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Weekend media roundup

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Been a ton of bike-related articles in the news lately so I thought I’d just put them all in one post.

The August 19th issue of the Portland Business Journal did an in-depth piece called, A passion for pedaling: Commuters switch gears, turn to bikes for transportation. The article focused on everything from Molly Cameron, owner of Veloshop to the Bike Commute Challenge and quotes from all the usual suspects. Great to see a Biz Journal devote so much space to the bike scene. The headline alone will make people think.

This week’s Portland Mercury noticed BikePortland.org and your “close call” submissions in their “In Other News…” section (scroll down).

The Willamette Week printed a few more bike-related letters in their current issue, including one from the ever-vigilant and hard-working Jessica Roberts of the BTA (Bicycle Transportation Alliance).

And of course, I can’t leave out the Oregonian’s Metro section front page story on bike safety. Staff writer Harry Esteve, did a solid job presenting the facts behind the bike safety issue. He also took the time to talk to a bunch of folks in the bike community to make sure he got the full story.

And finally, this interesting story from today’s San Francisco Chronicle. It covers the parallel rise of SF’s creative bike culture crowd with the more formal advocacy crowd. What really struck me were the similarities between their bike scene and ours here in Portland. Just substitute “San Francisco” for “Portland” and “the San Francisco Bike Coalition” with “the BTA”. I especially like the headline: Wheels of revolution turning toward cheap, friendly transit.

First look: Trek’s new “Portland”

trek \"Portland\"

As you may remember from a comment to a previous post, Trek Bicycles is planning on a new bike model for 2006 called the “Portland”. This last weekend, Trek held its annual dealer-only show and photos of this new bike are just now starting to show up on web forums.

I was hoping for more of a city/urban warrior type of bike, but it looks like Trek decided to make the Portland a winter training bike for racing enthusiasts. It also looks like it would easily double as a cyclocross bike just by adding some knobby tires.

Either way, it’s pretty cool that the largest bike brand in the world has been duly inspired to name a bike after us.

In other news, I have recently heard that some movers and shakers in the local bicycle industry are meeting to discuss the feasibility of a home-grown bike brand. This potential new bike company would specialize in commuter and city bikes and would leverage Portland’s bike-friendly reputation in its marketing plan.

[Thanks for the tip David! Photo taken from a post to the forums at RoadBikeReview.com by “unclefuzzy_ss”]