sight during Pedalpalooza!
(Photo © J. Maus)
What an amazing week! Portland bike funnists have been outdoing themselves this year, with the biggest Pedalpalooza ever (over 200 events total!)
Team BikePortland has been scrambling trying to cover all the events we can (is this really our job or is it a dream?) — and reports and photos have been rolling in from the community, true to the DIY spirit of the event. Keep an eye on the Shift list and the Pedalpalooza twitter account for live updates and discussion.
Below is a selection of reports, photos, rumors, and shout outs that we’ve come across in the past week, in rough chronological order. Share your own links and experiences in the comments.
Oh yeah, and be sure to check out our full Pedalpalooza 2009 coverage for more updates and stories, including a daily ride guide and all the ride reports we can get our hands on.
(Photo © J. Maus)
– Before it all began, for the creative and impatient, there was the Pedalpalooza Preview Ride.
– The Kickoff Parade was a good-natured, high-spirited blast — I counted 200 riders, and more were reported later on. Check out our report (including a slideshow and a video), the Bike Temple’s video, and photos by Carye Bye.
The weekend kicked off with a bang on Friday.
– Jonathan took a tour of the city.
– I tried out unicycling in the rain with a couple dozen other folks.
– Our intern Dan Liu took photos and wrote a report of the Jesus Ride and the Midnight Mystery Ride (over 300 people were rumored to attend the latter).
Saturday was off the handle!
(Photo © J. Maus)
– Cirque du Cycling was a huge success, with record numbers attending (including about 70 naked riders from the Daytime World Naked Bike Ride). Here‘s our full report. There are tons of photos out there — check out some by Dan Liu. Event organizers have set up a Flickr group as well.
– Speaking of the Daytime Nekkid Ride, leader Allan Folz reports that 78 jubilant riders were counted at the halfway point — and several more spontaneously disrobed and joined the ride on the way to the Cirque. Here’s another, more detailed report (misleadingly titled — it’s about the daytime ride).
– The World Naked Bike Ride. So much has been said and written about this that it’s hard to know where to link to. Here’s our report. Someone made three neat time-lapse slideshows. Jim Parsons took some photos and also posted his GPS trace from the ride. Here are some shots from one of our commenters. Every single spectator seemed to have a phone, camera, or camcorder. Google is your oyster here folks.
Sunday was a completely packed day.
– Organizers were thrilled by the turnout of 50 outer-eastside bike afficionados for the Lents Bike Boulevard Ride.
at the Dharma Rain Zen Center
on the Joy of Sects Ride.
– Around church-time, the Bike Temple’s Joy of Sects Ride toured various places of worship. Here’s their report, and here’s our slideshow.
– A small but hardy group met up in Beaverton for the Pirate Ride — a success, though “no one brought any rum, and in spite of all the left turns there wasn’t even any port.” Here’s the full report.
– 20 – 30 happy riders splashed around in public fountains while dancing to music from a mobile sound system. Carye Bye tells the story with photos.
– The CRC Protest Ride attracted 80 riders. Here’s our report, and here’s Chris Smith’s write-up on PortlandTransport.
– We’ve heard rumors that the I Heart Photobooths ride was well-attended and tons of fun, but awaiting confirmation and photo scans.
– The Grant Petersen ride seems best summed up thusly.
– The Hands-Free Derby was reportedly a blast.
Monday morning:
with special guest Batman
(Photo © Elly Blue)
– The day was kicked off by the 9 intrepid sugar-loving hill-climbers who showed up for the Ridiculously Early Donut Ride.
– Romantics united in the rose gardens of Ladd’s for dramatic readings from paperback romance novels, accompanied by a roving trash trailer and a Batman mask.
– Anarchists and the anarcho-curious assembled briefly for a discussion of situationism before loosely scattering in various spontaneous directions to follow our emergent experiences on the Psychogeographical “Tour” of Portland. These photos tell the story of one of the several splinter groups. Rumor has it that another group turned up at a local bookstore to browse and buy Situationist texts. The rest may still be out there creating a new emotional map of the city.
– The Big Girls Ride was reported to be in trouble — the organizer had the flu. Any word on how/if that went?
– Apparently members of the Dandy Warhols joined in the Dandy Warhol ride on Monday night — who went on that?
We’ll unscientifically bring you the reports that roll in during the next few days. For now, here’s a quick one from this morning’s Slackers Ride.
How’s your Pedalpalooza going?
Thanks for reading.
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link to your Joy of Sects ride report is missing
thx for the hard work
Saturday also included the DIY ride, which was great, even though I only did about half (I scooted out to the Circue). It was interesting to visit various places of business and residents to see creative projects in the works. There was about 20 people in the ride. Thanks to our tour guides, Julie and Marc!
The Lents ride was great … I was hoping someone would post something about it on the Shift list. I didn’t only because I can’t really do it justice, because I didn’t get all the ride leaders’ names or organizations and because I felt like a bit of a “tourist” since I don’t live in the area and don’t know it very well. Greg Raisman from PDOT did most of the talking. The focus was on planned and hoped-for improvements to cycling in the area, connecting up local routes to enable residents to get from homes to schools to shopping by cycle, and connecting up Lents to the broader bike boulevard initiatives in Portland. It was a real policy-wonk dream ride, and a plea for (especially) Lents residents to get more involved and show support. We did a lopsided loop that started at Kelly Elementary School, went as far west as SE 74th, as far north as SE Center, cruised along the west side of Lents Park, and ended at the new Lents Farmer’s Market. The turnout was awesome, 40-50 people including a lot of kids. Bike Gallery was on-hand giving free tune-ups at the start, and providing valet bike-parking at the market. A BTA (I *think*) guy was doing helmet fittings. Some folks from another organization having to do with healthy living were also involved — like I said, I can’t really do the details justice.
I’m a bit surprised BikePortland didn’t cover this one, because there was some real meat to the ride having to do with policy and planning for improvements to Portland cycling. But I realize y’all can’t be everywhere.
The only drag was that I had to miss the DIY ride hanmade mentions, and the “Go Local” ride, both of which conflicted with this one. I hope more info about those rides is forthcoming, but not many people seem to be contributing ride reports, alas. Oh, the other drag was that there was no COFFEE in sight until we got to the farmer’s market: we met at 9:30 on a Sunday morning, and no coffee until almost noon!! That’s sadistic.
Was that roadway blocked off for that event, or did everyone just decide to ride outside of the bike lane?
Thanks for the report, Michael. We’re trying to go to as many rides as we can, but we can’t cover them all — and really, we shouldn’t be covering them all, just providing a forum for DIY grassroots event coverage from folks like you. So bring it on!
Alright, there was a backlog that just came through on the Shift list, and now there’s word of photos up from the Taco Ride (thanks Ron!).
Also, check out a report and photos from the Dandy Warhols Ride.
More coming soon from Pedalpalooza central. Post your reports and we’ll spread em to the world!