Tis the season to light up your bike (and then show it off)

Filmed by Bike 2009-47

Time to light up your bike!
(Photo © J. Maus)

It’s way too dark too early in Portland these days, and it happens to be the holiday season, so what better time to light up your bike and then spread the cheer by riding around to light displays throughout the city?

If you’re looking to festive-ize your bike, Aaron Tarfman recently shared a few sources via the Shift email list. Tarfman says he’s already gotten “a lot of compliments’ for the lights on his frame and now plans to wrap his wheels in them too. He recommends the LED variety which you can order online here, here or here for about $7 to $15. I’ve also found them at Sunlan Lighting on North Mississippi Ave.

Once you’ve got your bike fully adorned, you’ve got two great options this Monday to join a group ride and see the local light displays. For the second year in a row, North Portland-based Pedal Bike Tours will lead their Pedal Past the Lights ride. They plan to start off this family-friendly ride with hot (non-alcoholic) drinks and a decoration contest then head out to Winter Wonderland at PIR, which, as some of you may recall, will have a special bike-only night this year!

Perennial ride leaders and bike fun promoters Carye Bye and Esther Harlow will also lead a ride on Monday night. Their ride — which starts at a bar — will loop through residential light displays in North Portland and will also end up out at PIR’s Winter Wonderland.

See the Shift Calendar for full details on both rides, and we hope to see you out there!

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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Dave
14 years ago

Dutch light campaign from the national bicycle awareness campaign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsCWt1tBUzk&feature=player_embedded

The tagline at the end is: If you want to get noticed, just turn your light on 🙂

carye bye
carye bye
14 years ago

For the Neon Night, Holiday Light Ride Pre-ride warming at Moloko Plus, a bar on Mississippi (a couple doors down from No Po Bike Works) instead of a name on the building has some interesting Neon lights.

We’ll gather down the street in front of Sunlan Lighting at 6:15 which also has fabulous nighttime lights (and in the day time as noted above a place to get festive lights for ones’ bike).

Kids are welcome on this adventure, but it will be a longish non loop ride.

Elliot
Elliot
14 years ago

Last year Ikea also offered 10-light strings about 6′ long, powered by two AAs. Only $2-3 each, if I recall.

noah
noah
14 years ago

Sunlan’s not still on Mississippi?

Sorry folks, my mistake. Sunlan is still on Mississippi. I’ve made the edit. — Jonathan

Paul Cone
Paul Cone
14 years ago

I got some battery-powered orange LED lights at Fred’s for 3 or 5 bucks.

Ed
Ed
14 years ago

Mark, I move we elect you Portland’s dark winter evening Bike Visibility Emperor for Life! 😉

Todd
Todd
14 years ago

Walgreens has led light strings that use 2 AA’s for $3.99, I used them all last winter and I’m about to decorate ole Betsy right now!

Ivana Tinkle
Ivana Tinkle
14 years ago

Light up your bike, dress in your favorite xmas costume, santa, elf, reindeer…

Christmas Day Santa Bike ride Dec 25th Starts North Park Blocks at 2PM

Bring goodies for those without a place to go. Make someone feel less alone this day!

Paul Tay
Paul Tay
14 years ago

And, Monkey Electric is still way too expensive for dis por Chinaman.

Bikejuju
14 years ago

Take a picture! Bikejuju.com and GoMeansGo.org are sponsoring a “Dark Days” bikes-in-the-dark photo contest, with prizes of bike lights from Planet Bike and Bikeglow.

Details at Bikejuju.com

Rob E.
Rob E.
14 years ago

Don’t know what you’ve got in Portland, but at the local Rite Aid Pharmacy branch I got a small string of battery powered lights for about 1.99. Takes two AA’s, and, last year at least, it lasted all season, although it took two strings to cover the whole frame.