Weekend open thread: Share your bike fun

It’s beautiful outside so I hope everyone gets out on a bike this weekend.

The girls and I are headed up to Astoria for the Cross Crusade Halloween Weekend.

What do you have planned? A ride to see the gorgeous fall colors? An excursion to Sauvie Island? Or maybe you’re just running errands and pedaling around the ‘hood.

Share your two-wheeled adventures in the comments below…

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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frodo baggins
frodo baggins
16 years ago

I plan on finding a suitable walking stick in the west hills for my frodo baggins costume post fun sunny hill climbing.

Cecil
16 years ago

Just got back from pre-riding the route for the Oregon Randonneurs \”Verboort Sausage Populaire.\” A gorgeous route on a gorgeous day – who could ask for more?

Rickey
Rickey
16 years ago

Helped with the new riders on a Portland Velo ride. The group ahead of us witnessed a car flipping with drunk driver at the wheel. Driver tried to run but one of the cyclist in the group nabbed her until police arrived. Next week the Verboort Sasuage ride. And Sunday a 200k. The person who talked me into that one is now taking it easy and not riding the Verboort ride.

Kevin Wagoner
Kevin Wagoner
16 years ago

Willamette Meteorite Ride Oct 2007

This pic contains the details of a ride my friend John led us on.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinwagoner/1778352507/

Lynne
Lynne
16 years ago

Rickey clearly posted before he even took a shower 🙂

The Portland Velo route today was GORGEOUS! The view from the top of Plumlee out over the vineyards (turning gold),the pond,, the deciduous trees and nursery stock (strips of red, orange, yellow) was breathtaking (never mind the climb to get there).

Next weekend I\’m doing the same rides as Rickey.

Check out the upcoming Oregon Randonneurs Verboort Sausage Populaire!
http://www.orrandonneurs.org/sftest/2007_Verboort_Info.html

DR
DR
16 years ago

My riding partner and I biked to Pacific City today. Left around 8 a.m. to rather cool weather. It was really cold heading down the summit on highway 6. For the most part, the drivers were fine, but one jerk, nothing serious. The weather in Pacific City was cloudless and warmish. This was our latest ride to the beach. A great day.

JBH
JBH
16 years ago

Today was 55 mile road ride with some buds, then tomorrow it\’s off road on the Lewis River Trail 31.

michael downes
michael downes
16 years ago

Putting the finishing touches to my new fixie. Finally figured out the bug in my disc brake (yes, my fixie has a disc) so rode down to Oaks Bottom and along the Springwater by Braille and moonlight. The river looked stunning in shades of silver and slate. Met a bunch of riders on a Halloween Alley cat who invited me to a party but Little Man has a cold and I got no sleep last night so I had to pass. Next time though….

thebikelady
thebikelady
16 years ago

A friend and I rode from Beaverton out to Wilsonville via lots of rural roads and rolling hills. The colours were wonderful. I took my new TREK FX9 out and it performed fantastic. After 16 years with the same bike, having a new bike was a special treat. Twas certainly a beautiful day for bicycling! Bless everyone on the road with safety and visibiity!

N.I.K.
N.I.K.
16 years ago

Trying to hammer against the oiks posting over at http://www.commissionersam.com/node/2951#comment as well as wishing more sensible BikePortland posters would jump in and help dispel myths, untruths, and \”I think\” bullshit reasoning.

lisa
lisa
16 years ago

All I got to do was ride the 7 miles home from work today, but it was great!! Going out in the west hills over to Sauvies Island tomorrow, it should be beautiful!

patrick
16 years ago

we pedalled out to the farm to do some work. catching chickens! it was hilarious and invigorating and a beautiful day for cycling and urban farming.

Crash N. Burns
Crash N. Burns
16 years ago

Astoria or bust!

beth h
16 years ago

I decided to take my own private Fall Colors Ride on Saturday afternoon. An easy, mellow jaunt through Alameda, Sabin, Alberta and Woodlawn neighborhoods. The late afternoon slanted through the trees and backlit everything in soft gold. The colors were simply breathtaking, especially on the alders and Japanese maples near my house. Even the trees which had already lost most of their leaves were beautiful in their own craggly way. Nobody paints quite like mother nature, and seeing it at 30 mph from a car window wouldn\’t have been the same at all.

Kevin
Kevin
16 years ago

I joined a few folks on a slow ride in honor of Brett Jarolimek on Saturday afternoon. Probably not well publicized, only on shift and OBRA. About 13 of us. Nice weather for a ride, sad that we had to be out there…AGAIN so soon

GregSea
GregSea
16 years ago

10 – I have an idea – let\’s take up a collection and threaten to buy the 5 most \”aggressive\”, \”crazy\”, \”scofflaw\” cyclists in each NW city that we can find and buy them (used) Suburbans, Expeditions or maybe Unimogs and fund them to commute in those for a year.

It\’ll be a big sacrifice for both us (and the bikers), but at least it\’ll remind those anti bike idiots what the real threat to both communities is – Crazy four wheel vehicle drivers… 🙂

Bikealicious
Bikealicious
16 years ago

Here\’s an idea for calling out idiot drivers (and cyclists): Join \’twitter\’ and text the license plate number & short message of what happened where to: http://twitter.com/bikealicious

I\’m not normally so agro about this, but maybe some sort of public record of people watching each other will help everyone drive and ride a bit more safely.

JustAPerson
JustAPerson
16 years ago

If you are kind of nervous about where to bike in Wash> county, but don\’t want to map it out… you can ride out Cornell to Thompson (~2 mi), right to Skyline Drive (~ 1 mi), right to Springville (~ 4 mi), left at Springville to end at NW 185th (~ 4 mi), left to W. Union (~ 1 /2 mi), right some miles to.. uh… well here\’s the thing… if you go past Cornelius Pass (which you pretty much NEVER want to ride on) and keep taking rights, you can circle back to Skyline Drive about 10 mi NW of Portland. You could be on roads like Helvetia, Bendemeer, Old Corn. Pass (oops maybe that circled back to Corn. Pass, so I turned around) etc. If you get to the Rock Creek Restaurant take a right (Old Corn. Pass?) and you get to the big intersection of Corn. Pass, Old Corn. Pass, and Skyline, by the store. Just keep straight on Skyline with store on left, back to NW Portland.
I don\’t know if this helps anyone, but it\’s nice riding– did it to go back from PCC Rock Creek home the other day.
Safe riding everyone – Marc

K-Man
16 years ago

Watched Jonathan run around in pink fishnets.

Lynne
Lynne
16 years ago

I was supposed to paint the garage, but Cecil called. Great ride up on Skyline.

Just finished painting the garage 🙂

Zaphod
16 years ago

After several YEARS of wanting to do something like this, I took the MAX to it\’s westernmost stop then found my way back home on a perfect fall day. I learned a few things like Pumpkin Ridge road turns to gravel and 120PSI tires do not fare well on this particular kind of gravel. Executing plan B involved another gravel road: Dixie Mountain Road. Then plan B becomes plan C because Dixie is closed after a bit. Plan C involves road names that I forget but on that road is an amazing place to buy and see all kinds of bamboo. The route finally worked out and with tired legs I was happy to see the northernmost point of Skyline. Then I was treated to a nice finale bombing down Germantown and then a nip across the St John\’s Bridge and South until home in NE PDX. What an amazing day. All was perfect but next time I\’m taking the cross bike. 60 miles in total.

erin g.
erin g.
16 years ago

Seeing Mr. Maus dressed as a sassy pink-clad Sprocket was probably the highlight of my bike fun this weekend…which was only accentuated by free-flowing beer and plenty of good friends, of course. Serious props to the Franzia boxed wine costume guy, too. Quote of the day:\”Yes, I\’m functional!\” Now, that puts the fun in functional, if you ask me.

Dabby
Dabby
16 years ago

We got back from a 2 week Colorado mt. biking trip on Friday.
Epic rides, epic races, epic parties.

I am writing an article on it tonight, hopefully Jonathan will post it here for me when I am done.

Do yourself a favor, and go ride in the \’Rado.

N.I.K.
N.I.K.
16 years ago

Can\’t wait to see the piece, Dabby. Apart from the Rockies getting decimated in the Series, Colorado has been jumping up as a place to visit on my \”only lived in the northeast and midwest until about a year ago\” radar. Solo vacation imminent…

CN
CN
16 years ago

My mind was free to wander, since I didn\’t have to share the I-84 bike path with anybody on Sunday afternoon. And I came up with an awesome idea! On Washington state freeways, they double traffic fines in construction zones. Why not pass a law for Portland that doubles or triples fines for moving violations wherever bike lanes or sharrows are laid down on the asphalt? \”Didn\’t see the lines? Triple the fines!\” It even rhymes.

Mmann
Mmann
16 years ago

Astoria Cyclocross was awesome. I was sceptical about the blend of solemn and silly, but it was and it seemed very right. Jonathan was pretty, in a manly kind of way. But the best show I saw was on the big hill in the men\’s B race. Sacha White (Mr. Vanilla), all dressed up, pulled over on the hill and stood by the side with a folded towel over his arm, calling \”Mr. Stewart, Mr. Stewart!\” Took Mr. Stewart\’s bike, did a valet run-up, wiped it down and handed it over. VERY classy!

Kronda
16 years ago

Friday we took a \’most dangerous roads\’ ride…from our house in N pdx, down Interstate, across Broadway bridge, through the hotel, I mean, the door zone and then our reward, a scenic leaf strewn ride up Terwilleger to Shari\’s house where we tried on and purchased new Sorella gear. Home through the cemetery and up the Esplanade in a 15 mph headwind.

Good times.

Michael Wolfe
16 years ago

I rode out to Estacada from my house in SE with my friend Carolyn to check PGE\’s progress on clearing Faraday Road. Good news, it\’s cleared and re-opened! I put a post on the Routes forum with some more details.

Anonymous
Anonymous
16 years ago

I got to live vicariously through my barber, who was going out to Astoria for the Halloween crusade. But also got some riding in running some errands.

Aaron
Aaron
16 years ago

Exchange Cycle Tours had a beautiful ride along the Fruit Loop at Hood River. We had wonderful views, gorgeous apples, yummy cookies, BBQ, and of course Pear brandy. All was followed by a fun doughnut making party with apple cider, doughnuts and pear brandy.
Big thanks to Carrie Smith for leading the ride.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Matt.Picio/ECTFruitLoopRide
http://picasaweb.google.com/reber221/ECTHoodRiverFruitLoopRide

If you think the fun ends in October, get ready for the Austin hot springs ride next weekend
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExchangeCycleTours/message/498

Michael
Michael
16 years ago

I went on my most spur-of-the-moment tour. Took off Friday, loaded the bike and pedaled from Sunnyside Rd to Scappose, and then cut over to Vernonia (up a mountain for 15 miles). Camped in Vernonia, pedaled north to Astoria. Checked into a motel. Then pedaled south along the coast hoping to reach Tillamook. Got as far as Nehalen St Park (stinking head wind) and camped out there. Then pedaled to Tillamook and took a $10 bus ride from Tillamook to Portland. Then pedaled home. It was a great weekend.

I ran into a couple of guys (Joseph and Chris) who were heading to Astoria for the Cyclecross race. Joseph makes bicycle frames (Ahearne Cycles) and Chris makes stained glass. I rode with them for the day on Saturday.

alx
alx
16 years ago

mt. hood…15 mile creek loop on friday. Saturday, down lookout and dog river, then back up and down dog river. The trails are in great condition, can\’t wait to get back there this weekend.