Bike Season has officially started in Portland. This past weekend was full of interesting and fun bike events for nearly every type of cyclist.
Friday night kicked off with Filmed by Bike. I couldn’t make it this year so I’d love to hear from some of you how it went.
The crowd at Filmed by Bike.
Photo by Clango via Flickr
Photo by Clango via Flickr
And Saturday was very big for bikes. Here’s a rundown:
- More showings of Filmed by Bike.
- Logan’s Run Alleycat saw a solid turnout of messengers and other urban riding enthusiasts. Check out the full report and pics on Dabby’s blog.
- The Sprockettes helped North Portland Bikeworks raise money for their programs. Tom Rolf was there and he snapped some nice photos.
- Portland participated in the nationwide “Step it Up” movement with a bike ride around southeast Portland. Aaron Tarfman has a nice report on that event on his blog.
- And of course, the Oregon Bicycle Summit (where I was) took place in Sisters, Oregon. I’ve written a few reports already, and have more notes to go through. It was an inspiring event that focused on how to move Oregon’s bicycling movement to the next level.
Whew! It’s hard to believe so much is going on…and it’s only April! I’m not sure how I’ll survive the even busier summer months.
How was your weekend? We’d love to hear about your adventures…
I joined 57 other Oregon Randonneurs and Randonneuses for a lovely 300KM loop ride from Forest Grove to the coast and back. A great, and only
slightly damp, time was had by all.
Story:
http://tinyurl.com/34z2e3
Pictures
http://tinyurl.com/36hntu
Other ride reports, and descriptions of upcoming rides, can be found at
http://www.orrandonneurs.org
I had to go to a work meeting on the coast on Saturday morning, and to my surprise I ran into a cyclist I know at the Tillamook Safeway (hi, Andrew!). I was a little embarassed to have driven when they had made it by bike and arrived at the same time…but by now, I couldn’t even do 300 KM in two days. It was inspiring to see so many cyclists out.
Really wanted to do Exchange Cycle’s Step it Up ride but had a friend visiting from out of town, and she can’t ride because of a back condition. Slug Velo also had a Saturday ride that looked fun — did anyone here make that one?
there was the midnight mystery ride, too!
Wait. There’s a bike season? I’ve been hunting ’em all winter!
You asked, Jonathan…
The highlight of my Friday night was watching the intersection of 26th and Clinton slowly fill with bikes, people and music as part of the Filmed by Bike festival. The movies were certainly upstaged by the crowd (both inside and out). Bravo, Ayleen! The Midnight Mystery Ride also followed a tried and true formula to great success. Lowlight: I lost my old Deller cap.
Saturday brought the ECT ride to the Step It Up rally. We took a leisurely ride from People’s Coop up to Northeast where we visited a lovely home built with sustainability in mind. Turns out BTA director Evan Manvel lives nextdoor, so he joined us on the tour. Then we made some bikey artwork with the help of a friend at Ecotrust before moving on to the rally. I didn’t stay at the rally long because I wanted to go find my hat. Amazingly, it had survived the rockous midnight show and following cleanup at the Clinton St Theater. Relieved, I booked it down to the B-Side for Tad’s birthday alleycat which was themed after Logan’s Run. I didn’t have a chance (never do), but the race was great fun, probably the best alleycat I’ve ever ridden in. There were trees to climb, things to draw, Canadians to wrangle, and Sandmen to evade. My “run” concluded with being chased by the birthday boy, caught, and then hitting a parked (and occupied) minivan. All parties emerged relatively unscathed. Then it was off to the North Portland Bike Works benefit at Free Geek, where I was enjoyed a tomale, a massage, some music, and a nap in an office chair.
Sunday I bore witness (and helped a little) with the erection of Kelly Peach’s yurt and the resurrection of the old trampoline behind the Kitten Shack. Many hands made light work. I hardly did anything…except eat some delicious ice cream. Then it was off to the final event of Filmed by Bike…the drawing of the winning Electra Amsterdam raffle ticket at Ayleen’s house. The numbers are posted on the Filmedbybike.org website. I have no idea what I did with mine, but my chances were slim considering that many folks bought lots of tickets and one guy bought 100! By the end of the night, it was pretty clear that bed was a wiser choice than trying to catch Zoobomb’s 3rd run and, being the wise choicemaker that I am, I retired, bruised and battered, at around midnight.
I thought that maybe riding a bike for a living would make weekends like these less appealing. I was wrong.
Jonathan, You may have missed Portland’s coolest bikecultural event of the year! Filmed by Bike was everything that is beautiful about Portland’s version of biketopia.
Trust me Randy…I missed being there! I wish I could have been in two places at once.
A few of us made it to FBB friday night for the 9pm showing. after standing around drinking outside for an about an hour, we made it in and started our drinking there. I had a great time, other than some girl that felt inclined to turn around and glare at us because we were talking and having a good time.
After that I went on the MMR, which ended right down the street from my house, so it was a good time.
Pal Michael and I took a stroll through North Portland/St. Johns.
Beth’s version:
http://bikelovejones.livejournal.com/29291.html
Michael’s version:
http://www.patch.com/words/bicycling/2007/04/14/darn-nice-ride
Fabulous.
flew into a’dam sunday morning