“Finisher” badge at the end of the
2006 STP.
(Photo © J. Maus)
It’s time to chime in and share your weekend bike adventures.
Are you one of the almost 10,000 folks who rode in the Seattle-to-Portland Classic this weekend? If so, we’d love to hear how it went. I’ve heard people do the 200 mile route on everything from unicycles to skateboards. What crazy things did you see?
Even if you don’t do the ride, you might want to swing by Holladay Park near the Lloyd Center for the big, post-ride party.
Also this weekend is The Night Ride.
Organizer Ayleen Crotty says the event is slated to “just a completely awesome night to be out on a bike in Portland! I can’t wait.” 2,000 riders are expected to be a part of the late-night ride action. There will be an all-you-can-eat, midnight doughnut feast, fire jugglers, a disco party stop, funky costumed “luna”-tics, and much more.
Whether you’re doing an organized ride, or just tooling around the neighborhood, share your adventures in the comments below.
A coworker and myself are leading a geocache by bike ride Sunday morning. We are leaving from the Division St. Bike Gallery at 8:30. If you are not familiar with geocaching, check it out at http://www.geocaching.com. Feel free to call the Division Bike Gallery and ask for Adam or Dave for any questions you may have.
If you\’re hanging around the house with some time to kill, how about making your own pad for your Xtracycle? Matt Menely and I made a video to show you how.
http://www.exitshoes.com/exit/2008/07/11/make-an-xtracycle-pad/
@Shoemaker
Nice movie! Now I will at least now why I\’m paying so much when I buy my pad. 🙂
Just finished riding from 194th and Cornell to NE PDX (Alberta area) over the west hills on my fixie (i probably should have geared down but I wasn\’t planning on it, needless to say 48/17 was my ratio)! I was out in Hillsboro applying to be on Survivor, I think I saw one other bike looking guy there.
Where can I watch the Tour early in the morning this weekend?
The Night Ride gets better every year. Thanks to all the awesome volunteers, performers, and riders that made this edition the best one yet!
Rode from (and returned to) an abandoned fur trading outpost (the \’Couve) down to the NoPo Pix on Williams, for the Bastille Day block party (Vive La France!). Innumerable bikes were parked roundabout. Missed the bicycle scavenger hunt in the a.m., but the evening was noisily pleasant. Almost closed the place (stayed late).
This was my first careful – with lots of standing in the pedals – bike ride in three weeks after a rib-buster on the MUP leading from Union/MLK to Hayden Island. Still no memory of WTF happened there, but tonight was perfect weather for riding and the usual perfect hospitality of the Pix.
Since I had coffee\’d-up at the Pix the night the crash occurred, it seemed fitting to get back in the saddle by picking up there again. I\’m feeling all the better now for having such a beautiful ride.
JL
I rode STP 3x in \’97, \’98, & \’99. I got it out of my system. Yesterday I rode 70 miles from Salem to Red Bridge Rd east of Albany and back. Home thermometer said 96 when I was done. Planing on going to Silver Falls SP today. Hope it won\’t be as hot.
We rode from SW to Mississippi Street Fair and Pix Bastille party. Then over to Washington Park for free Willy Wonka play. Great ride home up and over Terwilliger.
I wish I had known earlier about the Geocache ride. We enjoy geocaching and would have joined this morning\’s ride…
Was awesome seeing a bunch of 1 day STP finishers yesterday. Rode home with 2 young guys who finished the ride in 14 hours (no big shorts, no clipless pedals, no worries).
I spent the last 3 weeks constructing an acoutically engineered no-trailer on-bike sound system. The Night Ride was the first time we used it. I wasn\’t sure if people were annoyed or entertained until I accidentally hit the pause button on the wireless remote in the middle of the B-52\’s \”Private Idaho\”
The crowd behind me let out a collective \”hey!\”
The system worked perfect & I had a great time. (except for the hills, 70+ lbs on the bike will do that!)
Thanks for organizing the ride Ayleen & others!
Rode the Night Ride last night and as we got over the bridge to the first turn, we saw a good handful of people coming in from StP. Really neat! It was a little before 10:00.
Rode from West Union to Pacific City on Saturday. Got in about 84 miles. Beautiful scenery at PC while sitting on the patio at Pelican Brew Pub.
Lost 8 pounds riding the one day STP yesterday. Completely knackered.
I did the Night Ride with my brother and sister-in-law– this was the first organized bike ride for both of them, and the first ride since childhood for sis.
We were \”accountants on vacation\” (complete with ol ten-key strapped to the rack on my bike– thing weighs about 20 pounds, I swear!), wearing hawaiian shirts and proudly flying our 1040 flags.
Yes, we\’re accountants. We know how to have fun, though.
Sis was pretty worn out by the first rest stop, but we took it easy as was the plan and she finished well. We all had a blast; the organization did not disappoint!!
Didn\’t know about the Mississippi street fair, but it was cool to have the street to ourselves for a while. And as usual, all the neighbors along the route were outside waving and having a good time. The weather was perfect, and the route was great.
My brother did comment that the BTA guy spent a lot of time talking about stopping at stop lights and stop signs, but hardly anyone did so. He\’s also a newbie rider, but he and sis were awesome about stopping where required by law.
Lots of great costumes and awesome people!!
Hi, Beekeeper, and the guys looking for Bob!
bought a pair of what i thought were complete downtube shifters at the recyclery swap meet. dude charged me $15(!), but i figured, it\’s the last thing i need to get this bike going, it\’s worth it. brought em home and discovered the levers matched, the parts were a mismatched pile with not even enough parts to get one complete shifter going. pissed, but i still had a good day riding around. viva city bikes, at least they\’re still cool and reasonable.
Went on the \”40 Mile Loop\” of eastside PDX. (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/East-Side-40-Mile-Loop). I\’m really confused about this whole 40 mile loop b/c even the official map has multiple trails on it and if you add them all up, it is clearly > 40 miles. Regardless, was a great day for a ride, perhaps even a bit too warm towards the end.
I have done thirteen STPs between 1985 and 2002. I try to ride a different bike on each one, the craziest being an old school funky five speed Dahon folder with the sixteen inch wheels. That one was the slowest, but the MOST fun.
I have seen unicycles, BMX, fixies, clown bikes, three wheelers with loud sterios playing hip hop, even back in the 1980s. It is more than just a roadie thing. I advise anyone go do an STP. Its Tour De Fat all day long, or Tour De France if you choose to stay up front.
Tankagnolo Bob (No, havent done it on Tanko yet, a 42 lb bike is a bit tooo heavy)
\”I rode STP 3x in \’97, \’98, & \’99. I got it out of my system.\”
bicycler1951 #8 above
I rode STP in \’97 & \’98 as well. I remember seeing you! They say those were the two rainiest years of the event. Lucky us. I think it was \’99 or \’00 when they moved the date to July for better weather. Too bad, cause I won\’t do it again.
This morning we left at 7am and rode from Vancouver to Crown Point. Beautiful day up there today.
Rode my first STP surrounded by friends and many great riders & organizers.
200 miles. One day. 11 hours 34 minutes of ride time.
Happy to be done. Wonderful experience.
Yesterday I did a test run ride from my house in Ladd\’s to the Barbur Transit Center – now that I\’ve scored a bike bx there, I needed to know how much time to allow to get there in time for my bus to Salem. The test was invalid, however, because I had a ripping tailwind . . .
Today a friend and I rode from my house to the I-205 bike path, took that over to Washington and then took followed SR 14 to Bridge of the Gods, over the bridge and back home via the HCRH bike path (which involved some portage over a landslide), and the HCRH itself (and about a mile on I-84). Stopped at Multnomah Falls for a tasty ice cream sandwich, and again in Troutdale for a popsicle . . .
I bought a bike! Used but in great condition year-old jorg & Olif (Azor) Oma, for half price. Thanks, craigslist, and Jonathan for helping ignite my interest in Dutch bikes.
First STP ever! The most amazing sight was the view crossing over the Columbia River, with a string of bikers stretching along Highway 30 for as far as the eye could see. I was kind of embarassed that the part of the route through Portland was so ugly and industrial, while the Seattle portion was so spectacular (Lake Washington, what a knock-out!)
So many fun people, so many Cliff Bars, and so many great spandex/sock tans. It was great.
First STP ever! The most amazing sight was the view crossing over the Columbia River, with a string of bikers stretching along Highway 30 for as far as the eye could see. I was kind of embarassed that the part of the route through Portland was so ugly and industrial, while the Seattle portion was so spectacular (Lake Washington, what a knock-out!)
So many fun people, so many Cliff Bars, and so many awesome spandex/sock tans. It made me fall in love with the Pac NW all over again.
This was my first STP and I decided to do it in one day. The last 50 miles were rough, but at the end it was worth it.
The most crazy thing I saw was a bunch of nutjobs sprinting up the hill on NW Wardway St in NW Portland right before entering the Pearl District. I could barely move at that point!
I have ridden ten STP\’s (missed this year) and hope to ride a few more. This ride is the lesson in forced cyclist tolerance that NW drivers need. We are having an effect. My first (1983) I and other riders experienced honks and harassment, my most recent (\’05) none at all. To quote Johnny Lydon, \”We\’re the future, YOUR future!\”
StP this year was great – a LOT better than last year. Highway 30 was the best it\’s been of the 3 StPs I\’ve been on, with only one yahoo yelling \”get off the road\”. Washington was likewise restrained this year, except for a lone yahoo with their hand surgically attached to their horn (a continuous honk – I was hoping the heat of the horn would set their engine compartment on fire – not very charitable, I know)
Minor nitpick – the pic of Dat above is from the 2006 StP, not last year\’s as stated in the post.
Great weekend!
First STP for my wife and I, and our 23rd wedding anniversary. Good weekend, perhaps a little on the warm side, but still lots of fun.
I may have to try it in one day….
I didn\’t do the ride but I was the PDX support team for some family riding down from Seattle. All went well until Burlington (just north of Sauvie Island bridge on Hwy 30) when my Dad, looking down to check his map, wrecked on a car illegally parked in the bike lane. He was fine but his bike snapped in two. The car owner, who also had two other cars parked in the bike lane, moved the vehicles only after we told him we were calling the police to remove the illegally parked cars. The car owner said \”I thought this whole thing was done yesterday,\” somehow not noticing the thousands of cyclists riding past his house on Sunday.
Obviously many people managed to ride past the cars without crashing (although I did see people having a tricky time at this spot when there was a lot of bike and car traffic converging at once), but does anyone know the policy on this sort of accident? We have plate #s and the guys address.
I did my fifth STP this year. I got into Chehalis really early and thought \”Maybe I should try and do it in one day.\” I\’m glad I didn\’t; the heat would have killed me.
I hope the Night Ride and the STP don\’t overlap next year. I was really looking forward to the Night Ride, but I had already plunked down my $$ for the STP.
This is my first time riding in the STP. I rode in the two-day course and I found it easy. In fact, after I finished, I continued riding home another eight miles to my home in Milwaukie.
This is one of the best ways to commute between Seattle and Portland (the other is by train). It was really interesting to tour the forgotten backroads instead of I-5.
Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat!
This is my 4th STP and maybe the most fun. Instead of planning to ride with particular partners or to ride alone, I ended up running into several friends and having a nice rotation of riding partners.
Craziest thing I saw – 2 skateboarders. They must have to change sides (of the foot they put down) or wouldn\’t their hip fall off at the end of the day?
Other crazy thing – a 10 year old kid on the back of a tandem during the quick descent down the bridge into Oregon yelling at his dad \”HANDS FIRMLY ON THE BRAKE LEVERS! HANDS ON THE LEVERS, DAD!\”
Yes I would do it again. It\’s great PR for cyclists.
first STP. absolutely LOVED IT! good times, good times.
Saturday night was a classic summer evening – went down to the STP finish line to see how a bunch of friends faired on the one day ride. They all made it, tired and happy after drinking their weight in gatoraide!
Then I rode, passing all kinds of street parties, on up to the Peninsula crossing to volunteer for the Night Ride movie stop. They showed the whole Filmed by Bike festival – including \”Bent\” – and had mountains of popcorn. Wave after wave of folks came in, a great turnout! I wonder what the count was? When we were done breaking down the set-up, we rode back down Willamette Blvd with the setting moon, to the donut feed at the finish – of which there were tons – and enjoyed the all girl marimba band, sweet!
Gotta love summer evenings in Portland – makes ya forget those soggy 40 degree commutes, what, four weeks ago?!
Nice pic of Dat! Way to go, man!