Team Profile: Ironclad’s lighthearted, winning ways

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[Publisher’s note: As part of our ongoing racing coverage (made even better by our embedded racer and journalist Josh Liberles) we’ll be featuring profiles of local teams. From the super fast to the super silly, Portland is full of them! And, as the subject of our first profile proves, those attributes are not always mutually exclusive. — JM]

The Ironclad Performance Wear Cycling Team is a road-racing-centric team based in Portland that focuses on helping novice riders to develop. It’s a diverse bunch, ranging from an architect to a former army ranger to a semi-pro hippie, but somehow it all works, and amazingly well.

Team Ironclad (photographed by Catherine Leigh Cooper in August 2011).

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Jobs of the Week

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If you’re looking for work in the local bike scene, this is your lucky day. We’ve gotten a little behind in featuring the excellent opportunities posted to our Job Listings, so we’ve rounded up the last seven of them for your browsing pleasure…

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Gray Trek 1500 2007

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Year: 2007
Brand: Trek
Model: 1500
Color:Gray
Size:men’s
Stolen in Vancouver, WA 89684
Stolen:2012-05-25
Stolen From: Autumn Chase apartments Vancouver WA, off 112th street.
Owner: Jonathan Pirtle
OwnerEmail: jpirtle2@gmail.com
Reward: $40
Description: Gray and red Trek 1500 in great condition. Sticker from “The Cyclery” in Edwardsville, IL from where the bike was purchased. Locking pedals, air pump mounted on frame
Police record with: Vancouver PD
Police reference#: T12000348
This registrant does not have proof of ownership of this bike

Fires, floods and faults: What hazards lurk where you ride?

Detail of Hazard Map for downtown and the eastside.
Blue dots are unreinforced masonry structures,
yellow diamonds are HAZMAT locations,
red line is a major fault.

The Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) has released a series of maps showing where natural hazards exist in each neighborhood throughout the city. In the interest of being prepared if and when disaster strikes (having a cargo bike all ready to go will only get you so far), I thought it’d be fun to see how these known hazards line up with popular bike routes.

Here’s more about the maps from PBEM:

“The maps identify natural hazards throughout the city. They offer a neighborhood coalition by neighborhood coalition account of known earthquake faults, flood plains and other dangers, including hazardous material sites, steep slopes and forested areas at risk of fire. The maps also show community resources – such as evacuation routes and key transportation corridors used during emergencies, hospitals, county clinics, schools, fire stations and police facilities – within each neighborhood coalition area.”

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Job: Bike Commute Challenge Program Coordinator – BTA

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Job Title
Bike Commute Challenge Program Coordinator

Company/Organization
Bicycle Transportation Alliance

Job Description
Organization: Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA)
Job Title: BTA’s Bike Commute Challenge Program Coordinator
Reporting To: Programs Director
Rate of Pay: $12.50/hour
Status: Full-time, temporary: July 9th- October 19th
Location: Portland, OR

Love getting around by bike? Interested in sharing what you know with adults in a large range of professional settings throughout the Portland Metro area? Want to play a major role in generating workplace rivalries, executing fun events, and building excitement for biking to work through the 12,000-person-strong BTA’s Bike Commute Challenge? We want to you to join our team!

Vision Statement
Bicycling transforms communities by reinventing transportation and offering solutions that help solve the universal challenges to health, livability and the environment.

Executive Summary
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) is a non-profit membership organization with a mission to create healthy, sustainable communities by making bicycling safe, convenient, and accessible in Oregon and SW Washington.

We are hiring one temporary, full-time Program Coordinator who will support the BTA’s Bike Commute Challenge program from July 16th through October 19th. The Bike Commute Challenge is a month-long bike-to-work competition. In 2011, more than 12,000 people at more than 1,400 workplaces in Oregon and SW Washington participated.

Responsibilities:
The Program Coordinator will work as part of team to:

Teach Bike Commuting Workshops at workplaces, schools, and other locations throughout the Metro area.
Help employers encourage bike commuting at their workplaces.

Promote the BTA’s Bike Commute Challenge at community events and through communication with media and program partners.

Track and evaluate program reach and success including collecting and entering contacts and other data in BTA information systems.

Monitor and respond to web help requests that come in through the BTA’s Bike Commute Challenge Website
Write content for the Bike Commute Challenge website, blog, Facebook page, and participant emails.

Assist in planning and executing events including the Challenge kick-off, Walk+Bike to School Day, and the BTA’s Bike Commute Challenge Awards Party.

Requisite Experience
– Personal experience with and passion for bike commuting.
– Strong public speaking and teaching skills.
– Professionalism, comfort, and ease in a range of professional environments.
– Data entry and web facility.
– Strong written communication skills.

The ideal candidate will also possess:
– Basic bike mechanic skills.
– Event planning experience.
– Strong organizational skills.
– Experience presenting in a language additional to English and/or experience working in different cultural settings.

How to Apply
Please send your cover letter, resume as well as a completed BTA application form in PDF format via email to stephanie@btaoregon.org. No calls, please.

The BTA does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, physical or mental disability or legal source of income.

First look at Chrome’s new retail store in downtown Portland

New Chrome store in downtown Portland-21

Look what just opened downtown!
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Chrome, a well-known bag and urban bicycling/lifestyle apparel brand, opened a new retail store in downtown Portland yesterday. Staffers from the company’s San Francisco headquarters spent three weeks completely renovating a 1,300 square foot space at 425 SW 10th Avenue (around the corner from the Ace Hotel and up the street from Powell’s). Portland is just the fourth city where Chrome has opened a store, and we’re by far the smallest. Their other stores are in San Francisco (their headquarters), New York City, and Chicago.

Chrome was founded 17 years ago in Boulder, Colorado and moved to San Francisco a few years later. Since then, due in large part to their iconic messenger bags, they’ve extended their product line and now offer apparel, backpacks, and footwear. While their gear is not bike-specific, the brand lives and breathes urban biking and everything is made with the assumption that the customer will move around the city on a bike.

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Blue/silver Schwinn Trailway Hybrid (Women’s)

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Brand: Schwinn
Model: Trailway Hybrid (Women’s)
Color:Blue/silver
Size:28
Stolen in Portland, OR 97206
Stolen:2012-05-07
Stolen From: 5026 SE 75th Avenue
Neighborhood: Foster Powell
Owner: Kirsteen Scott
OwnerEmail: kirsteens@hotmail.com
Description: Schwinn water bottle & holder, bike pump, front & rear lights. Mint condition.
Police record with: PPD
Police reference#: 12-41090
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

BLU TREK 7.3 FX WSD 2011

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Year: 2011
Brand: TREK
Model: 7.3 FX WSD
Color:BLU
Size:19
Serial: WTU117C1515F
Stolen in Portland, OR 97218
Stolen:2012-05-30
Stolen From: MY GARAGE!
Neighborhood: NE – Cully
Owner: Melanie Gurley
OwnerEmail: melindamelania@yahoo.com
Description: Last seen with: black bike rack on back, silver water bottle holder on body, black wrist-watch on handle bars, little dinger bell on handle-bars, 2 rear lights, and 1 front light mount
Police record with: Portland PD
Police reference#: 12.44324
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

‘Two Wheels Spoken’ in eastern Oregon as bike tourism blooms

[Story and photos by Russ Roca of The Path Less Pedaled]

This is what the bike tourism revolution looks like.
(Photos © Russ Roca/The Path Less Pedaled)

Eastern Oregon is known for its dry climate; but there’s something taking root along its gorgeous backroads that could help grow the economy of its many small communities: bicycle tourism.

A makeshift meeting room in the Outpost Pub and Grill in John Day (pop. 1,744) is probably the last place you’d expect talk about the need of a bicycle friendly business program, community bike share or bike racks. However, this is the sort of quiet magic that a small, road-weary crew comprised of representatives from Travel Oregon and the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department have been performing through many rural Oregon communities over the past year.

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13 citations issued by PPB in crosswalk enforcement action

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The location of yesterday’s enforcement action
on SE Foster.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) held one of their regularly scheduled “crosswalk enforcement actions” yesterday. This excellent program, run by the PBOT traffic safety team and dedicated staffer Sharon White (who often puts herself at risk on our most dangerous roads as a decoy during the missions), has resulted in nearly 1,000 citations since it began five years ago.

The set-up is your typical sting situation, except that it’s not exactly a sting. The reason we call these “enforcement actions” is because both the PPB and PBOT give plenty of prior warning that the missions are happening. They notify the public about them via the local media and they even set up signs at the locations announcing that an enforcement is ahead. The goal, says the City, is not to fill the City’s coffers busting scofflaws, but rather to increase awareness among road users of traffic safety and the laws that govern it.

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red schwinn le tour 70s

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Year: 70s
Brand: schwinn
Model: le tour
Color:red
Size:24inch
Stolen in Portland, OR 97202
Stolen:2012-05-23
Stolen From: House. Brooklyn neighborhood, 9th and mall
Neighborhood: brooklyn
Owner: alex thornburg
OwnerEmail: alext@istours.com
Reward: 20$ and satisfaction of helping a broke dude with no bike
Description: Red schwinn le tour with black handle bar tape and black fenders. Handle bars are traditional road bike style. Silver and red forks. Shwinn in big letters ln frame. Left shifter is loose and hanging down to the side. Shifter cable is also loose.
Police record with: portland police
Police reference#: 12 44 077