Can you get air on a Biketown bike?

Yes, apparently you can.(Photo: The Lumberyard)
Yes, apparently you can.
(Photo: The Lumberyard)

Our friends at the Lumberyard Bike Park are doing great things and their indoor (and outdoor) riding facilities are getting better and better.

They just capped of a summer season that saw a record number of kids participate in their camps. Now they’re ramping up the fall after-school program schedule.

And while the business hums along, they still know how to have fun.

Case in point is the video they just released. They put a helmet-camera on one of their riders and had him check out a Biketown bike, ride it out to their location on SE 82nd Avenue and put it through the paces.

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See for yourself how one of these 60-pound bikes handles the tightly-curving ramps and big-air jumps at The Lumberyard…

— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

BikePortland is supported by the community (that means you!). Please become a subscriber or make a donation today.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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Work Account
Work Account
7 years ago

Why are they 60 pounds?

Adam
7 years ago
Reply to  Work Account

Why not?

mh
7 years ago
Reply to  Work Account

Among other reasons, so they can survive hard use. Looked like a good test to me.

Knobbly
Knobbly
7 years ago
Reply to  Work Account

They’re 60 pounds so they can stand up to a little hooning! The Lumberyard and it’s big air bag might be one of the easiest days for that bike.

I love the Benny Hill soundtrack!! (is that right?) Very creative lo-fi vid.

Eric Leifsdad
Eric Leifsdad
7 years ago
Reply to  Work Account

To keep them closer to the ground where it’s safer.

Spiffy
7 years ago

I wonder how often BikeTown will be revoking memberships for things like this being posted publicly…

Zimmerman
Zimmerman
7 years ago
Reply to  Spiffy

I wonder if anyone that’d use a bike like that would care?

JeffS
JeffS
7 years ago
Reply to  Spiffy

Looks like free advertising to me.

Having some widebody ride one off a curb is more damaging than anything in the video.

Racer X
Racer X
7 years ago

Great fun…but now Biketown is going to add another 3 pages to their membership contract…;-(

MB
MB
7 years ago

awesome!
look how far they had to go just to get the bike…

Stephen Keller
Stephen Keller
7 years ago

Wow! I think I just found a reason to download the Biketown app.

Spencer Boomhower
7 years ago

Bike Town and Lumberyard, a match made in heaven – both come out looking like a ton of fun in this video.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
7 years ago

60 pounds because they’re overbuilt to withstand abuse, and have 8-speed internally geared hubs, heavy-duty metal basket welded to the handlebars, heavy-duty rack with built-in solar/battery-powered electronics module, fenders, integrated lights and U-lock, heavy duty tires so as to rarely strand users due to flats, and shaft drive.

Sure, a bike with these capabilities could readily be built to come in under 40 pounds, but then you need to multiply the cost of that weight reduction by 1000.

Alan 1.0
7 years ago

Are they really 60 pounds? Who’s weighed one? O-Live says “about 45 pounds,” and while that’s still hefty, it’s way under 60.

Work Account
Work Account
7 years ago
Reply to  Alan 1.0

Maus said 59 once I think.

Alan 1.0
7 years ago
Reply to  Work Account

Thx! Seems too high, but maybe. I’ll post if I get a chance to weigh one.

Alan 1.0
7 years ago
Reply to  Alan 1.0

Today I weighed one. My scale has 55 pound rated capacity. When I hoisted a Biketown bike, it displayed “ERR.” It will display 59 pounds, I checked, so they weigh at least that; call it 60. Wowsers.

SilkySlim
SilkySlim
7 years ago

Who is going to up the ante by entering a CX race this fall? I think Biketown is at least as worthy of a race category as Unicycle.

Beth H
7 years ago
Reply to  SilkySlim

Just race with the Clydes.

Mike Quigley
Mike Quigley
7 years ago

I give this whole Biketown experiment … oh … maybe two years. Possibly three. By then the bikes will be trashed by stunts like this, and otherwise vandalized at the lockups. Not to mention the hacks. Nice try. Portland.

Zimmerman
Zimmerman
7 years ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

Yes, because everyone that rides one has the skills and desire to ride like that.

I can’t wait for my next visit to Portland where I ride Wildwood and Riverview on one.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
7 years ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

“I give this whole Biketown experiment … oh … maybe two years”

So what aspect of Portland Exceptionalism will cause this outcome?

I’d hardly call bikesharing an experiment anymore, except maybe in the eyes of the more provincial Portlanders. Our Nice Ride system in Minneapolis is over 5 years old now, with no such problems, and we’re hardly alone.

JeffS
JeffS
7 years ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

Nothing in this video was damaging to the bike.

It would be easier to just say you don’t like biketown and be done with it.

Mossby Pomegranate
Mossby Pomegranate
7 years ago

I’ve forwarded this story to Biketown.

Buzz
Buzz
7 years ago

I’m wondering when the first Biketown bike will be Zoobombed, but that’s likely happened already by now…

Dwaine Dibbly
Dwaine Dibbly
7 years ago

If Biketown didn’t want this kind of mischief, they wouldn’t have put a station right next to the Zoobomb pile.

Jayson
Jayson
7 years ago

Q: Can you get air on a Biketown?
A: Yes, if you have a steep ramp to launch it and a giant air bag to land on.

I agree with the comment above that the Lumberyard (and Biketown) looks like a gas.