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Portland’s Nutcase Helmets acquired by private equity firm

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Nutcase Helmet Design Contest Party-14

Nutcase founder Michael Morrow in 2011.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

10 years after being founded by a former Nike employee, Portland-based Nutcase Inc. has been acquired by Bravo Sports Corporation.

The move brings Nutcase under an umbrella of 23 other brands owned and/or managed by Bravo Sports that includes well-known names in the skateboarding market like Kryptonics, Sector 9, Pro-Tec, and Vision Street Wear. Bravo also owns children’s scooter brand Pulse Performance Products, holds major licensing agreements with Marvel, Nickelodeon, Disney/Pixar (and others), and holds exclusive rights to license, manufacture, and market E-Z UP tents. Bravo Sports is backed by Transom Capital Group, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles.

Nutcase was founded in 2006 by Michael Morrow. Over the past decade the company has grown steadily and has become a leading helmet brand known for their focus on eye-catching designs. After establishing a strong foothold in the U.S. market, Nutcase made a big push into Europe in 2013 and now has distributors in over 40 countries worldwide. In February of this year the company hired its first-ever CEO and a few months ago Nutcase made the decision to drop their motorsports helmets to focus exclusively on bicycling helmets.

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Police surprise Craigslist seller to help woman get her stolen bike back

The Craigslist post (still up as of today) said the bike was, "Recently bought for me as a gift but I'm not much into bicycle riding."
The Craigslist post (still up as of today) said the bike was, “Recently bought for me as a gift but I’m not much into bicycle riding.”

Northwest Portland resident Tina Penman is feeling very grateful for the Portland Police Bureau today. After her bike got stolen on Monday she set up a Craiglist sting with an officer who rolled up just in time to bust the thief.

In the interest of educating others about how to prevent and recover a stolen bike, we asked Tina to share how it all went down. Here’s her story…

With the rain and winds late last week into this past weekend, I took a 5-day hiatus from riding my bike. On Monday night, I popped down to my building’s private courtyard to say hi (who doesn’t miss their bike after a 5-day hiatus?) and see how it was doing. I live in an apartment complex in the Pearl and you need a fob to gain access to this area. To my unpleasant surprise, it was no longer there. I had it locked using a Kryptonite Chain Combination Lock in a well-lit area next to two other bikes (one was my husband’s) that remain unscathed.

I immediately hit up my husband and a couple friends to ask for advice. My bike had a Tile tracker attached to seat and I wasn’t sure how it would work in a situation where my bike could be anywhere. Tile utilizes a Bluetooth connection so you have to be in very close proximity for an item with a Tile attached to be found. I hopped in a Zipcar, drove real slow around some popular camps in PDX in hopes my Tile app would capture my bike, but no such luck. After driving around for an hour, I realized it was like searching for a needle in a haystack so I called it quits and went home.

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Job: Tig welding & brazing specialist – HIA Velo (Little Rock, AR)

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Job Title *
Tig welding & brazing specialist

Company/Organization *
HIA Velo/Little Rock, AR

Job Description *
HIA Velo is looking for an energetic and hardworking tig welding/brazing specialist to join our core team. We are a passionate team of cycling focused individuals who pride ourselves on building quality frames close to some of the best roads and trails in the US. Are you able to self-manage, have a strong work ethic and the desire to be part of a small dedicated team? If yes, then you might be the perfect fit.

JOB FUNCTION
• Perform cosmetic frame welds (Thin wall steel)
• Braze small parts (inserts, cable stops, bosses, etc.)
• Quality control
• Assist in other production areas as needed
• Communicate when workflow or process are inefficient
• Participate in brainstorming to improve manufacturing process

BASIC REQUIREMENTS
• Working experience tig welding thin wall steel tubing
• Silver brazing experience
• Ability to read prints
• Good with hand tools and measuring devices
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Extremely detail oriented, organized, and dependable
• Windows based computer programs a plus
• Must be able to lift 30 Pounds

Position is temp to hire. PTO and health insurance credits are available after 90-day probation period. Pay is dependent on experience. Shift hours are Mon-Fri 7:30am-3:30pm.

How to Apply *
Please send resume and cover letter in the body of your email to: careers@hiavelo.com

Walk-ins will be disqualified.
We are not hiring interns or trainees at this time.

Job: Machining Specialist – HIA Velo (Little Rock, AR)

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Job Title *
Machining Specialist

Company/Organization *
HIA Velo/Little Rock, AR

Job Description *
HIA Velo is looking for an energetic and hardworking manual machining specialist to join our core team. We are a passionate team of cycling focused individuals who pride ourselves on building quality frames close to some of the best roads and trails in the US. Are you able to self-manage, have a strong work ethic and the desire to be part of a small dedicated team? If yes, then you might be the perfect fit.

JOB FUNCTION
• Set-up and operation knee mills & lathes
• Cope bicycle frame tubing (Steel, aluminum & carbon fiber)
• Create tooling
• Quality control
• Assist in other production areas as needed
• Communicating when workflow or process are inefficient
• Participate in brainstorming to improve manufacturing process

BASIC REQUIREMENTS

• Working experience with manual mills, lathes and other fabrication machinery.
• Ability to read prints
• Good with hand tools and measuring devices
• Ability to operate machines with digital read outs
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Extremely detail oriented, organized, and dependable
• Windows based computer programs a plus
• Must be able to lift 30 Pounds

Position is temp to hire. PTO and health insurance credits are available after 90-day probation period. Pay is dependent on experience. Shift hours are Mon-Fri 7:30am-4:00pm.

How to Apply *
Please send resume and cover letter in the body of your email to: careers@hiavelo.com

Walk-ins will be disqualified.
We are not hiring interns or trainees at this time.

Cargo trike company B-Line takes over delivery for SoupCycle

Coming soon to your front door.(Photo/graphic: BikePortland)
Coming soon to your front door.
(Photo/graphic: BikePortland)

Bike-powered business, urban freight delivery and local food production have come together in a very exciting way in Portland.

Today two local companies that have built strong niches hauling cargo with pedal power — B-Line and SoupCycle — announced they’ve joined forces. From now on B-Line’s electric-assist cargo trikes will distribute meals for SoupCycle, a company with over 600 customers throughout Portland.

It’s an intriguing collaboration that shows the maturity of Portland’s bike business ecosystem and it comes just days after the University of Washington debuted a new “Urban Freight Lab” in partnership with major retailers and shipping companies with an aim to make downtown deliveries more efficient and friendlier for humans and the environment.

For SoupCycle and B-Line, the move allows both of them to do more of what they do best.

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The Monday Roundup: Carfree holy day, six-foot traffic cone, bikes on trains, and more

monroundup

This week’s Monday Roundup is brought to you by our friends at Bicycle Fitting Services, who reminds you that it’s the perfect time of year to dial-in your fit for maximum power and comfort.

Here are the best stories we came across last week:

Bike valet at the train station: Great news from Amtrak: You can now simply check your bicycle as luggage on the Coast Starlight route which goes from L.A. to Seattle.

Utrecht makes it look easy: This transformation of a street in the Dutch city of Utrecht shows the pinnacle of people-centered design. And yes, it unabashedly comes at the expense of space for driving.

An opportunity for cargo bikes?: Good news: University of Washington now has a corporate-funded Urban Freight Lab to figure out more efficient urban, last-mile deliveries. Bad news: The word “bike” doesn’t appear in the article and “drones” and “autonomous vehicles” does.

Perspective on “inner cities”: After an awkward moment in the second presidential debate, The Black Urbanist Kristin Jeffers lays out some important perspective about who lives where (and why).

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PBOT will install permanent crosswalk and median island at site of Fallon Smart’s death

Coming soon: A permanent refuge island and crosswalk installed by the City of Portland.(Photo: Paul Jeffery)
Coming soon: A permanent refuge island and crosswalk installed by the City of Portland.
(Photo: Paul Jeffery)

Ending weeks of emotional back-and-forth between transportation reform activists, neighbors and the City of Portland; the Bureau of Transportation confirmed with us this morning they plan to install a permanent crosswalk and a median island on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard at 43rd.

This is the intersection 15-year-old Fallon Smart was walking across on August 19th when a man recklessly and illegally drove his car into her and killed her. It’s also a stretch of Hawthorne that local residents and business owners have complained about for many years; because despite being a bustling main street filled with popular destinations there are no marked crosswalks for eight full blocks (between 41st and 48th).

Just days after Smart was hit the community made a presence at this intersection with their own bodies and a variety of objects. They had one goal: Slow people down so that a tragedy like this never happens again. The intersection became filled with a mix of memorial items like flowers, signs and photos; and guerrilla traffic-calming devices like a orange traffic cones and an unsanctioned crosswalk. The center turn lane used by Abdulrahman Noorah to speed passed someone who had stopped to let Smart cross was effectively closed.

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Escape the City: In search of Hobo Joe

In search of Hobo Joe with Dyno Dan.-8.jpg

Just a few miles north of Hillsboro and Highway 26 are miles of unpaved roads waiting to be ridden.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Before we get to know Hobo Joe, I want to share a brief programming note…

When I started mountain biking back in the 1990s one of the things that really drew me into it was the solitude. In just a few minutes of pedaling (I was lucky to live close to mountains), I could get away from busy roads full of smelly and loud cars.

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With over $92,000 raised, off-road trails at Gateway Green will soon be a reality

It's happening! Equipment staged on the site this week.(Photo: Jason Van Horn/Bermstyle)
It’s happening! Equipment staged on the site this week.
(Photo: Jason Van Horn/Bermstyle)

In the past month over 500 people have chipped in $92,325 to help pay for the construction of new bike trails at Gateway Green — a formerly vacant plot of state-owned land (now owned by the City of Portland) at the intersection of I-84 and I-205.

Project backers aim to reach the goal of $100,000 in the next two days to match a Metro grant they’ve already received. If you haven’t donated yet, now would be a great time to do so.

With money in the bank and all the support and permissions lined up from various agencies, the Northwest Trail Alliance and Portland Parks & Recreation have already broken ground. Over the past few weeks Parks rangers have worked with an estimated 80 people who were camping on the land (who came there after being moved from the Springwater Corridor) to find shelter and other services. Fencing has now been erected around the property and heavy equipment is staging on the site.

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City Budget Office recommends no funding for Better Naito, vision zero, Springwater, Halsey and Hawthorne projects

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This version of inner southeast Hawthorne is still just a dream. For now.
This version of inner southeast Hawthorne is still just a dream. For now.

The City Budget Office (CBO) just threw a bunch of cold water on some hot active transportation projects.

Last month we were happy to share that the transportation bureau had requested city funding for five projects that would upgrade our streets and make them safer for everyone to use. The request was made as part of the fall budget monitoring process or “BUMP”. This is where the city takes the growth in tax revenue that went beyond projections and re-invests it back into worthy projects. Competition for the funds are fierce and all city bureaus compete for a limited pot of money (estimated to be about $8 million total this go-round2).

The Bureau of Transportation trotted out five projects that were especially exciting for transportation reform advocates: a seasonal reconfiguration of Naito Parkway (aka “Better Naito”); the Outer Halsey Streetscape Safety project and a Vision Zero educational effort; a new path connection for the Springwater, and a major redesign of inner Hawthorne Boulevard.

Unfortunately the CBO isn’t recommending funding for any of them.

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