Pedalpalooza kicks off in just over two weeks and the buzz is really starting to build. The official calendar already has 129 events listed and I can sense growing chatter and excitement amongst lovers of bike fun throughout the city. I wanted to bring your attention to some nifty rides and remind you that the deadline for submitting one of your own — if you want it to appear in the printed calendar — is tomorrow (5/22) at midnight. The benefit to having your ride in the printed calendar is that it gets inserted into an issue of the Portland Mercury and gets passed out all around town.

Below are a few gems I noticed on the calendar so far...

The 8-Bit Bike Ride (June 8th) will be a "ride down retro lane, 8-bit style." The ride leader, Zed Bailey, is encouraging everyone to show up wearing their favorite retro video game costume. The ride meets at Avalon Nickel Arcade on SE Belmont for pre-ride video-game playing. He even made this cool video promo...

Even former Portland Mayor Bud Clark is leading a ride. Join Bud and his art-loving friends on Bud Clark's Expose Yourself to Art Ride (June 20th). The inspiration for this ride comes from the iconic and famous "Expose yourself to art" poster which features Bud flashing a statue in downtown Portland 35 years ago. The ride will tour Portland's great public art and it's co-sponsored by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

Pedalpalooza is not just about quirky costume rides. It's a huge soup of different bike fun flavors sure to please nearly anyone. For instance, Cycle Wild founder Matt Picio is leading a Beginner's Bike Camping ride on June 22nd. Matt will lead a group out to Stub Stewart State Park for an overnight bike trip perfect for beginners. They'll take MAX out to Hillsboro and then ride just 22 miles north to the park, most of it on the carfree Banks-Vernonia Trail!

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These rides are just a tiny sampling of what's in store next month. Take a look at the calendar and consider adding a ride of your own.

Registration opened yesterday for the 18th annual Bridge Pedal ride. Organizers have unveiled a few new features to the ride this year, including — for the first time ever — registration caps to keep the size of the rides to manageable levels.

As far back as 2005 (which is as far as my archives go), Bridge Pedal has been plagued by massive crowds and bottlenecks. Before the 2006 event, a special meeting of stakeholders was called to help solve issues related to the crowds. In 2007, the ride turned into more of a walk as thousands of people were stalled and forced to walk due to a bottleneck at the Ross Island Bridge. That debacle garnered a front page headline in The Oregonian.

This year, Bridge Pedal owner and chief organizer Rick Bauman has placed registration caps for each of the five rides (and the "Stride"). The 10, eight, and six-bridge rides will be limited to 5,000 people each. The "Kids Pedal", a three-mile ride only for little ones, is limited to 1,000 participants and the "Fremont Express", a 6:00 am ride for faster riders is capped at 1,500. Bauman says he doesn't expect to turn many people away since these caps are set close to the number of registrants they've had in the past several years.

Here's more from Bridge Pedal:

To help ensure all Providence Bridge Pedal bicyclists have a safe, enjoyable ride, there will be limits this year on the number of participants in each event. This will help minimize congestion on the ride, allowing everybody to complete the ride within the event's time limits.

Crowding always has been a problem at Providence Bridge Pedal. We are experimenting this year with generous limits on the number of participants in each event to help ensure that everybody has a fun, safe ride. In addition, all rides need to be complete by certain times before our permits expire.

The ride is set for Sunday, August 11th. Learn more and register at BridgePedal.com.

Everywhere we turn these days it seems there are signs that bicycling means business. Whether it's impacts to tourism, property values, sales receipts, or economic and urban development — the case is very strong. Another major component of the "bikes mean business" mantra relates directly to how having a bike-friendly workplace contributes to the bottom line. Simply put, a bike-friendly workplace can have a significant impact to the physical and financial well-being of businesses and their employees.

At the Portland Employers Bike Summit this Friday, executives, building managers, and HR personnel will get the information and inspiration they need to take advantage of the growing movement to make workplaces more attractive to bicycling and low-car employees.

After a Keynote Presentation by Mia Birk of Alta Bicycle Share (among other things), there will be expert workshops, a Q & A breakout session, and then a post-event group ride and bike parking and bike facility tour. Here's a look at the workshops:

Building a Business Case for Biking Investments

Bicycling is good for the bottom line. Hear from the ranks of executives, HR personnel and building managers how encouraging bicycling has become part of doing business in Portland. Walk away with tools and actions to make your workplace more bike-friendly.

Low Car Commute Benefits

There’s more to commute benefits than bike parking or a free TriMet pass. What benefits haven’t you considered? How can you sell them to your colleagues? Three employers of different sizes will explain how they’ve used holistic commute programs to build company-wide support for every sort of low-car commuting, sometimes at little cost.

The Bike Commute Challenge and Beyond: Getting Coworkers Fired-Up about Biking

You don't have to reinvent the wheel to get your coworkers excited about biking. The BTA's Bike Commute Challenge and existing organized team rides provide great opportunities for both team-building and making bicycling part of your workplace's culture and identity. Leave this workshop empowered with fun ideas, a great list of resources, and success stories you can use at your workplace whatever your position or budget.

Building a Bike Commuting Team Inside Your Company

Form an in-house bike commuter team among company employees to promote bike commuting, advocate for improved bike facilities, and educate colleagues on key aspects of bike commuting.

The event is sponsored by Regence Oregon Health Insurance and partners include the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, the Lloyd Transportation Management Association, Portland Afoot, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. You can still RSVP for the event online.

Portland Employers Bike Summit
Friday, May 17th from 1:00 to 4:00 pm
100 SW Market – Sisters Conference Room
RSVP online

We've got another weekend full of great bike events here in the Portland area. As you plan things out, peruse some of my selections below...

Sharrows to Sparrows Southeast - 9:00 am
This ride is all about accessing natural areas via Portland's vaunted neighborhood greenway system. You'll be led by the two people who made both of those things happen: Greg Raisman of PBOT and Mike Houck of the Urban Greenspaces Institute. The route will cover Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge (which Houck was the lead advocate for), Johnson Creek, and the Sellwood neighborhood. There will also be guest speakers. Bring binoculars! Meet at the Vera Katz Statue on the Eastbank Esplanade. (I did the North Portland version of this ride, see my photo gallery here.)
(More info)

National Train Day Bike Ride - 11:30 am
If you like trains, bikes, and Portland history, you'll love this 15 mile ride. Join urban historian and seasoned bike ride leader Shawn Granton and Dan Haneckow of Cafe Unknown at Union Station in Portland and head north into Vancouver, with stops along the way.
(More info)

Oregon Cycling Challenge
Put on by the folks behind the legendary Race Across America, this event has something for all types of riders. There are three non-competitive rides of 30, 60, and 120 miles; two endurance races of 200 and 400 miles; and a 120 "gran fondo" group ride. There will also be a big expo and party at the starting area in Hillsboro.
(More info)

Sandy Ridge Trail Maintenance Day with Portland Design Works - 10:00 am
This is going to be epic. The great folks at Portland Design Works are hosting a season finale trail maintenance day out at Sandy Ridge. After free coffee and donuts, work parties will split up to buff out the awesome trails, and then everyone will return to the trailhead for beer and brats in the afternoon. Bring work gloves and wear boots!
(More info)

Cyclofemme - 9:00 am and 10: am (two start points)
This is a global ride — intentionally scheduled on Mother's Day — that's intended to help "create a unified voice for women in cycling" by encouraging and empowering more of them to ride. The co-founder of Cyclofemme, Sarai Snyder, will be in Portland for the ride. You can meet her and talk over coffee and donuts while getting a temporary tattoo of the awesome Cyclofemme logo starting at 9:00 am from the Rapha headquarters at 1915 NW Kearney Street. They'll roll out at 9:30 and pick up another group from Clever Cycles (SE Hawthorne and 9th) at 10:00 am. The ride will head out to the Sunday Parkways loop in southeast Portland.
(More info)

Sunday Parkways East Portland - 11:00 am~4:00 pm
The first Sunday Parkways of the year! Enjoy six hours of riding and community bliss thanks to a carfree, seven-mile loop in east Portland that includes two miles on the Springwater Corridor and tons of great activities, food, music and more at Glenwood, Bloomington, Lents, and Ed Benedict Parks.
(More info here)

Banana Belt Race Race #2
It's the second of three races in the Banana Belt series. Join fellow racers for a scenic, 11-mile loop around Hagg Lake.
(More info)

What are your weekend plans? Share more events and ride suggestions in the comments.

What the Bureau of Transportation has done in the past few years to develop a low-stress residential street network has revolutionized Portland neighborhoods. The changes aren't always noticed, but their impact is beginning to emerge. For relative pennies, PBOT has created a (mostly) connected, family-friendly network of streets that are comfortable to bike on and easy to navigate. It's still not perfect (never will be), but the maturity of this network is worth noticing. And at the 'Sharrows to Sparrows' ride held on April 27th, it was hard to miss.

The ride was led by PBOT's Greg Raisman (a dedicated advocate as well as a mastermind behind the city's greenway program) and Mike Houck, a veteran local natural areas advocate who wrote "Wild in the City" and now executive director of the Urban Greenspaces Institute. The basic premise of the ride was to demonstrate how these neighborhood streets have opened up access, not just to destinations like work, school, and the grocery store — but to Portland's great parks and natural areas as well.

Mike Houck.

Greg Raisman (white helmet).

The way PBOT looks at these streets is not just as transportation corridors, but as a means to improve quality of life. Or in the words of Raisman, "We need to get a lot more out of our streets than just moving people around." Indeed, as a PBOT press release announced yesterday, our streets are "the city's largest public space."

St. Johns resident Walker Leiser is a living testament to this approach. He lives on N Central Avenue, one of PBOT's best examples of neighborhood greenways. With his two young daughters in tow, he spoke to the group of riders at one of their first stops. With the street trees, bioswales, curb extensions, speed humps, 20 mph speed limit, crossing improvements, traffic diverters, and other features, Leiser said his street has once again become a neighborhood meeting place. Children wander from porch to porch, people talk to each other. "It's got a real 1950s feel to it," he said.

Walker Leiser.

Just down the street from Leiser's house is the most significant piece of neighborhood traffic diversion I've seen in Portland for years. A full prohibition of through motor vehicle traffic at Central and N Tyler avenues. At this off-set intersection, PBOT has placed 10 large concrete planters that prohibit people from driving north-south on Central or east-west on Tyler. I was amazed I hadn't seen or heard about this before; and I was amazed that PBOT was able to get this design through the public process (they often propose great designs like this, only to compromise when neighbors push back)...

I think it needs a table and a few chairs.

We then made our way through St. Johns and connected to the Peninsula Crossing Trail (via an awkward, sidewalk-riding-against-traffic maneuver on Lombard)...

Just north of Lombard, we connected to a newly completed piece of bike path that makes an important connection between neighborhoods. The path between N Westanna Ave and Newell Avenue seems like a small thing, but it has a major impact. It allows the neighborhood greenway to continue along N Houghton Street and connects thousands of people to the Peninsula Crossing Trail and points beyond...

As we continued at a pleasant pace, I noticed the participants on the ride had an extraordinary age range. A few looked to be retired, and we had kids as young as nine riding their own bikes. The riding was so relaxed, The Oregonian columnist Steve Duin rode with a notebook and pen in one hand while he interviewed subjects for a story...

Columnist for The Oregonian, Steve Duin, interviewing Whitney Dorer from Friends of Trees.

At N Portsmouth and Houghton we sampled the civility of a new, and safer, crossing design...

The ride included a stop at the Village Market in New Columbia where residents now have access to healthy and affordable fruits and vegetables — some of which are grown in the adjacent neighborhoods. We then made our way north along the under-appreciated paved bike path that runs parallel to Columbia Blvd en route to Smith and Bybee Lakes and then back on the bike path toward Columbia Slough...

We stopped on a bridge over the slough. This is where Houck, an experienced bird-watcher, was in his element. He shared a story about the old days, when log workers would refuse to work in the slough because tanneries had dumped so much pollution in the water. Today it's home to double-crested cormorants, cliff swallows that had make mud nests under the bridge, white crown sparrows, and even the occasional bald eagle.

Mike Houck sharing info about the slough's natural history.

We continued pedaling north on the path to the crossing of Portland Road and the (carfree) entrance to Smith and Bybee Lakes...

When we arrived at the lakes trail, we walked our bikes (it's the law) and relished the cool shade of the towering trees. At lookout points, we peered into the water at western pond turtles and had a close encounter with a red-winged blackbird. One day last fall, Houck shared, he counted 450 great egrets in one of the lakes.

There are two more 'Sharrows to Sparrows' rides (details below). I highly recommend them. They're an excellent way to discover the natural urban wonders of Portland and they're a reminder of the revolutionary roadways right outside our front doors.

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Saturday, May 11th, Esplanade to Johnson Creek and Oaks Bottom, 9 am to Noon.
The 12-mile ride from the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade to Johnson Creek and return through Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. We’ll be looking for Peregrine Falcons that nest on the Marquam Bridge at OSMI and wildlife along the way. Meet Greg and Mike promptly at 9 am on the Eastbank Esplanade at the west end of SE Madison Street (east side of the Willamette River), at the river overlook adjacent to the Portland Fire Station, right under the Hawthorne Bridge.

For more information contact Greg Raisman at (503) 823-1052 or greg [dot] raisman [at] portlandoregon [dot] gov.

This old rail corridor deep in the Tillamook
Forest will someday be a biking and
walking path.
(Photo: Salmonberry Corridor
Preliminary Feasibility Report)

The third annual Regional Trails Fair will be held tomorrow at Metro headquarters from 1:00 to 3:30 pm. The event will bring together more than 35 trail advocacy organizations and government agencies to share the latest updates on trail projects throughout the Portland region. And there's a lot to talk about!

Did you know there's a major effort underway (with support from Oregon Parks & Recreation) to create a new rail-trail that would connect the town of Banks to Tillamook on the Oregon Coast? The Salmonberry Trail, which won a $100,000 planning grant from Cycle Oregon last year, would allow riders to travel 85 miles through the Tillamook Forest without ever seeing a car.

There's also the recently renamed Ice Age Tonquin Trail which has already been partially built and has ambitious plans to connect Tualatin to Wilsonville via a 22-mile path.

As for more urban trail projects, the North Portland Greenway is in active planning and construction stages and the City of Portland is in line for a state grant that would build the first section of the Sullivan's Gulch Trail.

Those are just a few of the dozens of trail projects in various stages of completion throughout the region. With Metro's Intertwine continuing to gain steam and a new trail funding measure being discussed in the legislature, there has never been more momentum for these projects.

Also scheduled during the event is a presentation from Lake McTighe on how the Regional Active Transportation Plan is creating priority walking and biking routes.

Regional Trails Fair
May 8th from 1:00 - 3:30 pm
Metro Headquarters (600 NE Grand Ave)
Event website for more information

The Disaster Relief Trials, an event that showcases the capabilities of cargo bikes in disaster response, will be bigger and better and this year. After a successful inaugural event last year (which has already spawned similar events in Boulder and Seattle), organizers have loaded up the event with new sponsors, new events, a larger expo area, a new location, and much more.

The idea behind the DRT is to put cargo bikes and their riders through a series of tasks that simulate how the bikes would function in response to a major natural disaster (such as an earthquake) when fuel is rationed and roads and bridges are impassible by motor vehicles. Last year, 30 competitors participated while a HAM radio-powered command center tracked their movements via a home base at Velo Cult bicycles in Hollywood.

The big news this year is that the DRT will take place at the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry. Organizers have planned an expanded Cascadia Cargo Bike Faire that will be part of an OMSI exhibit on sustainable transportation. Also new for 2013 is the addition of an e-bike class into the competition. In order make sure the electric-assisted bikes operate under the same conditions (no power available) as the non e-bikes, the bikes' batteries must be charged using some means of alternative or renewable energy. A solar power company will be on-hand to provide on-site charging prior to the event.

The 2013 DRT will have slots for 40 riders which will be split into three classes. They'll set out on a 30-mile course that has been designed to "demonstrate and challenge the cargo bike’s capabilities in a disaster response situation." Last year, the event attracted a range of set-ups from the tradition bike trailer to longtails, cycle-trucks, "bakfiets", and others.

The Cargo Bike Faire will be significantly expanded this year and will include bike manufacturers, cargo bike-based businesses, and more. While the competitors are on course, several speakers have been lined up to entertain the crowds back at the fair. Among the speakers will be Joe Partridge of Genevieve Consulting (read our story on him here), resiliency expert Jeremy O'Leary, and Alice Lasher Busch, Multnomah County’s emergency management coordinator.

The event is slated July 13th. Learn more and contact event organizers via the event's Facebook page.

On Saturday night, the stars of bike advocacy from around the region aligned in northwest Portland for the 18th annual Alice Awards benefit auction. Known as "Alice," it's the largest fundraising event of the year for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA). With hundreds of people in attendance (each of whom paid $125 to be there), the night is full of fun, socializing, and shopping for a good cause.

With a nod toward celebrating the 50,000th grade school student to receive the BTA's Bicycle Safety Education program, this year's theme was "Tomorrow's riders start today." The main events of the night were the live auction, the crowning of award winners, and a nod to one very special bike advocate.

Winning the Alice Award this year were former Community Cycling Center Executive Director Alison Hill Graves and Gresham High School health teacher Kristen Warren. Warren was recognized for her work in incorporating bike safety education into her curriculum. Graves won her award for her work in bringing bicycling to underserved communities. Under her guidance, the CCC "ushered in a new way of thinking around equity and inclusion for the bicycle movement."

Alison Hill Graves

Kristen Warren

Continuing with the theme of the evening, U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio was awarded the Bud Clark Lifetime Achievement Award for his "stalwart support of Safe Routes to Schools." Rep. DeFazio wasn't able to make the event, so he beamed in his acceptance speech via video.

DeFazio on the big screen.

While DeFazio wasn't there, I noticed plenty of elected officials on hand. They included: Oregon State Senator Jackie Dingfelder, Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick, Metro Councilors Kathryn Harrington and Bob Stacey, and Washington County Commissioner Dick Schouten.

Former Bike Gallery owner Jay Graves was also on hand to receive a special thank you from the BTA for his years of advocacy and financial support of the organization. Prior to his speech, Graves teared up as he got a rousing standing ovation from the appreciative crowd.

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales made his presence felt at the event. He was there to show his support for bicycling and to help encourage the crowd to donate to the BTA. In a confident and relaxed tone, he said that Portland is a place where, "The bicycle is a legitimate, everyday and wonderful means of transportation." Hales added that advocacy as displayed by the BTA is a key part of what makes Portland work. "We're that place where activism turns into policy that turns into trails and bike projects and a better city."

Scroll down for more photos and notes from the event...
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Former BikePortland contributor and now BTA Communications Manager Will Vanlue looked quite dapper!

Uber-volunteer Lois Moss (L) and ODOT Community Affairs staffer Shelli Romero...

Outside the venue, the entire street was a sea of bicycles!

The silent auction was full of cool stuff... The steal of the night was a Portland-made Kinn bike that had a retail of over $2,000 but sold to a lucky bidder for just $800...

Everyone looked fabulous: Here's BTA Advocacy Director Gerik Kransky (L), Political Director for the Bus Project Henry Kraemer, and BTA member Katie Shuler...

Lawyer and Portland bike advocacy veteran Mark Ginsberg won the prize for best jacket...

This is Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill. He broke his arm/shoulder a few weeks while racing his road bike at the Rose Garden Circuit Race...

Alice is a great place to connect with friends; as riding buddies Richard Lorenz (L), Scott Kocher, and Frank Selker demonstrate...

And here's Vanilla Bicycles owner Sacha White enjoying time with friends Tina Brubaker, Jenn Levo, and Sarah LoGiudice...

PureSpace is a very nice venue...

BTA Development Manager Chris Knott and volunteer Michelle DePass model a tandem during the live auction...

BTA Executive Director Rob Sadowsky rides FOX12 weatherman Andy Carson on the Bullitt cargo bike...

And here's Sadowsky on stage doing his best to stay serious while standing in front of a huge kids bike complete with tassles and a sparkly banana seat...

I don't recall who said it (sorry, I mix my reporting duties with a lot of socializing and fun myself at this event), but someone told a story on Saturday night about the first (unofficial) Alice Awards held at Kell's Irish Pub. That was 22 years ago and only 17 people showed up. All the glitz and glam of the Alice Awards these days brings to mind just how much the bicycle advocacy movement in Portland has grown up over the years. Kudos to the BTA and the amazing community that helps support them!

Read the BTA's recap of the event here.

Pete Jordan, a former Portland resident who lived in Amsterdam for the past eleven years, has written a book about the experience. In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist (Harper Perennial 2013) came out a few days ago and Jordan is back in Portland tonight for a reading.

Here's more about the book from Powells.com:

"When Pete Jordan arrives in Amsterdam to study how to make America's cities more bicycle-friendly, he immediately falls in love with the city that already lives life on two wheels. His new bride, Amy Joy, joins Pete, and despite their financial hardships and instability, she eventually finds her own new calling as a bicycle mechanic as Pete discovers the untold history of cycling in Amsterdam.

From its beginnings as an elitist pastime in the 1890s to the street-consuming craze of the 1920s, from the bicycle's role in a citywide resistance to the Nazi occupation to the White Bikes of the 1960s and the bike fishermen of today, Jordan chronicles the evolution of Amsterdam's cycling.

Part personal memoir, part history of cycling, part fascinating street-level tour of Amsterdam, In the City of Bikes is the story of a man who loves bikes, in a city that loves bikes."

As someone who will be in Amsterdam next month (I'll share more details Monday), I can't wait to read this book. It's already getting good reviews from the L.A. Times and the Wall St. Journal (that excellent review was written by none other than Lovely Bicycle blogger Constance Winters).

You can meet Jordan and learn more about his experiences in Amsterdam tonight at 7:30 pm at an event sponsored by Reading Frenzy and hosted by the Independent Publishing Resource Center (1001 SE Division St.). Admission is free with purchase of a book or a $3 donation to the IPRC but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

The Oregon Depart of Transportation announced this morning that the McKenzie Pass Highway (OR 242) is now open to biking and walking traffic only. This is an annual event that occurs just after ODOT snow plow crews clear one lane of the highway; but there's still too much snow for safe motor vehicle traffic.

Here's my favorite line from the official ODOT press release:

"ODOT urges those who access the highway to seize the opportunity to ride or walk the scenic route for the next few weeks. It’s important that all cyclists obey the normal rules of the road when they travel the highway."

ODOT says they expect McKenzie Pass to remain carfree until at least early June. Last year it opened to motor vehicle traffic on June 19th.

The pass itself is 36 miles of some of the best riding in the entire Pacific Northwest. It's so great that it's officially designated as an Oregon State Scenic Bikeway. Here's an excerpt from the ride description via RideOregonRide.com:

The official route starts in Sisters and heads west past hay meadows, ascending 2,000 feet through ponderosa pine forests. The road follows an 1860s wagon route, emerging from the forest at Windy Point and revealing a view of Mt. Washington and a 2,000-year-old lava flow. The 25-mile, 4,000 ft descent to Highway 126 snakes down exhilarating switchbacks to the dense, verdant Cascadian forests and rushes out over the McKenzie River. It’s these dramatic transitions through such diverse natural environments that define the uniqueness of this bikeway.

... I’ve been on this road in the spring when it was plowed just one lane wide, and I rode between 6-foot walls of snow, on bare pavement, like a bike-luge run.

I rode McKenzie Pass during Cycle Oregon 2007, but I've never done it "luge" style during this special closure period. I think it's safe to say it's worth getting up there if you can.

For more information, see the cue sheets and maps at RideOregonRide.com and the Scenic Bikeway website. There are also videos and more info via this Seattle PI blog post.