or michael@westtownbikes.org if you have any questions about our classes.  The cyclocross program had another great year. Many thanks to all our partners that help make this program happen including, We attended the following races. Caldwell Woods hosted by xXx Racing, Dan Ryan Woods hosted by Beverly Bike Vee-Pak, ABD Sunrise Park hosted by Athletes By Design, Hilton Indian Lakes Resort hosted by the South Chicago Wheelman, Montrose Harbor – The Illinois State Championship hosted by Ten27 Cycles and Spidermonkey and The Afterglow hosted by Chicago Cuttin Crew. We are always looking for bicycle, gear, clothing and program supply donations . You can drop them off at Ciclo Urbano any time during business hours or contact Michael Young with questions or to arrange pickup. We currently are in need of functional bikes to serve our programs. Tax deductible financial donations to support our programs can be made here. Riding in the winter is just about wanting to and being prepared. Donations of gloves, hats, jackets and other gear make winter riding possible for anyone, after that it's up to the person. |
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