We’ve had two great jobs and one volunteer opportunity listed this week. Learn more about them via the links below…
Job Title *
Morning Bike Valet Attendant
Company/Organization *
Go By Bike
Job Description *
Looking for morning bike valet attendant to assist during summer rush. Job responsibilities include parking bikes and taking in repair orders. No bike mechanic skills necessary.
Must be morning person and friendly.
Job is from August to the end of September
Monday-Thursday 6:30-9:30 am
$10/hour plus bike transportation reimbursement.
Go By Bike runs the largest bike valet service in the country at the bottom of the aerial tram. We look forward to hearing from you!
How to Apply *
Please email gobybikeshop@gmail.com with paragraph saying why you think you would be a good candidate and two character references.
Thanks!
Job filled! Congrats to the new employer and employee.
This menu of delicious rides and events is brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery. Their support makes BikePortland possible.
Sprockettes Monthly Ride – 9:15 pm at Irving Park (NE 7th and Fargo)
Ride with the Sprockettes, Portland’s mini-bike dance team. Costumes encouraged and be prepared to swim “with a bathing suit or your birthday suit” if it’s hot. More info here.
Saturday Morning Medley – 9:30 am at Wilshire Park (NE 36th and Skidmore)
This is a choose-your-own-adventure ride hosted by the Portland Wheelmen Touring Club. Route options include a flat excursion of 35 miles out to Kelley Point Park, a Lacamas Lake loop, or a jaunt into the West Hills. More info here.
Biking About Architecture – 11:00 am at Bipartisan Cafe (7901 SE Stark)
Jenny Fosmire is back and she’s ready to share the wonderful residential architecture of the Mt. Tabor neighborhood in southeast Portland. Expect a 7-mile ride at a laid-back pace while viewing about 25 homes. The ride will end on Hawthorne Blvd so bring some money for post-ride food and drinks. More info here (FB).
Electric bikes have a very bright future in Portland. There are many reasons why: Many Portlanders love cycling and our city encourages it, we have hills and steep bridges to pedal up, our expensive housing is forcing longer bike commutes, and e-bike technology — as technology tends to do — is always getting better/lighter/cheaper.
On that note, I had the opportunity to test ride the Bosch eBike System last week. From what I’ve heard around the industry, their new mid-drive system is the best on the market. As the largest automotive parts supplier in the world and with over a century of experience, it’s not hard to fathom that Bosch could jump into this market and deliver a solid product.
I also noticed that Xtracycle decided to spec the Bosch system on their Edgerunner cargo bike. That alone is a good sign that the Bosch system is worth paying attention to.
The bike scene in Portland is a wonderfully dynamic thing. It never stops evolving and there are always new people, ideas, and events coming into it. As they do, they keep the scene healthy by forcing it to re-invent itself and absorb new perspectives.
Part of my job is to monitor this ecosystem and understand the role that each piece has on the greater whole. One such piece that I’ve recently heard about is the Rush Hour Alleycat.
Like many new things that appear on the Portland bike scene horizon, it starts with some tweets or maybe at text and email or two from the organizer. Then it might gain a Facebook page or website. The event might fizzle out. Or, if enough people link into it, it might sustain itself and build into something special.
(Side note: Have you noticed how big the weekly Thursday Night Ride has gotten? Organizer Nathan Jones (proprietor of Ride Yr Bike bike shop) started it as a way to keep the Pedalpalooza spirit strong. Now it attracts well over 100 people every week. It meets at 7:30 tonight at Salmon Street Fountain if you’re curious.)
Now, back to this Rush Hour Alleycat…
It feels like all of Portland wants to help Megan Holcomb recover her stolen bike.
Bikes won’t save you after the Big One, but the community built up around them just might.
There’s been a lot of unease in Portland since the publication of a fascinating yet gut-wrenching article in The New Yorker that laid out the impending Cascadia earthquake in excruciating detail.
After I read the piece, I was sort of numb for a while. Then my mind wondered (as if often does) and I started to ask the default question I ask myself around any seemingly intractable issue or policy, “How can bikes fix this?”
Ti Cycles is celebrating 25 years in business. Davy Levy’s small company based in Portland’s northwest hills above Highway 30 is known for pushing the envelope in bike design. Levy is a legendary titanium specialist whose creations are perennial favorites at events like the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS), the Oregon Manifest, and others.
To mark their silver anniversary, the crew at Ti Cycles plans to release a series of promotional videos, “highlighting the exciting and innovative history of Ti Cycles and heightening the brand’s image on the The Internet. Thus far, results are questionable, but the videos are pretty fun.”
Check the videos out below.
About 1:30 am on Monday night thieves broke into a storage room at Alpenrose Velodrome and stole three high-end bikes.
The bikes were resting after one of their biggest events of the year — the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge — which took place over the weekend.
KPTV covered the story and shared comments from the bikes’ owners who desperately need something to ride for important upcoming races. Here’s the video segment they aired last night:
Southeast Portland-based BlaqPaks — makers of fine backpacks, messenger bags, and more — want to offer a full line of products in the style of the iconic PDX Carpet. To do it, they’ve turned to Kickstarter.
For more info, read their press release below…
It’s been a long time since we reached into the mailbag and pulled one out to highlight here on the Front Page.
Today’s email comes from Rachel J. She got in touch with us last week to share her impressions as a new rider:
Subject: New to biking, disappointed….
So I just started commuting to work. Its a 20 mile round trip commute, and I have never biked in a city before. I’m still getting used to the signs and routes. I read up on the laws, visited this site, got gear, maps and books. I consider myself as prepared as I could be for a new cyclist. I was worried about other cars, but I was not prepared for how rude and dangerous other cyclists would be.