The people, clubs, and culture that make up Portland’s bike scene.
Everyone who takes long multimodal trips knows the routine: before leaving the house, double-check to make sure you have your keys, wallet, and TriMet bike permit. Right? Well, that last one isn’t necessary anymore. But some commenters on our recent throwback article about what bike advocacy looked like at the beginning of the millennium reminded … Read more
Usually the only window into this chapter of Portland’s history are photos, letters, and policy documents. But I was recently pointed to a series of videos created in 2000 that give us a fun view into a much earlier era of bike advocacy. The six, thirty-second videos were created by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now … Read more
To a devoted set of Portland coffee and bike lovers, Saturday mornings are set aside for riding to a local park to brew (and drink) coffee outside. This weekly event, aptly titled PDX Coffee Outside, has been a weekly local tradition for several years and it’s still going strong. And this Saturday October 1st is … Read more
It’s been a beloved Mississippi Avenue centerpiece for years, but thanks to a recent feature on Netflix’s “Chef’s Table: Pizza,” Portland pizza and ice cream joint Lovely’s Fifty Fifty is even buzzier — and much busier — than usual right now. The Netflix episode focuses on restaurant owner and chef Sarah Minnick and the creative, … Read more
“This cycling community meant the world to him and he meant the world to us.” – Mielle Blomberg “Sometimes someone is such a big part of a community that they become a symbol of that community.” That’s how River City Bicycles owner Dave Guettler described Luciano Bailey for a GoFundMe campaign earlier this year after … Read more
To the uninitiated, Zoobomb might seem like just a quirky sidebar of Portland’s vaunted bike cultural legacy, but there was a time when it was much more than that. At its peak from around 2007 to 2012, Zoobomb was something of a religion for hundreds of Portlanders who’d gather every Sunday night at the “Pyle” … Read more
For the past 15 years, Hollywood neighborhood resident Lily Karabaic has woken up around 4:00 am on the last Friday of every month. Like you, the first thing she does is make coffee. Unlike you, she makes 42 cups. And then she straps a percolator, a few dozen donuts (a vegan sampler from Doe Donuts), … Read more
I’ve recently started using a new tagline for BikePortland: “Covering the world’s greatest cycling community since 2005.” I’m ready to debate anyone who thinks there’s a better bike scene than ours (no one has countered the statement yet), and one of the examples I’d make my case with would be Breakfast on the Bridges. The … Read more
Terry Brumfield has been rolling “rat style” on custom bikes around north and northeast Portland for over four decades and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. When I saw him and his aqua blue and red cruiser on Bridge Pedal last weekend, I knew I needed to take a closer look. We … Read more
It’s summer, the nights are beautiful, and you live in a house full of messengers with a porch and yard that looks out onto a main street with a 10-foot wide bike lane. What do you do? You throw a weekly cash sprint series and invite as many people as you can. That’s what denizens … Read more
Rabbitt Fox, a person who inspired many people in many different ways, is no longer with us. As word has spread throughout the community this week, people are mourning and sharing memories online, in group texts and in sad conversations. You might have known of Rabbitt, even if you didn’t actually know Rabbitt. That was … Read more
Racing bikes and riding them for fun over rough terrain and long distances can be a very expensive endeavor. In most cities, including Portland, the racing and serious riding scene is also dominated by white people. Those two factors erect significant barriers for Black and other people of color who love bikes and want to … Read more