(File photo) – View Gallery – Slideshow Below
There could not be a more fitting end to Pedalpalooza than Saturday’s Multnomah County Bike Fair (MCBF). After 17 days of pure bike fun, the community came together for a day packed with zany competitions (unicycle jousting anyone?), bike dance troupe performances, and colorful characters.
Vixens and Sprockettes.
(File photo)
Hundreds of bicycles filled the park. The bleachers were packed with smiling hoardes. It was a day to remember. My only wish was that it didn’t end so soon.
I spent most of the day in the middle of the action. From the many competitions to four (yes four) bike dance troupe performances, I got skinned up and tired out just from taking pictures (1124 of them).
Our beloved Sprockettes celebrated their fifth third anniversary and broke ground with new performances that included chariots, fire, a rotating platform stage, and a host of dramatic and skillful moves. The ladies in pink sure have come a long way in five years.
But this was MCBF and one bike dance troupe, no matter how spectacular, was simply not enough. We were also treated to the three troupes from Canada: the all-male Brakes; The Velo Vixens; and the B.C:Clettes. Each group brought their own distinct style and creative energy to the asphalt stage.
(File photo)
Other highlights included the debut of a “Bud Clark is my Mayor” sticker, and of course there was plenty of jousting action. Mini-bikes, unicycles, tall-bikes, and freak bikes all got a chance to display their worthiness on the jousting stage.
Some came away victorious. Others were not so lucky.
Toward the end of the day, the silliness edged up a notch when one unidentified participant stripped naked, jumped on a bakfiets, grabbed a lance, and kicked off naked jousting! I think it’s safe to say that this was the world’s first Naked Bakfiets Joust!
I whittled down all my shots to bring you a slideshow of 128 images. Check them out on my Flickr gallery.
Three cheers for Shift and all the volunteers who made this such a great event.
Thanks for reading.
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The really great thing is that it\’s not over for bike craziness. This town is great because in addition to the official organized mayhem, there\’s plenty of unofficial impromptu bike silliness. I\’ll do my part to keep it up through summer and into the winter.
Here\’s to Shift, the Sprockettes, and everyone else who made it all go down. You, too, Jonathan, with your great updates and reports. It was great to finally talk to you face to face.
For those that weren\’t there or don\’t remember, the inaugural MCBF featured Nekkid Bike Jousting. This being the 5th MCBF a commerative nekkid joust was necessary.
As they say, \”those that fail to learn history are doomed to to repeat it.\”
Here are some videos for those who missed it:
Velo Vixens
Bike Powered Smoothy
The Brakes
More Velo Vixens
Wish I could\’ve stayed \’til the end.
hey jonathan,
thanks for all the time and work you put into documenting the amazing phenomenon that is our portland bike culture. it\’s important, and i\’m glad to see someone doing such a rad job of stepping up to the plate.
Brakes had a blast in Portland. It was great to perform for you all and a super thrill to perform for and with the talented ladies of \’kettes, \’clettes and vixens. Those ladies keep raising the bar again and again. Thanks everyone who was at the afterparty…you were over the top all of you!!!!
VeloMutations 2007 sept 22 you are all invited!!!
Oh, Jonathan, I wish we were all the way to 5! This was the Sprockettes 4th MCBF and 3rd birthday.
Thanks for the awesome pictures! We love you!
MCBF was fantastic!
thanks for always coming up with the best pictures ever. So many awesome shots, I wanted to see even more!
Jonathan…impressive as always…one photo per attendee!!! Another attendence record… a 1100+ bikes parked I heard.
And a true composition photographer…one who was able to take so many photos of Allan F. without showing that much.
Hi Jon, Dingo here, did you see the photos on Flikr that people took of Ood the Clown under a huge inferno that is the RAMP OF DEATH?
That was cool…um…I mean hot.
My favorite part of the fair was the beer, just kidding, I loved making out in the huge bike parking lot, we felt like hillbillys in a haystack.
http://flickr.com/photos/lmangano/613703286/in/photostream/
…and just in case someone hasn\’t gotten completely sick of photos of the event yet:
http://flickr.com/photos/rcoder/sets/72157600472543087/
i had to leave right after the brakes finished, but there a quite a few shots of them and the \’vixens….
(btw, jonathan, something about your comemnt form brings firefox on linux to its knees…as long as i\’m typing in this box, my cpu is at 100% utilized…)
Jonathan,
You are a wicked photographer. You captured the events perfectly. It\’s the first time I have seen pro shots of us Velo Vixens. This is very exciting because I am a photographer myself and being part of the group means that I can\’t take pictures of our performances. Can we pretty please use them for our site. A photo credit to you of course.
Thanx
Anyone know where I can pick up a \”Bud Clark is My Mayor\” sticker post-Multnomah County Bike Fair?