(Photo: Cat Six Cycles)
I’ve got two bits of bike shop news to share…
Cat Six suffers damage from reckless driver
Late Monday night our friends at Cat Six Cycles on Northeast 42nd Avenue in the Concordia neighborhood survived a scare. According to shop co-owner Tim Wesolowski, someone driving a car crashed into the front wall of their building. He hasn’t been able to piece together what exactly happened but apparently the person driving the car was, “trying to run a person over with their car.” (I’ve asked the Portland Police for details but have yet to hear back.)
The driver was arrested; but not before doing serious damage to the shop’s front wall and door. And thankfully no one was hurt. Wesolowski says they’re in the process of assessing the damage and getting bids from contractors to fix things up. “In the meantime, we are semi-open for service pickup but not taking in any new work or promising service while we sort through this mess,” he added.
The shop has insurance to cover the cost of damages, but open hours might be spotty the next few weeks. Stay tuned to the shop’s Instagram account for the latest. And if you need something, call first (503-282-1178) to make sure the shop is open and there will be someone to help you. If you want to help the shop rebound from this tough break, join them at the shop on September 21st for a group bike ride to Intergalactic Surly Day!
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Crank takes final turn
A beloved neighborhood bike shop on the Southeast Ankeny bicycle boulevard will close its doors for good at the end of September. We heard from Justin Tutor last week that he’s decided to end his run at Crank Bicycles (2717 SE Ankeny). The shop carried bikes from Public, Felt, Masi, Benno, and Soma as well as a large selection of touring and adventure riding gear.
Crank opened in 2010 at their original location on SE Ash Street. In 2016 they moved one block north to their Ankeny location and doubled in size.
“It’s time for me to do new things and the shop can’t stay,” Tutor shared with us via email. It was a tough decision for Tutor but he sounded optimistic about “really cool things on the horizon.”
Right now, moving all the shop’s inventory is the top priority. And you know what that means: a big sale. Roll over to wish Tutor and his crew well, thank them for their service, and consider relieving them of their current stock of products. Everything in the shop will have closeout pricing through September 30th. Parts and accessories are 25% off and in-stock bikes are 35% off. “Everything else (bolted down or not) is negotiable.”
———
Portland’s bike shop ecosystem is constantly evolving. In the last year or so we’ve seen several shops close including: Velo Cult, Performance (all three locations), and A Better Cycle.
On the other hand, several new shops have taken flight: Golden Pliers, Rock Creek Cyclery (in Hillsboro), and Retrogression.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Wow, We must be reaching some kind of event horizon as the Auto Zombies are no longer content trying to run VRU’s down in the crosswalks and bike paths but are now piloting their entropy buggies in to our homes and business’s. Maybe we are finally winning and the forces of darkness are getting desperate.
I’ve gone to Crank for years since it is in my neighborhood. Justin and crew have always been great. Sad to see them go, but thankful for all the good work they’ve done.
Sheesh. Literally NO bicycle is safe from being run down by a crazy driver. Not on the road, not in a shop, not on a rack, not on a path…I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.
Tim and Kirk run a wonderful, professional, safe, welcoming shop for all folks. They’re incredibly kind and respectful people and business owners. Stop in and support them during this stressful time! Everyone needs at least one Steve the Cat water bottle!!
I’ve never been to Category Six Bicycles. I see on their web page that they have a store cat, Steve. Was Steve the cat in the store at the time of the crash? Is he OK?
Answering my own question, I re-read the web page. It says Steve commutes to the store with Kirk. And that the store is closed on Monday. So I guess Steve is OK.
Anyone else remember Fup, the store cat, over at Powell’s Technical Books?
Nobody was in the shop at the time of the crash, including Steve!
Proof that Zero Vision is working! We need more green paint.
Not sure I follow what does a person trying to hit someone with their car and crashing into a building have to do with Vision Zero or for that matter a bike shop closing? I always see comments like this on stories that have nothing to do with vision zero. I like the green paint especially the bike boxes and no turn on red signs. They seem to be adhered to 90% of the time along my regular routes.
In a Vision Zero world you are unable to crash your motor vehicle into a person or building.
In my time in Portland bike shops have been run over by cars at least 3 times
In 2019 Cat Six Cycles, 42nd Ave NE Portland
https://bikeportland.org/2019/09/04/bike-shop-news-drunk-driver-crashes-into-cat-six-cycles-crank-bicycles-closing-304293#comments
Community Cycling Center on Alberta
This post
https://bikeportland.org/2007/12/13/ccc-in-need-of-help-after-recent-collision-6179
City Bikes about 10 years ago
Somewhere in the Shift 2 bikes archive there was a long popular thread about was that house wearing a helmet.
Meanwhile in that same 10 year time frame, those law breaking, entitled, dangerous bicyclists have destroyed zero buildings. I work on Hawthorne and a few years ago a driver in a Hyundai decided we didn’t need the bike parking staple in front of our office, followed by the Trimet bus stop shelter, then the corner of our building. It took 3 months just to get the permits from the city to start rebuilding. Thankfully no one was hurt. These stories are commonplace enough that the public barely registers them anymore, but if a driver sees a cyclist roll through a stop sign at 5mph it’s apparently the end of the world. We’re all the same people, each of us making mistakes and deciding which rules to follow or break, but when we’re in a car, the consequences of those actions are far greater.