Chicago's Old Bikes

This today from my old stomping grounds, via the Chicago Tribune:

It is the great bicycling irony. Some people lock up their bikes and, an hour later, they're gone, stolen. Yet others languish in bike racks for weeks or months, abandoned as their metal rusts and paint job fades. And if you've ever abandoned your bike in Chicago, there's a good chance it eventually found its way to Lee Ravenscroft. Ravenscroft is the founder and president of Working Bikes, a non-profit cooperative that fixes up bikes and either sells them (usually for around $60) or ships them overseas to places such as Africa and Central America. In fact, the group just sent 550 bikes (plus spare parts and tools to fix them if they break down) in a container to Angola last weekend. "I think a lot of those bikes are abandoned because they need too much work," he said. "I'd say 9 out of 10 are broken and need repair."

Read the full story here.