comes to the Expo Center Sat. and Sun.
The weather in Portland is gorgeous — clear and sunny. Perfect biking weather. Check out the events below and chime in with a comment to share your adventures with us. What are your plans?
Friday, February 19th
9:30pm – late: Dropout Bike Club Monthly Ride
Come meet and ride with your friendly local freak bike gang.
Saturday, February 20th
8:30am: Woodlawn Tree Planting By Bike
Help Friends of Trees plant trees in Woodlawn. Starts with breakfast and ends with satisfaction.
9:00am – 6:00pm: NW Bike Show – Day 1
This two-day event at the Expo Center will feature a wide range of exhibitors and activities to quench your thirst for bikes. A bike rodeo, Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie, a prize raffle, and more! Tickets are $7 for adults and kids under 12 are free. Check the link for more info.
10:30am: Wanderlust Men’s Ride
The more I list this ride, the more I want to go on it! “We’ll ride east through residential neighborhoods, starting with Sullivan’s Gulch, Kerns, and Laurelhurst. Then around Mount Tabor and south through Montavilla. We’ll head back west parallel to Division… We really do wander. We make u-turns. We stop and look at things. We like architecture. We detour, a lot, so lead us down some alley.”
Sunday, February 21st
8:00am: Jack Frost Time Trial
Held each year just across the Columbia River from Portland, the Jack Frost is an early season test of fitness for local racers. It’s a fast, 14-mile course. Ride out and watch if you’re not the competitive type!
9:15am – 12:15pm: Joy of Monogamous Sects – Secular Humanism Edition
The latest ride from Bike Temple will attend a meeting of the Portland Secular Humanists.
10:00am – 5:00pm: NW Bike Show – Day 2
This two-day event at the Expo Center will feature a wide range of exhibitors and activities to quench your thirst for bikes. A bike rodeo, Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie, a prize raffle, and more! Tickets are $7 for adults and kids under 12 are free. Check the link for more info.
Did I forget something? Fill me in via the comments or drop me a line and I’ll add it to the list.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Friends of PIR(Portland International Raceway) are having an Opening Day Celebration on Saturday, and from 8-9:30 AM and again from 12:15-1:00 PM the track will be open to all non motorized traffic. It’ll be like a Sunday Parkways(but on a Saturday) and cost is free. Here’s the link: http://www.friendsofpir.com/fopir/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=32 There’s a link to the flier on that page. I was there at Winter Wonerland, and the track surface is the smoothest I’ve ever ridden. No potholes or obstructions! Dogs are welcome.
Folks – I still have some spaces left on my comp’d ticket list – they’ve extended it for me so just email me at mtcowboy@teleport.com and I’ll add you to the will call metal cowboy passes list for the bike show this weekend.
The weekend guide used to also be labeled as an open thread, so…
Congratulations, Jonathan, on the 100,000 comment benchmark you reached this week!
I started to write a piece about BikePortland but it began to ramble. Suffice to say that you have provided a web space that is relevant far beyond the Portland metro area. I have thrown in a couple dozen of those comments and have been given pause to think by many more of them.
It’s wonderful that you have been able to “hitch your Burley to this star” so to speak and live a dream. I wish you, your family, and BikePortland continued success. Thanks for the work that you do.
thanks buglas! You’re very welcome. Maybe this coming week I’ll do a 100,000 comments post and get all emotional and stuff…. but for now I’m going to enjoy this amazing sunshine!
and thanks also for the nudge to call this the Weekend Open Thread.
The bike show left a lot to be desired. Thank you Joe Kurmaskie for the free tickets! There were a few interesting exhibitors there, but it was much smaller than I hoped it would be. I am looking forward to the one in April.
My thoughts as well, Hanmade. My wife and I were in and out in less than 20 minutes. I was wishing that I had obtained those free tickets!
We are very much looking forward to the show in April.
Here’s my photos of the bike show.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ufobike/sets/72157623476879046/
I agree with the sentiments toward the bike show. I rode from Clackamas down there and was incredibly disappointed!At least it was a wonderful ride!
RE: the bike show
Coulda said this yesterday but didn’t want to take the chance of discouraging anyone. I worked as a volunteer in the helmet area most of both days. My experience mirrored hanmade & Tony H’s. It only took me 15-20 minutes to walk past every booth, stop at each one which had stuff of interest to me & chat briefly with a couple of friends I happened to meet. I didn’t see any of the biggest PDX bike shops or bike manufacturers. (Coventry was there) Low attendance caused low sales of helmets even though they were only $5 each.
I hope the organizers were at least able to break even, or I fear we may not see this one again.
Like others, I’m hoping the April show turns out better.
I’m curious if anybody that went to the Bike Expo checked out a bike called the “Graduate” from Torker? (It would have been at the Seattle Bike Supply booth) It’s an interesting looking (and inexpensive!) city -type bike (drum brakes, 5-sp internal hub, not at all flashy) that I’ve been hoping to see in person sometime . . .
Overall I was not impressed with bike show however, there was a highlight worth the price of admission. Bike tires direct sold Continental 4000’s for $45 at the show. They retail for $65 and you can get them for $58, but IMO $45 is a very good price. I was hoping to see more bike companies at the bike show. Low point was lack of bike entry into parking, I had to wait my turn and merge between 2 big SUV’s to enter. Could not find a gap in any gates to bike through. I entered from the south east corner, maybe if I rode around a bit there was a better entry point?
Did a time trial at PIR all by my lonesome with a grandstand of car nuts looking on while dodging leisurely families out on the track. 6 laps/2 miles per lap, 12 miles in under 1/2 an hour. Epic weather, epic free lunch, and where the heck was everyone else? We could have had tons of cyclists on the track to “represent” and show what cyclists can do. Lots of Ferraris and other exotics, if you’re into that sort of thing. Next year…
Here’s an article on the Friends of PIR event: http://www.examiner.com/x-33036-Portland-Home–Living-Examiner~y2010m2d21-Portland-gets-free-ride-and-free-lunch-at-PIR–photo-slide-show-included?#comments
The photos tell the real story — sunshine, awesome barbecue lunch, and Portland Raceway is actually a giant wildlife refuge/city park. Only one pic of the cyclists. Was great fun! Oh the cars looked incredible too(don’t hate!). People put a lot time and energy into their car’s appearance.
Here’s another article of PIR as a natural wildlife reserve:http://www.examiner.com/x-33036-Portland-Home–Living-Examiner~y2010m2d22-Portlands-Friends-of-PIR-invited-you-to-PIRs-season-opener–20-photo-slide-show
I guess it’s free to go in anytime to watch the wildlife. And dogs are always welcome off leash. How great is that! Never knew any of that.