Members of the Portland Police Bureau Central Bike Squad will soon be rolling around on sweet new rigs. That’s because the agency is poised to spend $500,000 on new patrol bikes.
According to the City of Portland’s procurement services office, the funds will be spread out over five years and will go toward the purchase of 15-30 bicycles per year. There are currently eight officers and two sergeants on the PPB’s Central Bike Squad who regularly use bikes on patrol. According to PPB Public Information Manager Mike Benner, in addition to the Central Bike Squad, a few North Precinct officers ride bikes occasionally and as staffing allows.
A company named Volcanic Bikes won the contract. Volcanic was based in Skamania, Washington before moving to Omaha, Nebraska in 2022. The specialize in police bikes and are well-reputed across the law enforcement industry. The International Police Mountain Bike Association, a nonprofit that trains bike-mounted officers, reviewed a Volcanic Bike and said, “The toughest patrol bike on earth.”
A document posted online by the City of Portland Procurement Services office touts Volcanic’s lifetime warranty and special frame features that add strength needed to carry an officer’s gear: “The chain stay and seat stay yokes are machined from solid alloy bar stock, which is far superior in strength to other processes.” Large tires on 29-inch wheels are also a selling point for their “better traction, angle of attack, and the ability to ride over obstacles, such as curbs.”
According to a Procurement services staffer, an initial purchase of 88 bikes costing $2,447 will be made. “After initial purchase we plan to buy 15-30 bikes per year, over 5 years, to meet Bureau demands and cycle out old bicycles,” the staff person shared via email.
And the money won’t go to a local builder or bike shop because it was awarded as a “sole source procurement” without a competitive bidding process. Oregon law allows sole source contracts when, after completing market research it’s determined that “only one known capable source of the needed product” is available. This purchase fit that definition, said the city’s procurement office in response to questions from BikePortland.
Benner says the bikes can be used bureau-wide and will also be available to the Rapid Response Team for use in working large events and protests. The new contract will also allow the bureau to replace some of their current bikes that Benner says are over ten years old. They also plan to have a fleet of bikes for training purposes and for use during the hiring process.
Asked whether the new contract means we’ll see an increase in full-time bike squad members, Benner said, “Chief [Day] Chief is incredibly proud of the work conducted by the current Bike Squad. If resources allow, he’d consider expansion in the future.”
While it’s a lot of money for bicycles, $100,000 (the per year expenditure which will happen for five years for a total of $500,000) represents just .03% of the PPB’s $295 million annual budget.
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‘A document posted online by the City of Portland Procurement Services office’…that no one will ever find again…
pretty sad they didn’t even make a effort to get them local..
“While it’s a lot of money for bicycles, $500,000 represents less than 0.2% of the PPB’s $295 million annual budget.”
Yep sounds like they are at least buying quality bikes and compared to the 5% of the budget the Police Accountability Commission gets ($14,750,000!) it really is a small amount. How in the world does a commission need $15 million dollars/year? Are they having their meetings in the South of France and getting paid $500/hour?
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2023/11/13/portland-city-council-seeks-to-pare-down-future-police-oversight-board/
88 bikes initially and 15-30 per year after that for a 10-person bike squad? That doesn’t make sense.
I agree, something doesn’t add up. My guess would be that they are planning to use them for crowd control. Some cities such as Seattle use them far more in this application. However even if this is the case it seems excessive.
“$500,000 represents less than 0.2% of the PPB’s $295 million annual budget.”
But above, you said it was spread out over 5 years. So wouldn’t that be $100,000 per year, and 0.04% of the annual budget?
Ahh yes good catch. Thank you! I’ll fix it right now.
Really? Solid chain stays and seat stays? Downhill MTBs don’t even have that and I’m hard-pressed to imagine the police put more stress on their equipment than downhillers.
Also, this seems like a good application for e-bikes, surprised they’re not considering that.
I had the same thought about e-bikes. The police on these heavy unassisted bikes are going to be the slowest bikers in the city aside from elderly riders and young children. I imagine that in part the decision has to do with the single supplier of “police grade” bicycles presumably not making an e-bike version. I really don’t think the differences in this police version are going to make it any better than a good quality e-bike which is generally heavier framed than a standard acoustic bike, although these are probably about half the price per bike.
I think you should try that theory out. Commit a crime in front of a bike patrol officer and then see if they can nab ya.
Also one (of many) reason they would want a person-powered bike is that when they apprehend suspects, they tend to toss the bike down quickly on the concrete and that isn’t the best way to treat an e-bike.
I don’t think that the purpose of putting police on bikes is to chase down other people on bikes
As a rule, tubes are stronger than bars or rods of the same material and mass, so this is just a joke. $2400 for a hardtail with mechanical disc brakes is an absurd price–a bike like this would be $1000 if purchased from a real bike brand, and would come with hydraulic brakes that work better than bb7s ever will.
https://surlybikes.com/bikes/krampus
Not saying they got a good deal. I’m suspicious of this purchase for sure. But the surly Krampus hard tail is over $2500. $1000 seems way too cheap. The price seems within reason, I just don’t know why they need so many nor do I believe their flimsy excuse for choosing the supplier.
Krampus is steel, and 12s, and has the surly premium. A better comparison bike would be a Kona Honzo, $1299, and still has a brake and drivetrain edge on the cop bikes.
Hmm. I’m not as well versed on prices of different bikes, I thought aluminum was usually the more expensive option and steel was usually the cheapest. Interesting.
Yeah, that wasn’t to say they got the cheapest option. I’m just saying, $2400 for a hard tail with mech disc brakes is not an absurd price. It may be a slightly “premium” price, but I would expect them to get a somewhat premium bike. That is not surprising. The Honzo has options that put it up to $2300, so again, it’s a not a crazy price.
I wouldn’t have as much problem with spending that amount if they actually had non-made-up requirements (solid chainstay wtf?) and a competitive bidding process.
I am very well versed in what the state of new bike availability and price is and $2300 is double what that bike should retail for.
You can price new steel bikes and see that they are all more expensive than similarly spec’d aluminum bikes.
While some models of the Honzo are that expensive, the Honzo ESD is a completely different bike–different geo, way different spec, and steel instead of aluminum (again). The base Honzo is already spec’d significantly better than the cop bike, so that’s the comparison I chose.
The solid chainstay isn’t a requirement for the police procurement, it’s the company trying to market their shitty bike as better to people who don’t know how materials (or physics, generally) works.
I do have a problem with them spending that much, especially the part where they are buying 4x as many bikes as they have riders…
Yeah, totally agree. And when it comes to components, I’m even less knowledgeable about what they should cost. Just basing my comments on a handful of bikes I’ve bought.
Sounds like they are way overpaying. IMO, it sounds like they’re doing a solid for a fellow cop-owned bike company, which seems pretty corrupt to me.
I’m guessing their excuse for the “solid” stuff is they actually want to use them as barricades so they need to be sturdy. But as you point out, a solid chainstay does nothing, it’s a marketing gimmick. If they were properly investigated, they would probably have to do a real bidding process. Drives me nuts this kind of stuff just gets ignored.
wait is it $500,000 or $100,000? Kind of a big difference
500,000 over five years. $100,000 per year for five years.
I think that’s an excellent purchase. Seems like a very fair price for a quality product and I applaud whoever negotiated that deal. Let’s promote that person to be in charge of all procurements in oregon.
I can see standard bikes in the Central City, but if they’re going to patrol the I205 MUP and other MUP’s, wouldn’t an E-bike be more practical?
Why spend the $ if it doesn’t fit the necessity?
Another you for the cops do they didn’t have to do work. If one gets stolen they MAY care, but I doubt it, not their money
The solid seat and chainstays are unique. I can’t imagine they are necessary, as many touring and bikepacking setups carry as much weight and do not need such a feature. Bikes used for jumping don’t seem to need it either. It does seem to justify the “sole source procurement” as no other bike has this feature.
-The owner of Volcanic is a former cop.
-The volume of bicycles is disproportionate to the usage by PPB.
-The differentiators justifying sole source procurement have never been necessary in the past.
-Reasonable minds could suspect that one of the primary purposes of the chainstay and seat stay construction is to justify sole source procurement.
Further explanation of the decision-making process is required should PPB wish to dispel any concerns that this decision was made to line the pockets of one of their own.
Yikes, I suspected something probably a little corrupt (because, come on), but didn’t look into it further so I didn’t say anything. But given those details, this really sounds like it should be investigated further.
They’re supposed to do competitive bidding. If they’re allowed to just say “trust us bro, only this supplier works” and it just happens to be a company owned by a former cop who sells to PPB already, and they use such a flimsy excuse, that sounds like a law/regulation with no teeth unless they get investigated.
It’s like “We require a bike with the logo ‘Volcanic’ written on it, and only this one supplier meets our requirements”.
Five hundred grand is a lot for bicycles, particularly for what they’re getting.
A suspension fork for urban riding is goofy enough, but solid seat and chain stays is bonkers.
I would say you gotta wonder if the people who come up with these requirements know anything about cycling at all — but the decisions remove all doubt.
But being effective or sweating wasting money was never a Portland thing.
Solid seat and chain stays for strength but also putting cargo weight way up high on a bolt-on rack. Weird choices abound.