Weekend open thread: Share your bike fun

Sweet! See you out there Jonathan, a crew of us are headed out the springwater for an overnighter. Have a great weekend ya\’lls!

I am home with a cold. My bike fun consists of looking at bikey stuff online. Enjoy!

Well I have been sick this last week so if all gos well, i.e. I\’m feeling better in the morning and the weather permits I plan on throwing my bike in the back of my dads truck and tagging along with him to Lincoln City for the day. (He\’s going there for some type of convention at one of the casinos). I\’ve never been in a casino before, so I figure while he\’s doing his thing I\’d first stop in and see how far $5 will take me, that is of course if they happen to have a bike rack other wise I will gladly take my business elsewhere. So after doing whatever I do (or don\’t do) at the casino I\’ll be off to explore the town and the beach: ride around, get lost, take pictures of stuff, eat half of a $5 bag of saltwater taffy, go for a swim?, walk barefoot on the beach, get stung by a jellyfish, pee on my foot, find pirates gold, take a nap, climb a rock. Then finish it all off with a pint and dinner with my dad at a local restaurant that\’s suppose to have some killer halibut! So that\’s how I hope to spend my weekend and my last day of being 23.

I think I may have seen your caravan, Mr. Maus – did you bike up N. Cleveland? I spent this glorious sunny afternoon biking/walking back and forth between my porch and my local Bike Shop (long story, multiple bikes). No joyrides, but I did get my biking in, so my goal of exploiting the sun succeeded, if not exactly how I would have intended. 🙂

Hey everyone – tonight is the Raunchy Ride that Heather Williams is leading. Be at the Lucky Lab at 7:30pm!

BTW, Jonathan – nice seeing you on the way down the Springwater! Seems like EVERYONE was out today – we even passed Jay and Allison Graves while riding down past Oaks Park.

ECT is helping Emmy move by bike on Sunday at 11am. If anyone is not busy, we could use the help! Details at: http://www.shift2bikes.org/wiki/bikefun:move_x_bike

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Jonathan, I spotted you you today, you were heading North across Broadway and me and my buddy passed by, quite captivated by your family train, it rocked!

Just went out to the harmonic convergenSS today at Stella Ridge. Thanks to our trailbuilders and ride leaders! It was awesome!

To say the very least, my ride was quite interesting today. A map of my route can be found by clicking on my name.

First of all, I took off on the same route I always take to Portland. The only difference was my new set of clipless pedals. It was my second ride after going clipless, and my first fall was quite unexpected: it happened after I already had one foot firmly planted on the ground. The oddest part was, I was leaning to the left and looking over my shoulder after stopping when I fell off of the sidewalk and into the grass on my right. Even after falling to the right, I ended up scraping my left knee. How does that work?Prior to that, I also had the misfortune of having a van come within inches of right-hooking me.

Anyway, all of this happened more or less just after sunset. I was riding home on Interstate Ave. when I began to slow down for a red light at Albina Ave. As soon as I began decelerating, the light turned green and I kept on going. As soon as I got up to the intersection, a white Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (or something of that sort) darted out from the lane of travel in the process of making a right turn. Only one problem—I was in that bike line. Actually, come to think of it, there was another problem. This man had neglected to use his turn signal whilst failing to yield to a cyclist in the bike lane. To make matters worse, he was on a cell phone. Too bad this wasn\’t in Washington, or that would have been a third illegal move on his part.

Had I been just a foot or two behind, I would have easily hit the side of the van. Luckily, I was in just the right spot to get the driver\’s attention. Unfortunately, it was just that. I had to wave my arm like crazy to get his attention. And good thing I did, because I had a one-way ticket straight onto his hood.

As soon as I was clear, he took off, probably thinking nothing of it as he carried on with his phone conversation. Luckily, I believe I was able to get his license plate number. Unfortunately, I\’m not 100% positive about it. I do know for sure it was 7?7 C?D, and I\’m pretty sure it was 727 COD, 737 CQD, or something of the sort.

Is there any way that I could file a citizen initiated citation against this guy for failing to use his turn signal and failing to yield to a cyclist in a bike lane even though he didn\’t actually hit me? Does it matter that I\’m a resident of Vancouver?

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful ride. The weather was great. The service at the Downtown Bike Gallery was great. The only thing that isn\’t great is the scrape on my left knee.

Too bad I didn\’t get to see your family train today, Jonathan.

WOW! Thanks for sharing your story, John. …and your route. That is the first time I have seen that website. I have always used Gmap Pedometer, which doesn\’t have as many bells and whistles as the one you used.

Regarding the right hook. I seem to run into this situation at least once every couple of months. It happened to me on my way home the other night while westbound in the bike lane on Portland Blvd (Rosa Parks) at Greely. The thing that amazed me is the guy looked ticked off at me that I was there!

Jonathan: It\’s always good to see another train on the road. Sounds like you guys had a great time!

I spent my morning on a wonderful walk along the Waud Bluff trail and then around the bluff to the Triangle Park industrial property near the McCormick & Baxter Superfund site and then back up Portsmouth to my house. I took some video and pictures along the way. Click here if you would like to see them.

http://npgreenway.blogspot.com/2008/02/waud-bluff-trail-today.html#links

http://www.flickr.com/photos/npgreenway/

Have a great Sunday everyone!

On Saturday, I test rode the second and third portions of a 12-hour 180 K \”dart\” that I am doing with 2 friends on late March. I started in Battle Ground and made my way to Kelso by way of LaCenter, Woodland, and Kalama and then back the way I came (with one significant and in retrospect foolish difference). The route was pretty nice – mostly rural. But there was one very steep and long climb in the middle, and my route change on the way back made the climb steeper and longer. 80 miles all told, and I was feeling pretty whooped by the end!

I spent Sunday cooking up enormous batches of vegan chili for a food bank fund-raiser on Tuesday at my office . . . .

First ride of the new year for us, this injury- and illness-laden winter. Got a few blocks from home on SE Clinton, and my husbands bike was making a noise…the speedo magnet and sensor were hitting. As we stopped to fix it, a nice young man (and his two happy li\’l hounds) came walking across the street saying \”I\’m a bike mechanic…anything I can do to help?\”

Only in Portland.
Thanks, whoever you were!

Made a 60 mile route around town and Forest park from lake oswego on Saturday, beautiful weather. Does anyone know of a better way into downtown from here?

SH, where is \”here,\” and a better way than what?
Inquiring minds want to know, because maybe we can help!

On the subject of routes, thanks to John R. for reminding me of http://www.mapmyroute.com I had been meaning to try it but kept forgetting. I just used it to create a cue sheet for the 180 km my friends and I are planning, and it was great!

Portland Velo ride Saturday, plus riding to/from ~60 miles.

Today I worked on the vintage Gitane TdF I\’m returning to rideable condition.

I got an e-mail from another bikeportland reader asking for the route I followed from Battle Ground to Kelso – so here it is!

http://tinyurl.com/2mmmpa

You can do it as a straight out-and back, but if you want to experience the pain I did on the way back, you can turn right onto Cloverdale from, well, Cloverdale (it\’s a weird intersection with yield signs, etc.) and follow it up to Green Mountain Road – turn right onto Green Mountain Road and follow it up and and up and up until you start going down – bear left onto Shirley Gordon Road, and follow it until it hooks up to, surprise!, Green Mountain Road, turn left back onto Green Mtn. Road and start going down fast – at this point you are back on the original route and can backtrack to Battle Ground.

The full 180 km route and cue sheet are here –
http://tinyurl.com/2rt3mk

Rode from Brooklyn to Sellwood via Springwater. Big deal huh? Well I managed that with my four year old and a mother in law who hasn\’t ridden a bike in twenty five years (She\’s from Chula Vista, CA so give her a break!). A great discovery was that I can fit Littleman and his bicycle in the Bakfeits. The little fella must have ridden five miles which isn\’t bad for a four year old.

Yep, won $4.00 at the casino! …..after putting in only $1.10; I decided to stop while I was ahead. Then I found some badass rocks and agates at the beach! Then went to the goodwill to see if they had any bike stuff and found a bike trainer for $5.00! I can\’t remember when I\’ve had so much fun at the beach and I was only there a few hours! The fish was great too! And doing it all on a bike made it all the more fun!

Kudos Michael for rolling with the real world people. Hammer time is all I seem to have anymore. Back to earth is a good place to be.

Male that one more family bike train out there this weekkend. I took the boys to pier park to do the skate park on their bikes – which meant my train was shorter than usual – I only had the chariot trailer, the boys rode the seven miles from our house to the park on their own bikes. through a convoluted series of events I ended up meeting Beth and the Echo so the boys could do the St Johns movie matinee ( the spring weekend family mats have just started- you get 10 weekends worth of movies for $7 per kid and 2 parents get in free with each kid – it works out to something like $240 worth of big screen fun AND they throw in two monday or tuesday evening passes for the adults. It\’s like 1970\’s prices) Because of this car pick up I learned that you can indeed strap a fairly large child car seat onto the back of a chariot trailer. I looked like a ramshackled rolling carnival on the ride home. Sang the Sanford and Sons song for good measure – and it brought me luck, I found a pair of bike gloves in the dirt – eagle eyes spotted them like a diamond in the rough – they were soaked and filfthy but after a good run through the washer and dryer I got me a fine back up pair of gloves in my size – life is good.

I did no riding but I took two bikes to the CCC and one computer and DVD player plus snacks and cleaning supplies to FreeGeek. Lately, I\’ve been doing more writing than riding, but I hope to change that soon…

Jonathan, sorry about posting this here…but could not find the original thread…KATU just announced the \’Longview Doctor Bike Thief\’ as killed himself in jail.

My son and I had a great ride yesterday in which we saw trains, snakes, racing motorcycles, great blue herons, golfers, boys playing star wars, and play parks.

I pass it along to you with a high recommendation.

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/or/portland/676106445

Went on the springwater from Reed College to the brick factory in Gresham with my 2 jack russel terriers in the Burley.

I put a bigger cog and a front brake on my track bike because my commute to my new job involves a long hill with lots of stoplights. The brake can lift the rear wheel. I haven\’t decide if that is good or bad.

Pulled the triple out of the garage, hooked up the chariot and took our 13.5\’ train out for a short ride down to the waterfront. Our 5 year old likes to play team slugbug and for some reason I always get teamed up with our 1.5 yr old in the trailer against him and mom. We always lose. Winners and losers all get ice cream though.

We headed down Springwater and saw a bunch of folks out for fun.

(That *was* you, Matt!)

We were headed up to Council Crest for our first big hill of the season. Great ride, great smiles, stunning day.

Isn\’t it amazing how crowded the Springwater is on a nice weekend? It\’s a veritable bike highway. I did my usual run up Tabor on my way into the office, as usual wishing I had time for more. But after a 5-mile hike with my doggie, maybe that was for the best.

I volunteered for friends of trees to take photos of their massive NE planting on Saturday. I rode around tracking down as many crews as I could in 3 1/2 hours.

It was beautiful and sunny, and awesome to share it with good folks.

Skidmark-

I thought your fixie already had a \’brake\’?

It was a gorgeous weekend for bicycling.

I got on my bike for the first time in a couple of weeks, took a leisurely route through NoPo – with a stop at the Red Bicycle – and scared the crap out of some guy who thought he\’d roll through a stop sign while on his cell phone. He\’ll think twice before doing that again! 😀 Took the Columbia Slough trail back – hard to find from the east end but worth it. Got stuck behind a stopped train, but used the time to call my sister and brag about the weather – it was raining in Berkeley.

Only 6 miles or so but still a lovely lovely ride!
🙂

I listed my first annual pedalpalooza event! Also tested out the ride, that bike/ped overpass on N Bryant is really hard to find when you\’ve forgotten the name of the street. The date and time are still tentative though, may want some more rest for the naked bike ride/dance party.

Cecil, thank you for pointing that out, I thought about my mistake later that day. I meant from tualatin/lake oswego to downtown portland, highway 43 and 99 are a nightmare. Thank you in advance for any ideas you might have.

Todd–I feel your pain! I\’ve ridden around and around in circles up there trying to find the right street with the little secret hidden entryway. Even now, I don\’t know which street it connects to.

My bikey fun = riding from far NENE to Carye\’s \”non-ride\” Free Geek tour, then taking the long way home. Also putting the final touches on the map for my upcoming super-secret group ride–thanks for the mapmyride tip! Now I just have to pick a day and time and post it to Shift!

I rode the Jack Frost Time Trial with about 350 of my homies. Riding in shorts in February! Yahoo.

Steve: What\’s a \”fixie\”? I have a track bike. I don\’t feel like resisting the forward motion of the pedals all the way down a hill, it is tiring. I need to save my energy for work. If your actually rode fixed, you would understand why I made the CHOICE.