Aaron Truman of Team Zoobomb shows fine form during a semifinal heat at the Gravity Sports World Championships held in Maryhill, Washington over the weekend.(Photo Gallery — Slideshow below - Photos © J. Maus)

At an event that culminated Sunday in Maryhill, Washington, Portland’s Team Zoobomb showed they can ride bikes downhill as fast as anyone [...]

Team Zoobomb’s Gabe Tiller after a training run in the West Hillslast Sunday night.(Photos © J. Maus)

Portland’s Team Zoobomb will vie for the crown of fastest gravity bikers in the world at this weekend’s Maryhill Festival of Speed. The event takes place on legendary Maryhill Loops Road in Goldendale, Washington and it’s the official [...]

Chuck Bridge and his gravity bike at the top of “Dragontail” back in April.More images(Photos © J. Maus)

Three Portland men who honed their downhill biking skills while “Zoobombing” down the West Hills are taking their sport to the next level.
Team Zoobomb — which consists of Chuck Bridge, Aaron Truman, and Gabriel Tiller — are set [...]

And they’re off!(Photos/video © J. Maus)

Last night, the Zoobombers were invited out to PIR to test their mettle on the course used by the Mountain Bike Short Track Race Series.
Race Organizer Kris Schamp said he wanted them to come out because he’s always envisioned the event as a “different type of race”.
“It’s not [...]

Slideshow below(Photos © J. Maus)

For some reason, I just can’t get last weekend’s Mini Bike Winter event out of my mind. By all accounts, it was just a massively fun and amazing weekend.
I took somewhere in the realm of 2,000+ images in two days and I’m still having fun looking through [...]

The Ben Hurt Chariot Wars were one of many highlights at Mini Bike Winter V.(Photos © J. Maus)

Three full days of mini bikes, tall bikes, freak bikes, parties, and an international crowd of spectators and competitors helped make the fifth annual Mini Bike Winter (hosted by Zoobomb) a raging success.

The Cupcake Challenge: ride your bike [...]

Ifny Lachance from Vancouver BC won the Chariot Wars event last year.(Photo © J. Maus)

Tonight is the Opening Ceremonies of Mini Bike Winter V, and the beginning of three days of mini-bike mayhem that will include chariot races, mini-bike competition, gravity bombs (downhill races), a fashion show, dance parties, a Family Zoobomb, and a much [...]

Mini Bike Winter (MBW) — the Zoobomb-created event that mixes gravity, competition, mini-bikes, and fun — is less than one month away. This will be the fifth year in a row the event has offered salvation from our winter bike-fun doldrums
Last year, MBW IV gave us “post-apocolyptic” chariot wars, a beer-bungie competition, freak bike [...]

Carl Larson

This article was written by Carl Larson.
A nearly ubiquitous presence on the Portland bike scene, Carl’s done everything from delivering bike maps as an employee of the City of Portland’s Transportation Options division, to working with the Regional Arts and Culture Council on the Zoobomb Pyle art rack project.
Few people move between [...]

Vanessa RenwickPhoto © Montana Maurice

As part of the process to transform their iconic “Pyle” of mini-bikes into official public art, the Zoobombers have chosen two artists to help turn their visions into a reality.
According to regular Zoobomber Carl Larson — who (along with a group of others) is working with the Regional Arts and Culture [...]

The Pyle, at its current location on SW 9th.(Photos © Jonathan Maus)

Even though it’s been over a year since Zoobombers first met with PDOT about it, the process to integrate the iconic mound of mini-bikes known as the Zoobomb Pyle into a piece of official public art is now moving along quickly.
After the announcement of [...]

Crowds were thick all day.View slideshow below(Photos © Jonathan Maus)

I still can’t decide what was more impressive at yesterday’s Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show; the crowds or the builders.
One of the event organizers, Austin Ramsland, says that over 1,800 people attended the show. They were treated to an unprecedented display of building prowess from well [...]

[Editor's note: This is the first article by new contributor Carl Larson. I hope to bring you more of his writing in the future.]

The iconic Zoobomb Pyle will get a new home.(File photo © Jonathan Maus)

The “Zoobomb Pyle,” that colorful jumble of janky kids bikes chained to the bike rack across from Rocco’s [...]

Tackling the hill on a freaky mini.(Photo © Jonathan Maus)

Coming up in November is the first-ever Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show. Among the 25 vendors are some of Oregon’s most talented bicycle craftsmen.
Several well-known custom bike makers from Portland will be exhibiting. But in addition to the usual suspects, and in a nod to [...]

Well, not exactly.
But reports are coming in that the Willamette Week (a free weekly newspaper in Portland) is running radio ads touting their new re-design and that one of them features a Zoobomber as the voiceover.
I haven’t heard it myself, but here’s how one tipster remembers it:
“I heard it on 95.5 (I stopped [...]

What’ll you have?

You might remember when I shared the news of The Little Red Bike Cafe back in July. The new eatery just opened and word has spread about their bike-centric menu.
As you can see in the graphic at right, they’ve got a breakfast sandwich called the Zoobomb, named after that fun-loving group of [...]

(File photo)

In a meeting room nine floors above Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg hosted a mini-summit Thursday between representatives of Zoobomb and the Traffic Division of the Portland Police Bureau.

In attendance from Zoobomb were Dave Terry, Corey Sevigny, and Leah Bendlin. From the PPB were Commander Mark Kruger and [...]

After the meeting. L to R: Lawyer Mark Ginsberg, Traffic Division Sgt. Mike Fort, Commander Mark Kruger, and Zoobombers Dave Terry, Leah Bendlin, and Corey Sevigny.(File photo)

I’m in a meeting downtown right now where a positive discussion is taking place between three Zoobombers and two members of the Portland Police Bureau.
Bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg [...]

Competitors begin another run.(File photo)

Yesterday was the annual Zoobomb Century.
During the Metro-wide Sushi Ride we made an ambassadorial stop to check out the action. During our short time on the hill, I snapped a few photos and got a sense for what this epic contest is all about.
On our MAX ride up to Washington [...]

I found a little trick that lets me embed Flickr slideshows into my posts. My goal is to figure out how to use Flash to create slideshows with audio (if you know how to do that please get in touch).
For now, let me know what you think of this slideshow from Sunday’s Zoobomb (place [...]

The St. Johns Bridge on the way to Sauvie Island.(View entire gallery)

There’s nothing like a three-day weekend to get the summer bike fun flowing.
On Sunday, the girls and I joined about 15 other folks for a ride out to Sauvie Island for the second annual Strawberry Ride organized by Dat Nguyen.
We rode from [...]

Have you seen those cool new wayfinding signs all over downtown Portland? I’ve seen them at various landmarks around the city, but I have to admit I was surprised to see this one…

OK, so I’m a few days late with an April Fools joke. I just couldn’t resist.

[Reporting and photos by Mykle Hansen]
=====
The City of Portland narrowly escaped a year of foreign dominance last night, when the Key to Portland was recaptured by Zoobomber Corey “Solid” Gold in a thilling tiebreaker at LegoHouse International Raceways in Washington Park.

[LegoHouse in Washington Park, where the final events of Mini-Bike Winter took place.]

This year, official [...]

[Photos by Jonathan Maus, reporting by Mykle Hansen]

[The Ben Hurt Chariot Death Match claimed many victims and capped an epic day of competition. See all the chariot action in my photo gallery.]

Yesterday was a perfect day for Portland, but a shameful one for America: Soviet Canuckistanians ran amok over the Mini-Bike Winter Olympics field [...]

[Skate Bomb!]

[This coverage of Mini-Bike Winter IV comes from our special correspondent Mykle Hansen]
Let the games begin!
Mini-Bike Winter got off to an explosive start last night when a parade of nearly 150 brightly lit bikers — including several dozen visitors from Canada, Seattle and California, and quite a few first-time bombers — zigzagged [...]

[Mini-Bike Winter specialcorrespondent Mykle Hansen.]

…and all through the town,
mini-bikes are rolling,
and no one has a frown.
Excuse my bad poetry, but it’s the eve of Mini-Bike Winter and I’d like to introduce esteemed Zoobomber and BikePortland’s special correspondent, Mykle Hansen.
Mykle will give us an insider’s look at this year’s event, which starts tomorrow (2/16) and [...]

A message in the Zoobomb Forums spells out some new TriMet regulations for bringing bikes on MAX trains that Zoobombers worry could crimp their style.
Handsome Dave writes,
“A TriMet employee hand delivered us one copy of a 3-page letter of new rules this last Sunday…”
Here are key excerpts of the letter (full text here):

1. Only [...]

Dan Kaufman of CrankMyChain Cycle TV has put together this fun Mini Bike Winter promotional video. It includes footage from last night’s Zoobomb (can you say cold and gravelly?), deep thoughts from Zoobombers, and narration from a strange-sounding Reverend Phil.

Mini Bike Winter rolls into our lives starting February 15th with movies and stencil making [...]

New to Zoobomb’s Mini-Bike Winter this year are the much-anticipated Chariot Wars (yes chariots, as in Ben Hur). To help ready the masses for this series of competitions a chariot building workshop was held over the weekend.
Attendees were given a handout that covered all the various design and welding issues one might face [...]

[The Chariot Wars are coming.]

Portland’s mini-bike enthusiasts (a.k.a. the Zoobombers) are busy planning their biggest and baddest ever Mini Bike Winter. The event, a “bike-centric series of events celebrating human powered culture,” will take place February 17-19th.
I attended a recent planning meeting to get the lowdown and now I understand what one Zoobomber meant [...]