In this newsletter...

1. ​Friday, June 12th - Roll N' Peace​
2. ​Mexico Shipment ​
3. ​Storefront Move and Basement - we need Volunteers ​
4. ​Mural Unveiling Party - June 26th 4pm - 6pm ​
5. ​June General Meeting Minutes​

Happy June, volunteers! It is hot and it is humid, but that has not stopped us from packing a container full of bikes heading to Uganda! They will arrive at the Ruguburi Bike Shop in a couple months, where they will be fixed up and put to good use. We are shipping this container through with the help of A&K Philanthropy. A&K buy the containers outright and they are often used to create new structures for mechanics and even a pharmacy!

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We were deeply saddened to hear that Chicago lost one of its best on Friday after Riley O'Neil was doored and hit by a semi while riding in Bridgeport. Riley was a force in the cycling community, and was always looking for ways to help, whether listening to community members around Chicago and getting bike racks (Riley Racks) installed where they'd be most helpful or jumping in to assist in the early days of the Bike Chicago program. Our hearts are broken and our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends.

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Construction on the new ramp has been moving quickly, and in the coming weeks we will need lots of volunteer help in reorganizing our sales front and the basement. Keep an eye out on socials and POINT to learn about upcoming volunteer opportunities.

Roll N Peace 13

Roll n Peace is happening today, June 12th! Together with Think Outside Da Block we will meet up at Ogden Park at 4pm with food and drink and then roll out at 8pm. This is the 13th iteration of this ride, and we are proud to have donated 100 bikes, 50 adult and 50 kids bikes for the ride.

Think Outside Da Block joined us last week to wrench on some bikes and put in some time loading our container heading to Cycles for Farmers. We have been working with TODB for years, and we are proud to partner with them again for Roll n Peace 13!

Roll N Peace 13

📍 Ogden Park

📍 6500 S. Racine Ave

📅 Friday, June 12, 2026

Join us for our annual community bike ride promoting peace,
unity, wellness, and fun for all ages

Our next container will be heading to Mexico, through Foro Mundial de la Bicicleta 12 A.C. coordinated by the inimitable Samuel Teran. We have been working with Samuel and the FMB12 crew for several years, and they have done amazing things for bicycle access and culture in places like Oaxaca, Chiapas and even Cuba, where access to transportation is particularly limited these days. The trailer / container purchased by FMB12 y will be arriving in the coming weeks, the drop we thought would happen a couple weeks ago was delayed and eventually nixed due to their truck's condition -- they eventually called it unrepairable and are looking for a backup.

For the past 3 years FMB12 and other groups they have been hosting FORO NACIONAL DE LA BICICLETA in a different part of Mexico every year. Inspired by the 12th annual World Bicycle Forum in Mexico City, various groups decided to integrate and consolidate a national platform and an annual meeting of cycle activism in Mexico. This year was in San Cristobal from March 11-16, and every year at their national assembly they decide on the next location which will be San Luis Potosí!

A few months ago they embarked on their first sea voyage, bringing 30 tons of humanitarian aid and of course, bikes! They departed from Port of Progreso, Yucatán, Mexico on March 19, 2026 and arrived 5 days later in Havana, Cuba. The bicycles (once in the WB basement!) were donated to the community in Contramaestre.

We hope to have a shipping container to pack for Mexico soon, keep an eye out on socials and POINT!

Progress on our new ramp entrance is moving along quickly, which means we have to move our storefront! There will be many moving parts, including our Sukkah from the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival that will be at the new entrance. We need to take down all the framed history we have, rewire our POS system, bring the Sukkah up from the basement and move the entire storefront counter to its new home. We will need lots of help when the time comes, so keep an eye out on socials and POINT for volunteer opportunities.

Things are changing on the first floor, but we cannot forget about our basement! We have acquired a huge amount of basement bikes (bikes that are completely usable but not needed by a lot of our international partners) and we need to get them organized. We hope to have a few basement bike shipments this year, and any help to get them stacked away will be much appreciated! After we fill a container for Mexico, we'll do a little reshuffling to make sure we're still able to store bikes efficiently until we can fix them or find them new homes elsewhere.

A few months ago we put out the call to our community for a volunteer muralist to design and paint a 4 foot by 8 foot board to decorate our building. We got many great submissions, but Daphne's work really stood out to the committee. She has been working on the mural for the past few weeks and we are excited to announce the unveiling event! We hope you all can join us on June 26th at 4pm to celebrate our first mini mural and our first mural artist! There will be some grilling, refreshments, good company and great art! As you all know, we love volunteers here at Working Bikes. This will be our first chance to celebrate a volunteer muralist, but we'll take the opportunity to celebrate you all, too. Hope to see you all on the 26th!