Bike Milwaukie raises money for public bike repair stand outside City Hall

This year, the city just south of Portland is getting a new light rail line and an excellent new bike path extension alongside McLoughlin Boulevard. The co-founders of the group Bike Milwaukie want to add another amenity: a public bike repair stand.

“Over the past four and a half years, we’ve gone on over 50 rides with hundreds of participants, and it’s been a lot of fun,” group co-leader Greg Bartz-Bowman explains in the Kickstarter video above. “The only thing what hasn’t been fun is that when we have that occasional breakdown, there’s nowhere in town to get your bike fixed.”

Advertisement

Though Milwaukie has great access to the Springwater Corridor and Clackamas County Trolley Trail, plus an improving on-street bike network and a bike-friendly city council, the city of 20,000 doesn’t yet have a bike shop of its own. Bartz-Bowman and his collaborator Matt Menely hope the repair stand will make it convenient for bike users in the area to get quick access to a hand pump and a series of tools on retractable cables: Phillips & standard screwdrivers, steel core tire levers, a headset/pedal wrench, an 8/10mm cone wrench, a 9/11mm cone wrench and a Torx T-25 hex key set.

They figure that buying, shipping and installing the stand will cost $2,600. They’ve raised $1,130 so far with 27 days to go. Check out their campaign and chip in if you’d like to help.

Bike repair stands are an increasingly common amenity. Portland’s first public one, installed in 2009, is near Salmon Street Fountain in Waterfront Park, provided by Kerr Bikes. They’re now standard at many large new apartment buildings in Portland; in February we reported that Washington County will be installing five of them on its own land around the west side.

Michael Andersen (Contributor)

Michael Andersen (Contributor)

Michael Andersen was news editor of BikePortland.org from 2013 to 2016 and still pops up occasionally.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

6 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Paul H
Paul H
8 years ago

Tangentially related:

As I was riding McLoughlin northbound through downtown Milwaukie this morning, I saw workers removing the warning tape surrounding the last chunk of newly poured sidewalk on the river side of the street.

I think the sidewalk and path are now complete. You can now ride from Harrison/17th to 21st/22nd (aka, the hill to and from River Rd) along the waterfront without having to dismount, ride through deep gravel, or hop on McLoughlin.

Yay!

Bob
Bob
8 years ago

Video doesnt work in Chrome (latest) version.

fourknees
fourknees
8 years ago

Is the Kerr bike stand available all day, only in spring/summer, or only while they are open and renting bikes?

They just put one of these in at the Whole Foods in Tigard on Scholls-Ferry.

Seems like Tri-Met should install these at Transit Centers.

Joe Adamski
Joe Adamski
8 years ago

with the Max coming soon, a great downtown core area ( although I understand Dark Horse Comics owns half the downtown, posing a challenge for business opportunity) and the certain migration of folks , this would be a great location for a new startup

Rob
Rob
8 years ago

Seems like a great idea… I just gave $25….

Anthony
Anthony
8 years ago

It would be a shame if there was a place called bike n hike in milwaukie!