Showers Pass, designers of popular rain-gear, are now based in Southeast Portland (they were previously in the Southwest Hills area). I have been meaning to do a story on them, but I noticed Bicycle Retailer & Industry News Magazine had a story on them today: Showers Pass Moves, Boosts Management
Joel Grover, head buyer for the Bike Gallery, stopped by BikePortland headquarters this afternoon to deliver my latest test bike — a Gary Fisher Simple City. It’s a pretty basic, flat-bar townie bike. It’s got a 3-speed internal hub, rear coaster brake (front hand brake) and it weighs about 25 pounds. I shot a quick … Read more
A bamboo trailer built in North Portland by Elden Clark (notice the bottle-capped screw heads).(Photos © J. Maus unless otherwise noted) North Portland resident Elden Clark hopes to turn his love for building bamboo bicycle trailers into a business. I first spotted Clark’s work on a flyer he’d posted outside of a bike shop. Then … Read more
Big bag of chicken feed? No problem. But two wooden screen doors?(Photos © J. Maus) On Saturday, I decided to put the Yuba Mundo through a few paces. When he dropped it off last week, local Mundo man Jeremy Towsey-French said the bike excels at carrying awkward loads. With that in mind, I decided to … Read more
Jeremy Towsey-French loves the Mundo.(Photos © J. Maus) Jeremy Towsey-French dropped by BikePortland.org headquarters today to introduce me to the Yuba Mundo. The Mundo (it means “world” in Spanish) is a cargo bike dreamed up by an ex-employee of Xtracycle and Jeremy is the Portland distributor. He’s set up a website at StumptownMundo.com and he … Read more
[Note: This article was written by BikePortland.org’s Carfree Families columnist Marion Rice.] The Folz family (Allan, Carie and Cody) used their tandem/child-seat/trailer combo to participate in a bike move last summer. (All photos © J. Maus)
(Photo: urbanMamas.com) The popular local parenting blog, urbanMamas, is looking for tips on family-friendly bike set-ups. They’ve published an email from one of their readers who writes: “We have a 2 year old and a 7 year old and are wanting to get the family bike setup on a budget. We were thinking of looking … Read more
A local bag maker has created a custom set of panniers that are just as gorgeous as the bike they were made for.
Kona Bicycles’ latest model is named after local off-road racing hero and co-owner of Sellwood Cycle Repair Erik Tonkin. Kona’s new “Honky Tonk”. Calling it “a model made specifically for the Portland community,” Erik Tonkin says the new “Honky Tonk” frameset offered by Kona Bicycles is the result of his request for an inexpensive, around-town … Read more
The new Hyland from Civia.(Photos © J. Maus)
Just a quick note to introduce the latest bike I’m test-riding in my ongoing quest to find my perfect city bike. Behold the Batavus Socorro:
(Photos © Jonathan Maus) Thanks to good folks at Seattle Bike Supply, for the past several months I’ve been the lucky caretaker of a Batavus “Old Dutch”. I hoped the Portland sales rep who loaned it to me would have forgotten about it, but unfortunately, last Friday it was time to give it back.