Working Bikes Visit

Here are a few pictures from our visit to Working Bikes in Chicago last Tuesday, the 29th.

 This is their storefront where they sell bikes, do repairs, and sell a small selection of parts.  This is about a quarter of their building where Kevin estimated they have 5,000 bikes stored!

 Here Alice and Kevin are getting a run down on how volunteers get involved, while Grant wandered around gaping at the 10 work stands and full tool sets they had in this upstairs workshop.

One Working Bikes' major purposes is to send bikes overseas to partners they have in various Global South countries. All the bikes were all ready to be packed into one shipping container with tons of extra tires, wheels, seats, and other parts they might need to be replaced when they arrive. They give out 5,000 bikes a year this way.

 These polaroids are of some of their volunteers who have helped work on bikes and pack shipping containers. They look like a fun group!

This last picture is of one of the ways they like to get people excited about bikes. This old Schwinn trainer is connected to a generator that as you pedal faster turns progressively turns on the each bulb, 1 through 5.  Another bike was set up to power a turn-table that played a Diana Ross record.