Trigger warning: This story mentions sexual assault and underage rape in general terms without details of any specific incident.
While I was at the recent Downtown Sunday Parkways, I received several reports of a man walking around with a massive sign over his head that read in big, black letters: “Shift2bikes.org is Unlawful” with the “awful” part in red. I had a hunch who it might be. And sure enough, I eventually rolled up to see Matt Landon peering over the top of it.
What the sign all about? It has to do with several things, including: the Thursday Night Ride (TNR), Shift’s management of their popular ride calendar, the fact that Shift has banned Landon from using it, and Landon’s claims that Shift board members are covering up reports of sexual assault that allegedly happened on TNR. Landon, a self-described professional activist and a former leader of TNR, alleges that Shift board members know about at least one incident of rape of a minor during a TNR ride, but that they failed to report it to police. Shift says Landon’s claims are completely untrue, based solely on hearsay, and that his anti-Shift campaign is nothing more than a vendetta.
Before I go any further: Please note that I’ve dealt with several intra-community issues in the past and they are always complicated, convoluted and sensitive to those involved. Each time my preference is to not share them widely on BikePortland and to hope they get resolved among involved parties acting in good faith. However, when behaviors cross a line and people are being hurt or are at risk of being hurt, and a resolution doesn’t appear imminent, I feel airing things out publicly can be helpful. Given Landon’s behaviors thus far — and the fact that many folks have asked me about this following his recent Sunday Parkways demonstration; his spate of long, mass emails detailing his grievances; his release of a 10-page report and complaint that he’s handing out at events; and his attendance at Bike Happy Hour last night — I feel compelled to address what’s going on in greater detail.
So here goes…
To try and unravel what’s going on, I’ve talked and emailed with Landon to hear his concerns. I’ve also talked and emailed with four other people from Shift, Umbrella (Shift’s fiscal sponsor) and elsewhere who’ve been directly named in Landon’s allegations. First, some background…
Shift is one of the many grassroots, all-volunteer organizations in our community that operates under the fiscal sponsorship of the nonprofit Umbrella. Shift started in 2002 to promote “Bike Summer,” which went on to become Pedalpalooza and has recently began calling itself Bike Summer once again. Shift also hosts a very popular calendar of rides and events on their website ShiftToBikes.org. That calendar is at the heart of this dispute.
Given that the ride calendar is a pillar of our community, one of Shift’s largest responsibilities is to keep it accessible and safe. Anyone can list rides, but Shift has a Code of Conduct committee (and a board) to manage concerns that might arise on rides and/or with specific ride listings. In 2021, Shift decided to delist TNR. This was a big deal because if something’s not on the Shift Calendar, it’s almost as if it doesn’t exist. And the entire goal of a mass social ride is to make it big and attract new riders each week. By that time, TNR had become a huge ride, but Shift had several concerns about it — ranging from a bonfire at the end spot during a burn ban in 2020, a lack of attention to Covid prevention and social distancing rules in 2021, and a general sentiment that people on the ride and/or ride leaders themselves were behaving in a way that Shift does not support. These alleged behaviors included: unprovoked aggression toward drivers, women feeling uncomfortable (unverified reports of sexual assault have swirled around the ride since its early years), reckless riding, and intoxicated ride leaders.
TNR leaders responded to the delisting of their ride by promising Shift they would address the problems. In May 2021, two TNR leaders launched an effort to make the ride safe in hopes of getting put back on the calendar. In a four-page memo, they launched the Biking and Riding Friends Working Group, or BARF. Among BARF’s goals was to, “create a safe space for female, trans, queer, people of color, and all riders during TNR bike rides,” and, “create a zero tolerance policy for sexual assault and domestic violence that occurs during or immediately following TNR bike rides if the victim and perpetrator both attended the TNR bike ride.”
Landon was one of those two leaders and BARF was his baby.
The good-faith effort from Landon and BARF got TNR back on the calendar, and things seemed to be going well on the ride. But in late 2023, Shift says they started to hear more complaints about TNR. In an email from Shift leaders to Landon in November 2023, they wrote:
“These reports have included cases of personal threats to riders, unsafe riding, fights, threats of mass shootings, possession of weapons, etc. These threats have come from multiple individuals often regarding completely separate incidences and dates and have included multiple offenders… this is not just about one bad actor or a few people displeased with the ride. There are multiple problems and too many reports and people to count. One or two a year is expected with large weekly rides and oftentimes they are just small scuffles and personal drama but there’s just been too many which indicates a systematic or cultural problem. These problems go back further than three weeks and BARF should have been addressing these problems as they occur.”
At that point Shift once again took TNR off their calendar for three months and asked ride organizers to develop a plan to remedy the issues. “This is not an attempt to cancel the ride, nor is it based on any personal feelings from any board members,” wrote Shift Board member Logan Vickery in an email to Landon on November 16, 2023. “This decision is based solely on community feedback and we feel that we are forced to take action in order to keep our community safe. We acknowledge the impact that TNR has had over the years and hope to see it continue on but only if its impact is positive and in agreement with the Shift Code of Conduct.”
In February of 2024, Landon attended a Shift Board meeting in hopes of having the ride reinstated. According to two Shift board members who were at that meeting, that’s when things began to go off the rails. While Landon appeared to be acting in good faith at that meeting, one Shift board member said he felt Landon’s attitude was, “O.K., I’ve been nice, now put TNR back on the calendar.” The board member, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for their safety, said Shift felt more process was needed before the ride could be relisted: “I think that meeting was the first time we set a line and said [to Landon], ‘No, you don’t get to dictate the terms of this,’… and as soon as we started putting in lines, he just it ratcheted up very quickly from there. He did not seem to respect boundaries whatsoever.”
Another Shift board member at that meeting, Logan Vickery, also told me Landon seemed very willing to work with Shift to remedy the situation with TNR, but, “After that meeting, he just started getting weird.”
After that meeting, Landon seemed to go to war with Shift. Since TNR was unable to be listed on the calendar, Landon posted a similar event that started nearby at a similar time. Landon also says he filed a formal complaint last year with the Oregon Secretary of State due to his belief that Shift is in violation of their nonprofit bylaws. And in what would become a frequent tactic, he sent out a long email full of allegations and speculations about Shift with a carbon copy sent to hundreds of individuals and organizations — many of whom never gave Landon permission to use their personal emails. Shift took particular offense to one email from Landon where he claimed to be running a recruitment for Shift board members and citing nonexistent Shift policies — even though he wasn’t affiliated with Shift in any way.
Among the allegations Landon made against Shift in these emails is that they were hiding a secret database of assault incidents from TNR and that they were aware of an underage rape on the ride, but were intentionally hiding it all from the public. Landon bases this accusation on the email quoted above where a Shift board member makes a passing reference to “reports” they received about TNR. Landon also cites other mentions of unverified, alleged sexual assaults on the ride from other individuals as being serious enough for Shift to have brought to authorities. Shift has a process for handling ride complaints and taking reports from participants, but their stated policy is that Shift, “does not engage with local law enforcement or otherwise aide law enforcement with their investigative matters.” Landon believes that policy is unlawful.
Asked to respond to Landon’s allegations, one Shift volunteer told me, “He was saying things that were wildly untrue. Clearly, he was not acting in good faith at this point.” Another person, who also asked me to withhold their name out of fear of retaliation by Landon said, “He’s not been an easy person to collaborate with or to communicate with. It doesn’t feel like it’s in good faith.” As for Landon’s chief allegation, that Shift is hiding reports of underage rape that happened on TNR, a Shift leader said, “We don’t have any reports of those sorts of things. We don’t know where that’s coming from.”
In an email sent to local media on March 7th, 2024, Landon wrote: “I’m asking that folks please not donate to Shift2bikes.org since no one gets to vote on anything that Shift2bikes does here in Portland.” In the signature line of that email Landon referred to himself as, “the first whistleblower illegally retaliated against by Shift2bikes.”
On March 7th, 2024, Shift decided to ban Landon from using the calendar and attending any Shift events. In their email to him they wrote that the ban was, “Due to misusing Shift resources, spamming Shift users, and posting events/emails impersonating Shift even after a warning.”
Landon has recently escalated his public demonstrations against leaders of Shift. Not only did Landon walk around Sunday Parkways with his sign, telling people about his claim that the organization is covering up past sexual assaults, he also spent several hours at the Shift table where he called out Shift leadership by first and last name and accused them of being a “criminal organization.” Shift volunteers who were at the event asked Landon to stop engaging with them, but they say he refused to leave. This behavior has spooked several Shift leaders who feel they are being targeted by Landon and are concerned about their safety.
In a 10-page report titled, Mandatory reporter / Whistleblower Matt Landon complaint against Shift, Umbrella, and Willamette Week, that Landon began sharing with bike community leaders and local media on September 14th of this year, he claims Shift has, “admitted via email that they received multiple (too many to count) complaints from victims/survivors yet did not follow up on their legal obligation to investigate the complaints or forward those complaints to either approved safety team members nor the police.” “I’m concerned because underage drugged rape cases continue to be brought up, yet no action has occurred,” Landon wrote. “I fear that these are not the only instances of violence, domestic violence, and sexual violence that Shift and Umbrella have ignored.”
When I asked Landon to explain his rape allegations in more detail, he referred me to his 10 page report and the aforementioned emails where people refer to secondhand incidents and “reports” in a general sense with no verifiable details of any specific assault cases.
At Sunday Parkways earlier this month, I gave Landon the opportunity explain his concerns with Shift (in video below). Here’s what he said:
“On September 14, 2025 I filed a complaint against Shift to Bikes and Umbrella and Willamette Weekly [sic], because they have been ignoring their filing of complaints from people. And I’m filing this as a mandatory reporter, because there have been reports of underage rape that have not been reported by from Shift to the police, and this is illegal. Also, Umbrella and Willamette Weekly have both known about this and have not reported this information to the police as well.”
The mention of Willamette Week comes from Landon’s communications with James Hemphill, a freelancer who has worked for Willamette Week who has also ridden TNR and was, at one time, working on a story about the ride that was never published. In a conversation with Hemphill today, he said he thinks Landon is “making a mountain out of a molehill,” and that, “It’s obvious he’s he’s seeking vindication for something, and he just really needs to own up to what he’s done and accept it and go away.”
At Bike Happy Hour last night I spoke to Landon at length. When I asked if he’s seeking revenge for being banned from using the Shift Calendar, he said that’s not why we was banned. He thinks the ban is an attempt to silence him and avoid accountability.
It might take lawyers to ultimately resolve this dispute; but I hope what I’ve shared here gives you more context on where each side stands.
TNR is Portland’s longest running weekly social ride and a vital part of our community. And for many participants — especially the regulars and leaders — it’s much more than just a bike ride. TNR is a strong community that means a lot to a lot of people. And like I always say, sometimes community is messy and it takes hard work to keep it strong.
And despite all this drama, you’ll be happy to know that TNR is alive today and healthier than ever. Earlier this spring, the ride put all this behind them under the guidance of a new leader; Bike Happy Hour regular John “JR” Russell. Check out the details of tonight’s ride and roll out to the Fountain to join all the fun.