At the shop's opening night back in December.(Photos © J. Maus)

Custom Bicycles of Portland, a high-end, custom bike retail shop and fitting studio that opened in Northwest Portland back in December, is closing its doors.
Owner Adam Reiser says the "perfect storm" of a bleak local and national economic picture hit his business hard. But [...]

Have no fear, bike hero is here!

Is there someone in a mask, riding around Portland offering help to bikers in need? According to a message on the Shift email list last night, there just might be:
"Hey, does anyone know who this "bike phantom" character is? I was riding on NE 33rd last night and [...]

Outside Ira's shop.-Slideshow below-(Photos © J. Maus)

On Saturday, Portland bike builder Ira Ryan hosted an "Open Shop" event. Ryan, a former bike messenger who grew up in Iowa, billed the event as a chance to, "visit and see where I work, see some new bikes I have been working on, or just talk about [...]

Lots of news this past week. Here we go...

Memorial for Kevin Black in Ballard, WA(Photo by Hugger Industries)

- Transportation for America reports that attempts to strip the transit funding from the federal stimulus package have been unsuccessful -- for now. Transit funding still makes up only about 1% of the package, despite increasing calls [...]

Here's the official word from Cycle Oregon about their 2009 routes:
“The Mythical State of Jefferson” and “Cycle Oregon University”
Week Ride route crosses Southern Oregon and delves into Northern California; Weekend Ride will be based at Western Oregon University in Monmouth
PORTLAND, Ore. – Feb. 5, 2009 – Cycle Oregon announced at its annual Kickoff Party today [...]

Senator Jim DeMint

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced an amendment last night that would prohibit funding of "bicycle routes" and paths from the economic stimulus package that's working its way through Capitol Hill right now.
According to staffers in Representative Earl Blumenauer's office who are following the bill closely, Sen. DeMint's amendment was supported in a speech [...]

Veer movie poster.

Veer, a feature length documentary film that focuses on Portland bike culture, made it's world premiere at the Victoria Film Festival last week. The screening was the first time the film had been seen outside of Portland.
Victoria resident Lauren Warbeck was at the premiere. She wrote via email that so many [...]

[This is the second (and final) part of our In-Depth report by Libby Tucker on how bikes fit into Portland's streetcar plans. Read the first installment here.]

Yesterday, we left off with a discussion about bikeway and streetcar track design in the Pearl District. Mia Birk, a former bike coordinator for the City of [...]

If you're looking to work at a bike shop in Portland, a great opportunity was just listed on the BikePortland Job Listings.
Learn more about it here:

Salesperson/Mechanic -- Veloce Bicycles

Job Title
Salesperson/ Mechanic
Company/Organization
Veloce Bicycles
Job Description
Seasonal part time position for an experienced bicycle salesperson/ mechanic. Position is predominantly sales, as such mechanical aptitude is a definite plus although not a deal breaker. Expect 20+ hours per week throughout the summer and into fall.
How to Apply
E-mail resumes to info@velocebicycles.com. Please include the text "Sales Position" in the [...]

Cross-section detail of new bike/ped improvements on Morrison Bridge.(Currently, there is only a 5-foot sidewalk.)

An estimated $3.2 million project to improve the bike and pedestrian facilities on the Morrison Bridge -- that was first identified in 1994 (yes, 1994) -- is finally set for construction.
Today I confirmed with Multnomah County (they own the bridge) spokesman [...]

"The development of this type of network will dramatically boost bicycle use beyond the City’s nationally-leading levels. The benefits to the City of bicycle use are dramatic."-- an excerpt from the city's request for federal funding bike boulevards

The City of Portland's Office of Government Relations recently released their 2009 Federal Legislative Priorities.
The 25-page document [...]

The latest Sellwood Bridge project news (browse our previous coverage):
Policy leaders to choose Sellwood Bridge plan
The Policy Advisory Group for the Sellwood Bridge Project will meet on Friday, February 6 at 3:00 pm in the boardroom of the Multnomah Building at 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd. to choose a locally preferred alternative. The decision is [...]

Libby Tucker

[Publisher's note: This article is by BikePortland's In-Depth reporter Libby Tucker. Tucker is a freelance journalist whose stories have been published by the Associated Press, MSNBC.com, The Oregonian, and others. She was most recently a staff writer for the Daily Journal of Commerce where she covered transportation, construction and energy. [...]

A bottle of "Commuter Cuvee".(Photo: Mike Quetel)

When you drink the newly released "Commuter Cuvee" pinot noir by Grochau Cellars, you'll not only raise your spirits, you'll raise money for bike safety.
The new wine is the work of Portland-based winemaker and bike lover John Grochau, with help from his distributor Casa Bruno.
BikePortland reader Mike [...]

Yesterday we unveiled our first video advertisement.
The idea with this new program is to approach select local businesses that have an interesting product/service/idea to share and then create a short film about it (the film is created under our direction and we will never use canned, promotional footage). We then run the video on [...]

Metro Council President David Bragdon.(Photo © J. Maus)

Thursday at Metro, councilors are sure to get an earful when they host a public hearing on the contentious Columbia River Crossing project. The topic will be Resolution No. 09-4023, which Metro describes as:
"For the Purpose of Expressing a Sense of The Council on the Number of [...]