Local shop builds up limited edition ‘Eddy 70’ road bikes valued at $17,500 a piece

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Marc Vanselow, Burlingame Bikes co-owner, presents a
new “Eddy 70” to Jim Dillard of Sequim, Washington.
(Photo: Burlingame Bikes)

Road racing legend Eddy “The Cannibal” Merckx turned 70 this year. To mark the occasion he had 70 very special bikes made and offered them to his worldwide fan base at the cool price of $17,500 a piece.

Only 10 “Eddy 70” bikes have been sold in the United States and two of them ended up at Burlingame Bikes in southwest Portland.

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Industry Ticker: Parts distributor Cyclone Bicycle Supply growing locally and nationally

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Portland-based bicycle parts distributor Cyclone Bicycle Supply is experiencing a major growth spurt. The company just finalized the purchase of Action Bicycle USA, a distributor based in New Jersey. The acquisition will significantly expand Cyclone’s dealer network both in terms of volume and geographic coverage.

Cyclone currently has about 2,000 dealers with most of them west of the Rockies. Add that to the 1,000 dealers on the east coast they just took over as owners of Action Bicycle and Cyclone now has over 3,000 dealers nationwide.

In addition to growing their dealer network, Cyclone is also doubling their Portland warehouse space from 50,000 to 100,000 square feet and hiring new sales reps.

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Product review: Turn Siri into your mechanic with the OTTO Tuning System

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My bike’s profile in the app.

One of the cool things about having a good friend or a partner with a different knowledge set than you is that it gives you access to expertise without having to be an expert in everything yourself. Since my partner is a bike mechanic, it means I don’t have to master a headset press — and he doesn’t have to master WordPress.

Although I’m very familiar with basic bike maintenance, I’m by no means an expert. Sure, I understand how to adjust my derailleur, but I’m always going on guesswork. And un-expert guesswork, at that.

That’s the problem that the new derailleur tuning system from OTTO DesignWorks, a startup based a few miles south of Portland in Wilsonville, is trying to solve. Their OTTO Tuning System uses an iPhone’s camera, visual alignment technology, and a set of gauges to help you quickly adjust your derailleur. It’s compatible with most Shimano and SRAM 9-, 10- and 11-speed cassettes, and costs $39.

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Weekend Event Guide: Sales, Tilikum, ‘cross, activism, and more

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The run-up on the Barton Park Cross Crusade course.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

This menu of delicious rides and events is brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery. Their support makes BikePortland possible.

This weekend there are three big sales to choose from so it’s a good time to get a jump start on your holiday shopping or fill out your riding wardrobe with a few key pieces. If you’re smart, you’ll make sure you have some great rain gear because we’ve got many more wet days ahead.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Here’s the weather forecast:

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Bicycle planning icon Mia Birk is leaving Alta Planning after 16 year career

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Mia Birk in her office this morning.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Mia Birk’s ‘joyride’ as a leader in the bicycle planning field is taking a major turn. Alta Planning + Design, the firm Birk joined in 1999 after a stint as the City of Portland’s bicycle coordinator, announced today that she is leaving at the end of this year.

“It’s time,” Birk shared with me in a conference at the firm’s Portland headquarters on Southeast Grand this morning. “It’s just a gut feeling.”

Since the mid 1990s Birk has played a major role in the renaissance of cycling in America. As the bicycle coordinator for the City of Portland between 1993 and 1999 her persistence and unwavering belief in bike lanes literally laid the groundwork for Portland’s reputation as our country’s best city for cycling.

When she joined Alta in 1999 the firm had just one office and two employees. As president and most recently CEO, Birk’s career at Alta has seen the company boom to nearly 200 employees and 30 offices throughout North America.

As Alta grew so did the field of bicycle planning itself.

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Portland to the Dalles: A low-stress birthday ride to remember

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Linda Hill at Horse Tail Falls last month.
(Photos courtesy Hill)

It takes years of advocacy and patience to create an out-of-town bike route like the one gradually being extended along the Historic Columbia River Highway. But once it’s built, the benefits are too big to measure.

Linda Hill, an Oregon biking lover, decided to celebrate her 61st birthday with a four-day trek last month that took that route through the Columbia River Gorge, which was vastly improved in 2013 by opening of a section of the highway to bikes and removing the need to bike along the shoulder of Interstate 84.

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The Lumberyard is donating $10,000 in bikes to the Community Cycling Center

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Lumberyard co-founder Will Heiberg.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

It’s way too early for us to start talking about Christmas, but we’ll make an exception for this story.

Today in east Portland the non-profit Community Cycling Center will pick up $10,000 worth of new bikes from The Lumberyard. The CCC’s Melinda Musser says the donation will include 32 “high quality” BMX bikes.

Musser says the “unprecedented” donation will help kick-start the organization’s annual Holiday Bike Drive and provide a new fleet of bikes to use in their kids programs next year. The CCC runs summer camps and bike safety programs in neighborhoods where some families can’t afford to buy bikes. And in December the CCC will give away about 300 bikes at their 20th annual Holiday Bike Drive.

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Portland will require cab and Uber drivers to take Vision Zero safety training

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Riding Portland's urban highways-8

Eyes on the street?
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

At their best, Lyft and Uber are better cab companies, one more piece of a system that enables low-car life.

At their worst, they’re a system for subsidizing an army of people driving around town with their eyes glued to GPS screens.

Portland’s new regulations of for-hire transportation companies, released last week, include an interesting change that’s supposed to target the problem: the city’s first mandatory safety training for drivers of taxis and “transportation network companies” like Uber or Lyft.

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Wednesday video roundup: ‘Cross nostalgia, odd bikes, women in cycling

Here’s contributor Ted Timmons’ pick of the week’s notable biking videos. We’ll be posting these each week in time for lunch for as long as he’s interested in putting them together! Thanks, Ted.

Our first video (above) will make BP commenter Pete happy. It’s a feature piece on cyclocross in the 1980s. It’s centered around Portlander Michael Sylvester (who now has a local bike fitting service) and also shows off Pier Park.

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From the Archives

With six kids and no car, this mom does it all by bike