BikePortland

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

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.

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:

New sign at SE 27th and Clinton.
(Photo by Betsy Reese)

Slowly but surely the Portland Bureau of Transportation is re-claiming Southeast Clinton street as a place where bicycle riding is prioritized.

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.

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.

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.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

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.

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.

Bikes and people squeeze
onto a MAX train.
(Photos © J.Maus/BikePortland)

Many people who take their bikes on MAX have had to skip a train at least a few times because it’s too full of people.

But park a bike at the station because all the hooks are full? Not so common. Most riders will wheel it on anyway if they can, even if it’ll block other people from boarding down the line.

Those are two findings from an online survey, conducted as part of TriMet’s bike plan, that explored the problem of people trying to take their bikes on MAX and bus but running out of space.

Here’s the question about skipping trains that can’t fit a bike. 21 percent of respondents said this happens to them “often,” and another 38 percent said they’ve done so once or twice:

With Reed College’s bait bike program dealing with enforcement challenges, local ABC affiliate KATU-TV is shedding more light on the thorny issue of theft deterrence.

In the most recent case, KATU reported yesterday, one of the bikes that the college has equipped with a GPS unit was tracked to a “chop shop hidden behind [a] bookcase.” But nobody was arrested, because there was no easy way to prove that any specific person in the house had done the deed.

Job Title *
PDX General Manager

Company/Organization *
Motivate International, Inc.

Job Description *
Motivate is the world’s leading bike share operator, powering systems in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other North American cities. We have nearly 17,000 bicycles in our fleet and 150,000+ members throughout the ten systems we operate, and are growing fast.

In September, 2015, it was announced that Motivate International, Inc. was selected by the City of Portland to plan, implement and operate its bike share system. Portland is continuing to grow at an unprecedented rate so this is a very exciting opportunity for a General Manager to join our Motivate team.

We’re committed to innovation and working actively with our vendors to provide best-in-class technology to deliver great customer experience and operational excellence.

Motivate is led by one of the world’s most innovative transportation executives as CEO and is backed by world class investors.

We offer an opportunity to work with the most passionate, creative and proven team in this emerging, dynamic industry that is transforming cities around the globe.

Overview of Position:

The General Manager will be responsible for supporting the launch of the program and overseeing all aspects of the bike share system’s ongoing operations. The GM will represent Motivate to program stakeholders, including the City, the program’s sponsors, and the community. This position reports to the VP of Operations.

Key Aspects of Position:

Oversee all aspects of the bike share customer experience, including system operations/maintenance, membership and corporate sales, customer service, and interaction with vendors and clients.
Oversee and carefully manage budget to control costs, forecast revenues, and ensure system viability.
Manage multiple subcontracts.
Maximize revenues and profitability for bike share system.
Use and improve bike share operations best practices.
Identify and share opportunities for efficiency.
Identify and address key strategic barriers and opportunities critical to the success of local operations.
Work closely with City, sponsors, and other business and community stakeholders.
Ensure contractual obligations are met or exceeded.
Ensure reporting metrics are met, and where needed, improved.
Ensure reporting is complete and timely delivered to clients and senior management.

How to Apply *
Please apply directly to the link attached below:

https://www.appone.com/MainInfoReq.asp?R_ID=1159353

Flyers by Woodward residents question ‘isolated’ diverter at 32nd and Clinton

A poster taped to some poles in the Richmond area.

In advance of Thursday’s city open house about a proposed traffic diverter at SE 32nd and Clinton, a set of flyers shows the nuance among people who are concerned about the current plan.

In short: even the people who are trying to organize opposition to this plan seem to be arguing for more diverters, not fewer.

The anonymous creator of these flyers is concerned that if a new traffic diverter is placed at 32nd, “hundreds of cars” currently using Clinton as a westbound neighborhood cut-through during rush hour will turn south at 32nd and then make the first right, which is Woodward Street.

This is reminiscent of a sentence that advocates for bike infrastructure hear frequently:

I support bike safety and ride a bike myself but (PROPOSED BIKEWAY IMPROVEMENT) is wrongheaded because (POSSIBLE PROBLEM FOR ME) so the real solution is (POLITICALLY OR FINANCIALLY IMPOSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE).

But if you look closely, that’s not quite what’s going on here.

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

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

SE Clinton gets Portland’s first “Bikes May Use Full Lane” sign

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

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

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

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

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

TriMet survey finds no clear answers for cutting bikes-on-MAX crowding

Bait bike programs trace thefts but can struggle to convict, KATU reports

Job: PDX General Manager – Motivate International, Inc.

Flyers by Woodward residents question ‘isolated’ diverter at 32nd and Clinton

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