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

Year: 2015

Weekend Event Guide: Wonka, women, work, the world, and more

3629457002_0692d7411d_b

If you have an oompa loompa costume, you might want to dust it off.
(Photo J Maus/BikePortland)

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

The forecast is a bit spotty the next few days, but you don’t let that stop you from riding do you? And if you do, we’ve got a few things in this week’s guide that are indoors (but you’ll still have to bike to them of course).

Our pick of the weekend is the big trail work party and campout that Portland Design Works is putting on. Imagine hanging out with a bunch of great people volunteering with the Forest Service to make awesome bike trails. Then imagine camping out afterwards and then riding the next day. That sounds like a winning combination to us.

Whatever you do this weekend, have fun! You’ve earned it.

Read more

Job: Flexible PT Mechanic – SprocketFly

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title
Flexible PT Mechanic

Company/Organization
SprocketFly

Job Description
SprocketFly’s mission is to provide fast, convenient, and exceptional service to bike riders all over town. As a SprocketFly Mobile Bike Tech, you’ll ensure Portlanders are safe on their wheels and are bowled over by your professionalism and outward friendliness.

You’ll be part of an upstart team of independent but affiliated can-do bike enthusiasts, and you’ll get wholesale access to repair parts and accessories. Many of our events are at offices and organizations around town, but we’re branching out more to servicing individuals where they live. Key benefits to you include independence/autonomy, schedule flexibility, and very competitive revenue share. We pay you directly to your bank account, and no cash changes hands at the point of service outside of tips.

Responsibilities:
-Service bikes where needed in PDX
-Be a great teammate at workplace events with other mechanics
-Provide Tune-ups, repairs, overhauls and installs
-Maintain and take stock of a shared pool of tools and supplies
-Be friendly
-Be prompt
-Be yourself

Strong candidates will:
-Be easily reachable through phone
-Be able to get around town efficiently with repair tools and supplies
-Reliably respond to emails
-Have a passion for the people who ride bikes as much as their equipment
-Be UBI certified
-Have retail and/or bike mechanic experience
-Have strong communications skills
-Be able to work well alone and with others

How to Apply
First, check out our website, our charity, pricing, and about us pages to learn more about what we do and how we do it: www.sprocketfly.com

Second, fill out our application:
www.sprocketfly.com/jobs

Third, introduce yourself to Dan via email:
support@sprocketfly.com

We’ll be in touch with you shortly if this seems like a good fit.

For ninth edition of Bike There map, Metro chops print price to $6

Bikethere2015CoverLoRes_Metro

Cover of the new map.

The definitive regional bike map has been updated with lots of new routes and a significant price cut.

Metro’s Bike There! map, published since 1982, will release its ninth edition next month in the first update since 2010. There’s a lot to keep up with: the number of mapped bike routes in the Oregon side of the Portland metro area has shot up 71 percent since 2010.

The current bike map shows 675 miles of on-street routes and 234 miles of off-street paths. For the new one, it’ll be 1,008 miles of on-street routes and 550 of off-street.

Also added to the new edition of the map, according to Metro (our regional government): “popular recreational off-road destinations where [users] can enjoy the area’s natural beauty.”

Read more

Guest post: What you can do to improve bicycling in Portland right now

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
Utrecht study tour-9

Gerik Kransky, in brown.
(Photos: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Editor’s note: This post is from Gerik Kransky, advocacy director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

Last week was a big week for conversations among people who ride bikes, advocates, activists, media, and the general public. Everyone is talking about the petition to rescind Portland’s Platinum bicycle-friendly status by the League of American Bicyclists.

So what’s next? How do we push today to improve conditions for bicycling tomorrow? Here are five ideas for immediate action.

Read more

On-bike air conditioning system and a periscope: Two things you didn’t know you needed

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
spruzzabikeguy

Hit the Spruzza for a quick cool mist.

Here at BikePortland we get a fair amount of product pitches (especially since the advent of crowd-funding). Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something new pops up. Cases in point are two products that have found their way into our inbox in the past few weeks: A periscope and an on-board mister for your bicycle.

Yes, you read that right.

The Spruzza ($59) is described as, “an on-board cooling system that attaches quickly and easily to your bike. Spruzza ‘air-conditions’ by allowing you to spray just enough water to cover and cool your head, face and neck. The relief from the heat is immediate.”

Read more

City files motion to dismiss River View land use case

Riding and working at Riverview property-3

Photo taken in August 2012,
before biking was illegal.
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

The City of Portland says the State Land Use Board of Appeals has no jurisdiction over its decision to prohibit bicycling on trails at River View Natural Area.

In a “motion to dismiss” filed on April 13th (which we obtained through a public records request, PDF here), Chief Deputy City Attorney Kathryn Beaumont argues that Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish acted within their “managerial discretion” when they informed the community via a letter on March 2nd that bicycling would no longer be allowed on the 146 acre parcel.

The decision shocked riders and biking advocates. People have been riding the trails at River View for decades. And, following its purchase by the City of Portland in 2011, advocates were working in partnership with the Portland Parks & Recreation and Environmental Services bureaus on a management and trails plan under the assumption that bicycle trails would be allowed. The Northwest Trail Alliance, a Portland-based non-profit that builds, maintains and promotes off-road bike trails, responded by filing a Notice of Intent to Appeal with the State Land Use Board of Appeals on March 23rd.

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