🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏

Year: 2014

Weekend Event Guide: STP, brevets, Burnt Bridge, and more

Tour of Aufderheide-22

The Tour de Aufderheide down in Westfir (south of Eugene) offers roads beyond compare.
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to your menu of weekend rides and events, lovingly brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery.

Judging by this weekend’s events it’s clear that it’s time to stretch your legs a bit. If you’ve been putting in some miles, now you get to put your fitness to good use by enjoying the stellar roads and trails around the Portland region. And as luck would have, our warm and dry weather shows no sign of abating.

I’ll be heading far east to Hardman, Oregon this weekend for a stay at the Treo Bike Ranch where I’ll be the embedded journalist on a new type of service they’re rolling out. What are your plans? If you need some ideas. check out our selections below…

Read more

The overlooked barrier to biking: me and my fellow klutzes

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

This skill (standing up on the pedals) was several years in the making for the author. Yes, she still feels really cool every time.
(Photos by L. Mitchell.)

America's Next Bicycle Capital

Part of our series of guest posts, America’s Next Bicycle Capital, where we share community voices about the future of biking in Portland.

This week’s guest writer is Talia Jacobson, a transportation planner and ten-year Portland resident.

For those who sort the world by the four types of cyclists (the Myers-Briggs of bike advocacy), most indicators would mark me “enthused and confident.” I’ve been a full-time bike commuter for six years. I take lanes, haul groceries, and ride in just about any weather until ice gets involved. Run down the list of traits, and there’s only one place I break type: skill level.

I could legally vote before I learned how to ride. Years later, there are still days when I’m a slapstick routine on two wheels.

Read more

Job: Full time bicycle mechanic – Allegro Cyclery (Walla Walla, WA)

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title
Full time bicycle mechanic

Company/Organization
Allegro Cyclery in Walla Walla, WA

Job Description
Allegro has an opening for an experienced bike mechanic. Additional duties are maintaining the repair calendar, helping on the sales floor, operating the point of sale system, serving customers with bike rentals, helping with general cleaning, and performing other tasks as assigned.

Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have several years experience as a bicycle mechanic and in sales. He or she will have a thorough knowledge of MTBs and their components, strong customer service skills, and experience using computers. They will be an active bike rider willing to participate and lead shop rides.
Our shop and our community
Allegro serves all riders- road, MTB, commuters, hybrids and cruisers. We are active in our community- we lead weekly shop rides year round and organize the biggest stage race in the northwest, the Tour of Walla Walla, with enthusiastic support and cooperation from the community. We are known for the very best service a bike shop can offer.

Walla Walla is a small community of 30,000 residents on the dry side of the Cascades. Our road riding is phenomenal, with quiet country roads five to 10 minutes in any direction from downtown. MTB riding is a little further away, and hence been neglected by the locals. We have begun a campaign to grow the MTB and cyclocross markets.

How to Apply
Send a resume and cover letter to Steve Rapp at steve@allegrocyclery.com or 200 E. Main St, Walla Walla, WA 99362. We will contact the best candidates to set up interviews.

Driver cited in serious injury collision on SE Ankeny and 7th

View eastbound on Ankeny at 7th.

Two people, one on a bicycle and one in a car, collided while traveling on SE Ankeny this morning.

According to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), the incident occurred just before 7:46 am at the intersection of Ankeny and 7th. The collision involved someone driving a car and someone pedaling a bicycle. Here’s more from the PPB statement:

Officers determined that the driver of the car had turned left while traveling eastbound on S.E. Ankeny, onto northbound S.E. 7th. The driver turned into the path of the bicyclist causing the accident.

The driver of the vehicle had stopped prior to turning and did not show any signs of impairment. It appears that the driver did not see the bicyclist.

Read more

Seeing business upsides, Old Town retailers propose protected bike lanes on 2nd, 3rd

Old Town Chinatown-2

Inspired by the changes on NE Multnomah in the Lloyd District, a new proposal would transform SW 2nd and 3rd avenues.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

A coalition of 30 Old Town bars, restaurants and entertainment venues is proposing adding a quarter-mile of planter-protected bike lanes and street cafe seating to 2nd and/or 3rd avenues.

Inspired by nearby projects on SW Ankeny and NE Multnomah, the six-month-old Old Town Hospitality Group sees their experimental road diet concept, which could narrow the streets’ car-oriented area from three travel lanes to one or two and might remove some on-street auto parking, as a way to make the neighborhood safer, more comfortable and better to do business in.

Read more

City mulls wider bike lanes on N. Willamette Blvd

N Willamette Blvd bike lanes-5

The biking conditions on N Willamette Blvd leave a lot to be desired.
(Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Could this finally be our chance to get a bit of an improvement to the biking environment on a key north Portland corridor? It might be, if the Portland Bureau of Transportation moves forward on a plan to widen the bike lanes on N. Willamette Blvd.

The move comes as city road crews embark on a major re-paving project that will rebuild 2.36 lane miles between N Portsmouth (near University of Portland) and N Woolsey (near Columbia Park). The project was announced last week and began on Monday.

Upon hearing about the paving project we asked if any lane re-striping was being considered. PBOT has a history of widening and re-striping bike lanes when roads are re-paved. Since striping has to be re-done anyways, these projects are a good opportunity to assess capacity needs and make needed changes.

Read more

Portland business lets you turn your bike into a rolling billboard

bike billboard

(Screen capture from BikeCommuterAds.com)

Here’s an idea: a local business is setting out to sell ads attached to each side of local bike commuters’ front wheels.

“It’s a first-of-its-kind-in-the-nation business, because it’s basically for the bike commuters, the year-round riders,” BikeCommuterAds.com founder Gary Courter said in an interview Tuesday. “They’ve been riding green all this time for nothing — years! — and we’re trying to change that.”

Read more

3 places to watch the Tour de France in Portland

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Catch the Tour at Portland Bicycle Studio’s new location (NW 14th and Raleigh) every morning at 7:00 am.
(Photo courtesy Portland Bicycle Studio)

The Tour de France is already well into its first week and the action is heating up. For many fans “Le Tour” is a must-see race, but unlike the World Cup it’s not always easy to find a reliable (and cheap) television feed. That’s where bike shops and cafes step in to fill the void with viewing parties and big screens.

Read more

‘Stumptown Crit’ and a family bike ride to be part of MLS All-Star Game festivities

Twilight Criterium-25

Big time bike racing is headed back to the North Park Blocks!
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

“Soccer City, USA meets Bike Town, USA.”

Corporate marketing professionals know a good tie-in when they see one. Perhaps that explains why Volkswagen will sponsor two bike events during the festivities leading up to the 2014 Major League Soccer All-Star Game that’s coming to Portland next month.

Read more

Latest Headlines

‘Better Sheridan’ project brings safer street to South Waterfront 

Your guide to finding the ‘Wildwood’ crows by bike

My journey to that ‘Hard Rock glow’

Off-Road Cycling Master Plan: A decade later, what has changed?

From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland