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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 West Town neighborhood, WTB has become 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.  WTB has gotten some great coverage in the press recently. A feature in the Chicago Tribune last week 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 . Bikes that work correctly are more fun to ride. Keep your bike tuned up! Check out our Calendar filled with classes. The Build A Bike class for January is full but we will have another one starting in March. Open Shop is every Tuesday and Saturday, and Women & Trans' Night is on Wednesdays. A great way to get introduced to opportunities at the shop is our Basic Bike Maintenance class that runs every Monday. We also offer one on one sessions if your interested in working on something specific. Contact Michael Young at 312-656-1953 or michael@westtownbikes.org if you have any questions about our classes.   This three day national conference , hosted by Recycle-A-Bicycle, focuses on education, youth, bicycles and advocacy, and aims to bring people from different disciplines to explore, network, and learn how bicycling can be a legitimate and safe form of transportation for today's youth. WTB is seeking sponsorship to take four of our most highly involved teen leaders to this event. The youth participants will be presenting workshops to attendees on the development and progress of WTB’s direct outreach programs “Girls’ Bike Club”, "Sound Bikes" and other programs. This conference is a way for our teens to network and add their voices to a national conversation about youth bicycling advocacy and leadership development. Click on the link above to make an online donation through our secure provider, Network for Good. Please enter "Youth Bike Summit" in the donation designation field. Feel free to drop off or mail donations to: West Town Bikes/Ciclo Urbano Contact WTB Program Manager, Liz Clarkson (liz@westtownbikes.org), if you are interested in donating any helpful tools (i.e. frequent flier miles, time share, unused food gift certificates to restaurants, etc…) to get our teens to NYC!  Purchase a Winter Maintenance Package and keep your bike feeling good all Winter long! This makes a great gift for a biker in your life and is a perfect way to keep your cross bike race ready for the remainder of the season. Sales made at Ciclo Urbano support the mission of West Town Bikes, plus it's a great shop with excellent service, a good selection of parts and accessories and a wide variety of quality new and used bikes at affordable prices! Come in now for great year end savings and holiday sales, and while you're here ask about our awesome winter maintenance package. Find out more by visiting ciclourbanochicago.com.   Division Street Bar and Grill is hosting a fundraiser after the Afterglow Cyclocross race in Humboldt Park. Proceeds from the event go towards supporting youth and community programs at West Town Bikes. Before the party come join us at the Afterglow cyclocross bicycle racing competition in Humboldt Park. The race is brought to you by Cuttin Crew and Robots <3. Race details on BikeReg. If your interested in racing, but are not sure what you need or can expect, get in touch with Michael Young at 312-656-1953 or michael@westtownbikes.org. Adult Maintenance classes and Open Shop 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. |
