🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏

Product Peek: Gary Fisher Simple City

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Joel Grover, head buyer for the Bike Gallery, stopped by BikePortland headquarters this afternoon to deliver my latest test bike — a Gary Fisher Simple City.

It’s a pretty basic, flat-bar townie bike. It’s got a 3-speed internal hub, rear coaster brake (front hand brake) and it weighs about 25 pounds. I shot a quick little video (below) and might have more photos and a longer review next week:

[Note: Please bear with me on the video. I’m just beginning to make them and I have a lot of improving to do. My hope is that they give you a little different experience than my usual photos. Thanks.]

Pedalpalooza Ride Report: 5 Senses Ride

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[This report was posted to the Shift email list by Emily Wilson.]

Last night, on a balmy June evening approx. 45 bicyclists gathered for a tour to tickle the 5 Senses

We:
– Stopped to Smell the roses in Ladd’s Addition
– Tasted some treats at Voodoo Doughnuts
– Felt the vibration of the pavers and the touch of low hanging branches is Jaimeson Square
– Smelled the hops at Bridgeport and the Felt the cobbles on Marshall
– Enjoyed the sights from the banks of the Willamette, underneath the Fremont Bridge
– Streched our 6th sense, to feel the vibe in the Peace Garden at the top of the East side Esplanade at the Steel Bridge
– Listened to the freight train along the Banfield (because Emily forgot to stop long enough for everyone to hear the kinetic sculpture in
– Waterfront park at the *west* side of the Steele Bridge)
– And made a final stop at Franz Bakery, to smell the bread and take a closer look at all those conveyor belts

All that in 2 hours (!!!)

We had a great ride!

And as a ride leader, I have to say this crowd was very attentive and responsive to the call to ‘saddle up’ and roll to the next stop

And Timo would like to say – “Our riders were sensitive, sensational, and sensible~!”

Bike Delivery Rider (Old Town Pizza)

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Job Title
Bike Delivery Rider

Company/Organization
Old Town Pizza – NE location

Job Description

Portland’s landmark pizzeria has opened a new location in Northeast Portland and is looking for an experienced bike rider to deliver pizza and help out in the restaurant. We’re searching for someone who bikes frequently and has restaurant experience.

At Old Town Pizza, we strive to be a great place to work. If you work 32 hours or more, we provide $600 a year towards a health care fund in your name.

Check us out at oldtownpizza.com

How to Apply
Please send your resume within the email body (attachments won’t be opened) to adam [at] oldtownpizza [dot] com.

Columnist bemoans car use decline: “They are freedom machines”

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“No device is more in keeping with the American spirit than the automobile… they are freedome machines.”
–Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief of CNS News Service.

Terence P. Jeffrey, a columnist with the non-profit Cybercast News Service has penned an interesting article that calls Americans’ languishing love affair with the automobile a “worrisome sign for those who love liberty.”

With the mountain of positive, mainstream news stories about how people are going by bike in record numbers, I was wondering when we’d start to hear from someone with a pro-driving perspective.

Read more

Bike Porn 2

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BIKE PORN 2: BIKEXPLOITATION 21+

Clinton St Theater, SE 26th Ave and Clinton St Take Trimet
8:45pm – 10:45pm
The return of the single most desirable evening of bicycle sexuality presented in vivid digital tape.

*BIKE PORN 2: bikexpolitation*

A program of sexy bike shorts from a variety of artists on the theme, “bikexploitation”

For one night only peer though the BikeSmut-O-Scope![TM]

Please try to arrive early and refrain from not groping your MC, full facial required to ride.
Revphil, revphil at gmail daht comm, BikeSmut.com

Video, witness, reveal more about Taser incident

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“He was definitely making a racket and making it loud intentionally… he was trying to get people’s attention.”
— John Henry Dale, a witness to the Phil Sano Tasing incident

On Tuesday night, 31 year-old John Henry Dale was waiting for a bus at SE 7th and Morrison when he heard screaming and the buzzing of Tasers.

Looking north, he noticed a bike in the road and two police officers surrounding Phil Sano. Once Dale realized what was going on, he pulled out his cell phone and started recording.

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Business Alliance reports uptick in bike commuting

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The Portland Business Alliance has just released their 2007 Downtown Portland Business Census and Survey and the results show a 20% rise in the number of people who commute by bike.

The survey — which included businesses, government entities and non-profit organizations — found that 6% of downtown employees got to work by bike (last year, the same census found that 5% of employees pedaled to work.)

Here’s the breakdown of other modes:

Read more

At bike industry meeting, Obama pledges funding for cycling

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Obama spoke cards-1.jpg

The bike industry believes in Obama.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Bicycle Retailer & Industry News magazine (known as BRAIN) reports this morning that in a meeting yesterday with bicycle industry representatives, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said if eleceted he would, “increase funding for cycling and pedestrian projects.”

Obama held a private, 20-minute meeting with members of the Bikes Belong board of directors. According to BRAIN,

He also told them he seldom makes promises on what he would do if elected president, but that this was a promise he would keep.

Read more