We’ve had a few tours this week, riding along the new blooms at the waterfront and soaking up some much needed vitamin D. I lead a ride to the NE budget hearing last week and was interviewed for this story that showed up on Portland Online. Here is the link to the story on the Portland is Better Together page. In other news I finalized plans to offer a couple tours for Portland Community College classes and will be hosting those in July. I’ll post the dates soon. We are also working with PCC on a Farm to Market event that will hopefully take place in September. Sta
November 2009
What a great time of year! Cyclocross is in full swing, the leaves are turning, and we are continuing to see business at the Pedalworks shop. A little expansion even – we are now offering bike delivery services in the Portland Metro area. Food runs, late night essentials, freight delivery, and messenger services. I attended another inspiring car – free happy hour early in the month and was excited to see some new faces. The first weekend of November brought us a Twilight Ride on the new 205 path here in Portland with regional planners and representatives from the BTA.
Great cyclocross races on Sunday the 8th launched us in to a new wave of building large cargo trikes. With a 4 foot by 2.5 foot flat bed we achieved a 500 lb weight rating and can use the trike to make deliveries. We have been getting a few cargo models ready for an upcoming Bicycle Brown Bag put on by the Portland City and their Transportation Options crew. Cross at Barton Park on the 15th – I got my first flat tire of the season in lap #2 but was able to get a new wheel from the pit and finish the race. After a 5 person multi-day rental, I met with my website master and we added some new picts. I was excited to attend ” an evening with Roger Geller” a low key evening event put on by bikeportland.org. I’m a huge fan of the bicycle master plan update (that Roger has been working on) and it was neat to hear some perspectives about the design process and what it entailed. lot’s of compromise – that’s what. We demonstrated at the bike brown bag with success and heard from some moms about their kid cargo needs and got some great tips on juice bottle retention devices.
On the 20th, I attended the Oregon Bicycle Tourism Partnership Group semi-annual meeting and rocked it to the core. We had great idea brainstorms and checked in with each other on real progress towards shared goals. The Rideoregonride.com website is amazing and I announced that the Bicycle Business League was taking part in the regional networking. Great progress from the Colombia Gorge Historical Highway restoration effort, a nice introduction from the Intertwine Trail Network, and thank you to Travel Oregon for your facilitation and hard work. The free small business services from Travel Oregon have surpassed ANY OTHER local tourism organization. Hint, hint – other local tourism organization.
Our good friend “fool” from the Shift list (among other advocacy efforts) threw a great housewarming party and we crashed the dance floor with eighties intensity and Chromeo Bonafied Lovin’. Bike polo continues on into the winter with the hard core axles of evil getting together three times a week. Good vacation time with the family in Port Townsend, and a food pile to the moon.
Cycocross Single Speed World Championship!
cyclocross, Portland
is always exciting with the cyclocross season in full swing and special events demanding our attention. This past weekend was the Cyclocross Single Speed World Championships (cxsswc ) at Portland International Raceway and it did not disappoint. Team Portland Bicycle Tours – We brought the tour bus (witch happens to be the best cyclocross station imaginable) and rolled in early to set up our pop-up training station. Everyone raced well in the morning, and we continued the day watching the other racers beat away at the course as we waited for the championship. Steady showers for a few days leading up to the races, the course was peanut-butter mud. The rain held off for the morning races but started up about 1 pm and continued to drizzle all night. Yakima brought a huge geodesic dome dubbed “the thunder dome” and there was even a Black Sabbath cover band rocking the night.
Sawdust pile obstacle
The course got re-directed to run through the dome and we cheered from the sidelines with raincoats and home brews in hand. After the final race, there was a the final event in a week long bout between the two cities of Seattle and San Francisco to see who would get to host next years CXSSWC.
After a debate night, waiting to see who the woman’s winner of the championship’s choice city was, and a 5 round mud wrestling gladiator competition. It was decided that Seattle would host next years event. With all the costumes, debauchery, and wild antics going on, I could not help but think about how bizarre this would all seem to a visitor from another land, who might not understand the history and context of such an occasion.
soup at PIR
October 2009
Portlandbicycletours.com
October is a great month in Portland, as local breweries unveil their best seasonal ales and tasty restaurants switch up the menus to reflect seasonal availability. The first week of the month was full of meetings, Re-Direct, PSU, SBDC etc… The shop continues on and I noticed more people stopping by for minor service/ repair. Fender installations and wheel truing taking up some time. I also tuned my cyclocross bike to perfection in anticipation for the Cross Crusade’s first race of the series at Alpenrose. I moved up to a new category this season and because of the random start selection, ended up starting dead last. So far back in the line, that they actually give you a free case of beer to make up for the disadvantage. I came home with a nice case of the Deshutes organic ale. Delicious. I still made it in the top 100 (mediocre) but had a blast, and got some motivation to train more.
cyclosteed
I applied for a position at PSU to be a part of their bike hub, but will have to wait to hear back. After a few solid days of rentals and a glorious brewery tour, I participated in another bike league meeting and went to City Hall. Celebrating at the BTA’s Bicycle Commute Challenge party and rubbing some elbows. We ended up having an after party at the liberty bell and I talked with some members of Umbrella about a possible collaboration. I had another Brewery tour on the 10th and rocked out to another Cross Crusade race on the 11th. I placed 53rd out of 130 or so and felt better about my racing. I have noticed a definite improvement over last season, and I think the close range bike polo maneuvering has played a role in my confidence overall. I seem to get better every time I ride, imagine that. I had the shop open all the next week and felt the rental season starting to slow down. Still doing okay but being aware of the trend. I finally started taking some time to detail my personal fleet of bikes, and worked for a couple days on really dialing in my trusty single speed commuter bike. I made some new signs and have been doing a lot more designing in my sketchbook.
I had a successful web design meeting with Dave and an awesome soak at the Kennedy School with Drew. It seems to be this time of year that I take time to get together with friends for dinner more often, and I love sharing food. I attended a Bicycle Brown Bag with Timo and the PBOT team with Graig Raisman as the guest speaker, talking about bike/ traffic infrastructure and design, and a sideshow of what he ad experienced in traveling throughout Europe. Great discussion topic, and very interesting with the recent release of the Bicycle Master Plan update, and understanding some of the new designs. I feel a Portland Bikeability Ride coming on – Master Plan Update style. A busy week for service, I need more space to store bikes! I worked on my xc bike more (constant love needed ) to race again on the 18th. Great course, a little bumpy maybe, but a gnarly hill at the end of the laps took it out of just about everybody. More bike polo games and drinks with the PSU Transportation class (some good friends of mine) we talked about the future of the street car here and what the Max line will be doing. Yet another Brewery Tour on the 26th, an awesome couple that spend their time traveling for a living – writing reviews for a PR firm. Good, work – they said they would leave a review on my Google Business Listing. Check it out!
crusing the waterfront
On the 27th I attended and testified at a Portland City Planning Commission Hearing about the Bicycle Master Plan Update for 2030. What a turnout – and strong community support for the plan. Several local planners and advocates stepped up to let their appreciation and occasional concern be heard. I never realized how easy it is to take part in the process of community design.
The morning of the 28th I attended another Oregon Manifest event with Creating Conversations. The event was titled: Creating Conversations Through The Love Of Bicycles. It was an interesting conversation/ interview with a panel of local bike business owners. Then an event that evening: Dreams on Wheels, where we heard from Mikael Coleville Andersen of Copenhagenize.com speak about cycling infrastructure in Copenhagen and the cultural differences between the scene stateside and abroad. It was a very entertaining evening at Oregon Manifest.
We finished off the month with a couple more tours and explored the possibilities of our own seasonal offerings. A rain gardens tour comes to mind with all the storm water swishing about. We are excited here at the shop to visit the next Bicycle Brown Bag topic: cargo hauling. Trailers provided.
September 2009
Eat, Art, and Wine Tour
Cha Cha Cha! Had a great kickoff to the fall with a tasty local foods and arts ride during a downtown First Thursday. I spent the first few days contacting a production artist about our new fliers and trying to improve on our already fantastic brochure. I worked on our marketing strategy and we officially started accepting twittpay. ( a combination of twitter and pay pal) We had a great polo match that first week and played in to the night, aware of the rainy months to come. I had the shop open for tours and rentals most days – pleasantly surprised at the continuing business on the slightly overcast days.
In celebration of a great season, I treated myself to a new computer and got to work using it to catch up on electronic details. The most time consuming of all the details. The month moved along as I overhauled an aging Schwinn cruiser and worked a contract at the Portland Convention Center for bike rentals at a conference they were having. I supplied bikes for an edible plants ride. That’s a great idea! I attended another Wend Magazine benefit party (never a disappointment) and raced in the mini-bike cyclocross competition. I had lots of good friends at the party and we had delicious micro-brews.
Five Speed Step Thru
The middle of the month was full of shop maintenance and a little new construction. We are shifting with the seasons here at Portland Pedalworks and doing exciting things like taking inventory and cleaning house. We had a good Bicycle Business meeting for the first time in a couple weeks and I spent the week preparing for my annual vacation hike to the North.
For the rest of the month, I hiked on the Pacific Crest Trail (section K in Washington) and spent time with my family in Port Townsend.
Glacier Peak Wilderness
Vacationvision
