Carry Shit Olympics draws cargo bike enthusiasts to north Portland

The Carry Shit Olympics event drew a wonderful mix of people and bikes to Peninsula Park in north Portland Tuesday night. In true everything-is-a-cargo-bike spirit, some people showed up on bikes with pannier racks, there were a few traditional bakfiets front-loaders, a few longtails, a homemade rig, and even an electric, off-road trike with big knobby tires.

The event was organized by Zack Reinhardt (@zackpizzabikes on Instagram), a 30-year old cargo bike evangelist who moved to Portland from Pennsylvania three-and-a-half years ago. “I basically just wanted to put on a cargo bike race a little bit more relaxed and underground than DRT [Disaster Relief Trials, the large-scale event that happened back in June],” he told me at a checkpoint along the route.

Here are just some of the bikes that showed up:

The mix of riders was amazing to see. Several folks showed up with kids in tow and my estimate on the age-range was 6-60+ (see them in the video below). They received a manifest at the start and had to navigate to checkpoints throughout north Portland from Overlook Park to Kelley Point Park. At those stops they had to pick up a variety of cargo. There were extra points for filling up a bag with trash found along the way, or for interesting ground scores.

Why put on an event like this? For Reinhardt, it was just an excuse to have fun on a summer weeknight in Portland during Pedalpalooza. But there’s also an advocacy element:

“I think cargo bikes really have the potential to really change how people live, and they have the potential to save the world, change how a lot of people are living, change how we go about our lives, both in the city and outside the city. So I think this is a good way to kind of show folks what those kind of bikes are capable of.”

At the end spot on a beach in Kelley Point Park, Reinhardt tallied up the scores and volunteer Anthony Dryer was there to grab photos of a few of the winners:

Check out a few more actions shots in the gallery below:

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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EP
EP
1 year ago

Great pics! It’s awesome to see the range from home-built (look like Tom’s) cargo bikes, all the way up to high end e-assist Bullitts. The trike/truck box trailer is awesome. Everyone’s having fun, even kids too. Great!

Jean C
Jean C
1 year ago

Would be interested in bringing my children to this event if it didn’t have such a crude name. The organizers would do well to ditch the potty talk – most of us grew out of such language by the time we could afford our first cargo bikes.

Spork
Spork
1 year ago
Reply to  Jean C

Speak for yourself. The winning team was a father/daughter duo and there were a bunch of other kids around. Cargo bikes aren’t just for families, us child-free heathens like to carry stuff too.