This photo was taken 123 years ago, but the bicycle pictured here doesn’t look significantly different than the single speeds we see tooling around Portland in 2018.

Pretty amazing, and testimony to the perfection of the traditional “diamond” frame.

The link from Vintage Portland, our (other) daily read:

https://vintageportland.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/1895-c_herbert-lewis-posing-with-a-bicycle_a2004-002-11004.jpg

without a picnic in 1969 this would have still been our waterfront

Join Us June 5th from 11-1pm @ SW Broadway and Montgomery for Portland Inclusivity Picnic

In his 2008 inauguration speech, then Mayor Sam Adams laid out a vision for Portland to become the “most sustainable city in the world”. It was an optimistic vision and one that called on everyone in Portland to work together to achieve. Today that narrative seems overrun by, as Tim Davis put it, “people in towers opposing towers”, homeowners fighting against people without homes, people with immense privilege excluding people without much, and even motorists trying to reserve as much space as possible for their private automobiles. It would be hard to claim that ten years later Portland has lived up to Mayor Adam’s vision.

The desire to claim your exclusive rights to common space is tempting in a world that seems run more off of social media than face-to-face contact, but exclusivity will not help us solve the most pressing problems we face as a society. Bicycles can be a tool to help us see each other and efficiently include people in a growing city. But as Denmark’s recent ban on religious face wear shows, we will need more than nice bikeways. We need to embrace a culture of including as many people as possible and understand that by doing so we will all be more wealthy, happy, and healthier.

In the summer of 1969, Portlanders hosted several “conscious raising picnics” in the small grassy area between the lanes of what was then the Harbor Drive highway. They ambitiously called for transforming the highway into a park. Today, it is impossible to imagine our city without Tom McCall Waterfront Park..

It is time for Portlanders to bring out their picnic blankets again.

Tomorrow, we are taking over a small section of Portland’s expansive public space dedicated to cars before people. We are reclaiming it to make a place where people can feel included and differences are celebrated. This inclusivity picnic will last for two hours and we will will host an open mic with several invited guest speakers to collectively imagine what an inclusive Portland might look and feel like.

Please join us tomorrow, June 5th, from 11-1pm on SW Montgomery between Broadway and 6th for a picnic to raise our consciousness about inclusivity and resist the pulls at our society to hide behind the shields of our car windows and single family zoned lots. Bring your own blanket and meal or join someone else on their blanket. Everyone is welcome.

Folks:

I have created another episode on bicycling through Bellingham history! This one has a theme of why Bellingham is a nice place to commute by bicycle as well as footage of our own bike to work day parties!

Also, all of the music as well as the illustrations of early Bellingham buildings are my own!

Enjoy!

Mark Allyn
Bellingham, Washington

Parks & Rec says it found a contractor to repair a bumpy section of the Willamette Greenway Trail, starting June 5, ending June 8. That section of the trail, south of Rosswood Restaurant, near Cottonwood Bay, will be closed during repairs. This is good news, coming a month before they close the Springwater Corridor for four months, starting July 1.

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/article/686252

The press release:

Popular commuting and recreational route impacted beginning Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) announces that a section of southwest Portland’s Willamette Greenway Trail will be closed next week to allow for construction improvements. The closed portion of the trail will be in the area of Cottonwood Bay (extending north and south of SW Hamilton Court).

The improvement work and trail closure will begin Tuesday, June 5, and last no later than Friday, June 8, 2018; though PP&R and the contractor are hopeful work can be completed by the end of the day on Thursday, June 7.

Work is scheduled to begin starting at 8am and to end no later than 7pm on each of the days. Commuters, bicyclists, walkers and runners should be aware they cannot proceed through the work area. Alternative routes include using the Sellwood Bridge to travel across the river to the Springwater Corridor Trail. Routes back to the west side include the Tilikum Crossing and Hawthorne Bridges.

PP&R staff will ensure that notification signs are in place beginning on Monday, June 4, 2018.

The work will address bumps and uneven pavement in the Greenway trail due to tree roots. PP&R prioritized the Willamette Greenway Trail paving project to increase the convenience for commuters and recreational users during the upcoming four-month closure of part of the Springwater Corridor Trail, which starts July 1, 2018. Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services (BES), Portland Parks & Recreation, and the US Army Corps of Engineers will work together on the large-scale habitat enhancement project that benefits wildlife in the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. For more information on that project, please visit portlandoregon.gov/bes/76508

Willamette Greenway Trail paving – what to know

Start date: Tuesday June 5, 2018
Expected completion date: no later than Friday, June 8, 2018, and hopefully the end of the day on Thursday, June 7.
Work hours: 8am-7pm
Work location: The closed portion of the trail will be in the area of Cottonwood Bay (extending north and south of SW Hamilton Court).
Impacts: Commuters, bicyclists, walkers and runners should be aware they cannot proceed through the work area. Alternative routes include using the Sellwood Bridge to travel across the river to the Springwater Corridor Trail. Routes back to the west side include the Tilikum Crossing and Hawthorne Bridges.
All contractors and staff will be mindful of noise ordinance requirements for work within City limits
PP&R will install informative signs, as well as any necessary barricades, cones, caution tape, etc.

Bikes are fun, bikes are cool, bikes have soul, bikes have history.

Welcome to the world of bike geekery, of fascination with inventive design and old-school craft, steel and leather, gear-inches and French threads, shiny bling and soulful patina, NOS and well-worn veteran.

Our summer celebration will be on Saturday June 16, at the “Velocirque” weekend at Velocult. This is the fifth Velocirque; Velocult started doing these shows in 2016 and if you have even a little bit of bike geek in you, its well worth a visit.

Remember the February show? We’re doing it again because Pedalpalooza. https://bikeportland.org/2018/02/26/velo-cirque-brings-out-the-customs-classics-and-those-who-love-them-269603

We’ll oogle over old-school “classic and vintage” bicycles and newer “custom” bikes with old-world workmanship. 1960s Italian city bikes to 1980s racebikes, English three-speeds to kitted-out randos, old-school MTBs and Stingrays. From Weigle to Merz, Cinelli to Ritchey, Raleigh to Bottechia – if it is cool and full of soul – it is welcome in this DIY bike show. Bring a bike stand if you have one.

Yes, DIY. This is the people’s bike show. YOUR bike show. Bring your cool ride and show it off.

Special call for three-speeds and randonneur/touring/bikepacker bikes! Bring ’em!

VELOCIRQUE BY VELOCULT
Velocult, 1969 NE 42nd Avenue
Saturday June 16 – show starts 3:00 pm

Oh, and there’s beer, too.

Have you ever tried to watch BIKE RACING in the US? Not easy. You can pay beaucoup to cable for a sports package that includes the Tour and not much else. Or pay 2X beaucoup for an over the top sports service to see more. Or . . . We can raise $ to equip Velocult with a media streaming computer and the necessary subscriptions to stream global BIKE RACING right to the couches and beer at 1969 NE 42nd.

Check our GoFundMe campaign here.

Please take a look at the GFM and donate – if each of us just donated the equivalent of our weekly bar tab, or just one month’s cost for the beaucoup cable/OTP packages, that would do it.

Can we do anything about the pavement breaks and bumps on the westside Willamette Greenway Trail? The bad section is south of Rosswood Restaurant — looks like Floragenex, Inc. and OTRADI Bioscience Incubator are businesses that look out on that section of the trail. Am I right that the maintenance of that part is the responsibility of the businesses? With the closing of the Springwater from July to October, more of us will ride the west side and it’s dangerous.

I know this is not directly Portland related, but being a former Portlander who rode my bicycle from Portland, Oregon to Bellingham, Washington for my retirement, I figure some of you may be interested in my latest project which is to create a television mini-series on bicycling around Bellingham and giving a historical narrative of each of the major features of our area. This would be helpful for those of you who are considering visiting or moving to the extreme Pacific Northwest.

The link to my recently completed first episode is: https://youtu.be/kUHzFymCm9g

I will also be putting these on Bellingham’s Community Access Television which airs from 6 PM to Midnight every Sunday.

ON Monday April 23rd, Oregon Parks and Recreation (OPRD) held their first open hearing regarding allowance of e-bikes on state park paths and several beaches.

What I found fascinating was that all the personal testimony of individuals and also 3 businesses which rent and sell e-bikes were completely positive. In March I was at the League of American Bicyclists in DC and attended a presentation regarding regulation of e-bikes. That meeting was very contentious and polarized. It appeared to me an old guard of “e-bikes are not real bikes” versus “e-bikes are here to stay” crowd were leading to a civil war. Not happening here.

I was happy to be in Oregon on Monday hearing real stories of how e-bikes make a difference. One Hood River resident, 79 years old man, who had ridden his bike to work for 40 years has found his strength difficult to bike as much during the past two years and had stopped bicycling. He – in the past month – tried an e-bike and he was embracing a new life as he spoke. Another testimony came from an athletic man whose wife did not have the love of road bicycling and he said that an e=bike had given them a togetherness again in bicycling together (twas sad we did not hear her voice this tale). And of course the vendors stated the smiles apparent on everyone trying out an e-bike. Another wonderful testimony was from a walker on the Hatfield tunnel/Mosier trail who commented that the strength-training-lycra-human-powered crowd were zooming by most of the e-bike users and pedestrians at 30+ mph. Given that the e-bikes have hair dryer equivalent 750/1000 watt electric motors, she was most elegant retiring the worry of ebikes going over 20 mph. (for you engineers: 746 watts equals 1 horsepower)
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This was my favorite tallbike — it has fenders!
(Photos: Madi Carlson)

Lessons learned: show up early, bring extra water, snack before riding.

I’ve had the pleasure of participating in quite a few Portland bike events during visits from Seattle — Fiets of Parenthood 2012, 2013, and 2014, Disaster Relief Trials 2013, one and a half TNRs, and a few smaller Pedalpalooza 2017 rides — but my experience at the 3rd 1st Annual Ladd’s 500 was the Portlandiest bikiest thing I’ve done yet! There were so many amazing bikes: tall bikes, swing bikes, cargo bikes, mini bikes, grill bikes, and a lot of skateboards.

The Ladd’s 500 is a biking relay race of 500 laps around Ladd Circle with a bunch of rules I didn’t notice until after I got home (they were pinned as the top post within the Facebook event so they weren’t exactly hidden):
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