|
|
NavigationSearch |
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 and Twitter Follow @WestTownBikes 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 are excited to partner with New Belgium again for Tour de Fat in Palmer Square. To volunteer for the event get in touch with Coralee (coralee@westtownbikes.org) 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, and Women & Trans' Night is on Wednesdays. A great way to get introduced to the shop and started with maintaining your own bike is our Basic Bike Maintenance class on Mondays. Contact Michael Young at 312-656-1953 or michael@westtownbikes.org if you have any questions about our classes. We are always accepting bicycle donations in any form. 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. Bike Club ran their first Fashion Bike Show, Heels on Wheels and all proceeds helped them attend the annual Youth Bike Summit sponsored by Recycle a Bicycle in New York, February 15th-17 at the New School. Heels on Wheels is about empowering young ladies to ride their bicycles for transportation with confidence while keeping their own fashion style, one of the issues that Girls Bike Club promotes to their peers. Click here for more info! Thanks to everyone who came out to the Scavenger Hunt. Funds raised go to support the great work of West Town Bikes and everyone who participated had a wonderful time on a raucous romp through the city gathering items, solving clues and making deals for the win! Thanks for the support from ABUS locks, Revolution Brewing, Cole's Bar and the staff volunteers and board members of WTB! The Urban Assault Ride™ is the biggest Bicycle Obstacle Event series in the nation! You and your teammate will set out on a city-wide quest for 'checkpoints'. At each checkpoint, you'll drop your bikes and complete a funky/adventurous obstacle course, then remount your bikes and hit the streets for more. The team that finishes the with the fastest time wins. The ride ends with a massive celebration of New Belgium Brewing Co's whimsical ways, bikes, and big wheels. The after party is just as much fun as the ride itself. Check out this video of past events. Thanks to New Belgium Brewing, Alderman Rey Colon and all of the volunteers who helped make this event possible and thank you to everyone who came out, showed their support and had a great time in Palmer Square on Saturday, July 21st. Over 3500 people attended and helped raise nearly $25,000 to support the work of West Town Bikes. The Tour de Fat will continue to meander and pander through the rest of the 15 U.S. cities on it's tour spreading the good word about the positive societal offerings of the bicycle. Along with the exceptional ability to roust a city’s inner-cyclist, in 2012 NBB brought you the biggest, most enjoyable traveling bike festival that we know of to Palmer Square. Best of all, proceeds from all of the fun and festivities in Chicago go to support the work of West Town Bikes! Thanks again to New Belgium Brewing and everyone who made this year's Tour de Fat Chicago a success!
WTB has gotten some great coverage in the press. A feature in the Chicago Tribune focused on some of the youth programs we offer. We were also featured in New City and on Grid Chicago about the women and girls programs that we have in John Greenfield's story West Town’s women’s programs take the machismo out of mechanics. Then we were blogged about by the Alliance for Biking and Walking for our participation in the Youth Bike Summit in New York, Young Women Inspire Participants at the Youth Bike Summit .   The Bike Winter Art Show was a night of bicycle enthusiasm, cycling camaraderie and rider revelry that’s sure to shake off the winter blues. The event started with a family fun puppet show performed by Jabberwocky. The main event was a runway fashion show sponsored by Rapid Transit Cycles. The fashion show featured Spring 2012 bikes as well as the latest gear from area bikes shops including Blue City Cycles, Boulevard Bikes, Ciclo Urbano, Comrade Cycles, and West Town Bikes. Additionally, a range of vintage fashions provided by online retailer, Lucitebox, was modeled by stylish women who bike. After the fashion show, deejay Montay spun the beats. Everyone had a great time and we look forward to next year.  Division Street Bar and Grill hosted a fundraiser after the Afterglow Cyclocross race in Humboldt Park. Proceeds from the event went towards supporting youth and community programs at West Town Bikes. Bicycle Film Fest  Join us Friday November 4th on a bike ride from West Town Bikes to the Bicycle Film Fest in Logan Square. Meet at the corner of Division and Campbell starting at 5pm and at 5:45 we'll meander through near North West side neighborhoods parade style to arrive at the BFF at Logan Square Auditorium. Visit Bicycle Film Fest - Chicago for a full listing of events and films.  We were snowed in (like all of Chicago) but we've dug out and are open for business! Check out our Calendar for ongoing classes and workshops. We've remodeled our sales shop, Ciclo Urbano, to better serve you. We now have a larger sales floor and show room to feature the many bikes, parts and accessories available. Our mechanics area is now more centralized and efficient. Stop in and check us out!  West Town Bikes has been busy this past Fall with 10 after school programs serving youth all over Chicago! Have a look at our new video by Aaron Maier that shows some of what we've been up to! 
Thank you for all the support this summer! We have a new beautiful mural in our alley, and thanks to the community's support we were able to purchase a hand-cycle for Ruben Daniels! He is an assistant teacher for West Town Bikes’ youth programs and uses his hand-cycle to accompany kids on group rides through-out the city.  Thank you for contributing support for our important work of promoting personal independence and healthy transportation for our community! To see more pictures of our summer youth programs check our flickr! The Chicago Reader named West Town Bikes as the "Best Place to Restore Your Own Bike" in it's 2010 Best of Chicago issue. Read more about it here! 
Thank you to all who attended the 2010 Tour de Fat in Chicago! A very special thanks to all of our volunteers who made it happen and helped raise over $20,000 for West Town Bikes and the community programs that we offer. Thank you to Alderman Rey Colon, the residents of Logan Square, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce, Open Streets and of course New Belgium Brewing Company for another fantastic festival!    Check out a great article on our new shop and youth programs recently published in mode>>shift.  Thanks to all of those who participated in the tour of West Town. Thanks also to those who participated and enjoyed the parade and festivities along Huanted Paseo Boricua! Looks like Fun!!
Learn winter bike basics and maintenance at West Town Bikes. Check out the Calendar for our new line up of classes and workshops for 2009 including Build-A-Bike and DIY Winter Tune-Up. Join us for Open Shop or a special Bike Winter Basics class to make sure you keep rolling all winter long! Also check the Bike Winter website for community rides and snow celebrations.
Successful WTB Benefit West Town Bikes is a community bicycle learning workshop. WTB offers bicycle mechanics workshops, youth programs and special events to members of the community. WTB is also used as a creative workspace for special bicycle building, utilitarian human powered design, kinetic art, advocacy projects and all sorts of constructive creation. Check out the Calendar for a listing of evening and weekend classes and events. Look at the Photo Gallery to see some of what we do. Visit the Youth Programs page to learn more about our Youth Programs. Donate to West Town Bikes to help support our youth programs. Thanks to the monetary and volunteer contributions of many kind individuals, the work of West Town Bikes continues. Please help so we can continue the work that we do. Please click on the button/link below to make a donation in any amount you can. Thank you!
West Town Bikes also appreciates donated bicycles for use in the youth programs we provide. Contact Alex Wilson at alex@westtownbikes.org to make arrangements to donate your old bike, parts or other accessories. |
