🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and is not publishing new content. Learn more here and stay tuned for updates. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏

Portland’s ‘Unipiper’ gets his own beer

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

You know that guy who rides around Portland on a unicycle in a Darth Vader mask and a kilt whilst playing bagpipes? Yes, I’m talking about the Unipiper. Like Voodoo Doughnuts and Portlandia, he’s become something of an icon of our fair city.

And now he’s got his own beer, aptly named UnipIPA (get it?).

Check the details on a debut party in the press release and flyer below…

UnipIPA-release-email

WHAT: The UnipIPA Beer Release
WHERE: PDX Green Dragon
928 SE 9th Ave
Portland, Oregon
WHEN: May 5th, 2015 5pm- 8pm

The PDX Green Dragon is proud to announce the release of a very special, one-off beer that was brewed alongside an iconic Portland figure.

Brian Kidd, better known by the people of Portland as The Unipiper, has joined forces with Buckman Botanical Brewery’s Danny Connors to produce a beer almost as unique as The Unipiper himself:

The UnipIPA

Brewed using bagpipe-roasted Habanero Peppers, this fiery IPA is the brain child of the Darth Vader mask toting, kilt wearing, unicycling, flame throwing, bagpipe playing Unipiper we all know and love.

Enjoy a pint with the Unipiper himself on May 5th right here at the PDX Green Dragon when we unveil this limited brew.

Check teaser videos here and here.

Job: Bike Tour Guide – Cycle Portland

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title
Bike Tour Guide

Company/Organization
Cycle Portland

Job Description
Cycle Portland is a Bike Tour and Rental company located in Old Town Portland. We provide guided rides around the city and rental bikes for those who want to explore on their own. These tours focus on different themes, including Portland History, Local Microbreweries, Food Carts, and Bike Culture. We have a full service and repair shop where we rent the bikes out and lead the tours from on NW 2nd Ave. This will be our 8th season leading Tours of Portland.

This position includes greeting customers, preparing bikes for them to ride, leading them around the city on prepared routes while stopping occasionally to share information about Portland. This position also includes renting bikes to visitors from all over the world to explore on their own and outfitting them with maps, bike route advice, and a sweet whip to cruise the city with.

Some bike mechanical know how is required because you have to be able to adjust bikes to fit people and fix a flat if you were to get one while out on the ride.
Other requirements include Customer Service skills, retail experience, a genuine desire to work with the public, and a strong personality.

Do you like to host visiting friends by taking them around the city? Are you passionate about cycling in Portland? Are you knowledgeable about Portland enough to give directions and willing to learn more about the city? Do you have Guiding experience or a knack for storytelling/ improv? If you think you would be a good fit, let us know. Guides start at $12 per hour with the ability to move up after a 30 day review.

How to Apply
This position is seasonal with a possibility of staying on year round. If interested please send a resume to portlandbicycle@gmail.com with a paragraph about why you would be good for the position. Thank you.

Embacher bicycle collection to be sold at auction

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
collectionlead

Starting bid: $170.

If you dreamed about owning one of the amazing bicycles from the Cyclepedia exhibition when it was at the Portland Art Museum in 2013, now is your chance.

Michael Embacher, the man behind the much-heralded Embacher Collection, has decided to part with his entire collection of 203 rare bicycles at an auction to be held in Vienna next month.

Embacher’s office emailed us with the news this morning along with a personal note from Embacher about why he decided to part ways with the bikes. It seems partly a matter of circumstance (he has lost the attic space the collection has be housed in) and partly philosophical. Here’s a snip from his note:

Read more

Column: Fellow bike lovers, we need to talk about car shaming

taz 320x320 unsharp mask

Taz Loomans.

Bike elitism can show up in lots of ways. One way is car-shaming.

Do you own a car? If you don’t own a car, do you use car sharing more than once a month? Do you accept rides from people? Do you use a car to travel around the state? Do you use a vehicle when you move to a new home?

If the answer to more than two of these questions is yes, then according to some people, you don’t qualify for the exclusive car-free bike-only club.

Of course, this isn’t a formal club. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t routinely excluded from it.

Read more

The Monday Roundup: Wide-street safety, Trek’s huge recall and more

strongtownswidestreets

Wisdom from StrongTowns.org.

Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:

What wide streets are for: Strong Towns finally answers the question.

Trek recall: A problem involving front disc brakes affects 1 million bikes in the U.S. and Canada made between 2000 and 2015.

Tampa profiling: The Florida city’s mayor has asked the federal government to review his police department’s policy of trying to fight crime by targeting thousands of black residents for minor bike-related infractions.

Read more

Comment of the Week: The five-ingredient recipe for a great bike city

Mia Birk at Powell's Books-3

Birk at Powell’s Books in 2011.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

If anyone in the country knows what it takes for a city to improve its bike transportation, it’s a woman whose entire business depends on cities doing so: Mia Birk.

Birk, the former Portland bicycle coordinator and senior local principal of Alta Planning + Design, was indirectly quoted in a comment this week from BikePortland reader Matt, who said he’d heard Birk’s theory about this in a conversation once.

Matt seems to have remembered it. It’s a memorably simple formula.

Read more

Job: Transportation Outreach Ambassador – Cherriots Rideshare

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title
Transportation Outreach Ambassador

Company/Organization
Cherriots Rideshare

Your Email Address (for listing confirmation) * ion@pacwestcom.com

Job Description
Basic Details
• Start Date: May 26, 2015
• End Date: October 2015
• Stipend: $873.60 – $1,008.00/month DOE
• Hours: approximately 16 – 20 hours per week

Purpose and General Description:

Cherriots Rideshare (a program of Salem-Keizer Transit) in partnership with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), is launching a campaign called Drive Less Save More: Connecting Salem to help residents in the Northeast Neighbors (NEN) and Grant neighborhoods walk, bike, take transit, and share rides more often. Promoting these transportation options fosters community connectivity, promotes an active lifestyle, helps people save money and access the services and destinations. Cherriots Rideshare is selecting an intern(s) or temporary staff to serve as Outreach Ambassador(s) to conduct outreach and administrative tasks for the program. The successful candidate will invite Grant and NEN residents to participate in the program, respond to questions about transportation options to, from, and within the neighborhoods, assemble and deliver information packet orders by bicycle, and identify opportunities for outreach and partnership.

The Outreach Ambassador(s) will have these duties:

• Engage local stakeholders and work with partners to promote the program
• Support/implement the communications plan, including web and social media posting
• Assemble packets of transportation materials, including organizing and assembling orders, data entry, updating order database, and other administrative tasks
• Deliver packets to households by bike and transit (transit pass and bike will be provided if needed)
• Appear at existing festivals, fairs, and other public events to promote and explain the program, invite residents to participate, answer questions about transportation options, take photographs, and distribute transportation materials (such as maps and brochures)
• Discuss, promote, and answer questions about bicycling, walking, transit, ridesharing, and carsharing
• Assist and/or staff events, classes, and presentations in formal and informal settings; bicycling, walking, or taking transit to, from, and at events is encouraged
• Represent Cherriots Rideshare, ODOT, and the program in a positive, responsible, and professional way
• Write and submit brief summary reports pertaining to outreach events and efforts
Reporting Relationships and Work Environment
The Outreach Ambassador will:
• Work 16 – 20 hours per week from late-may to early October, with potential for additional hours on an as needed basis.
• Work with the Cherriots Rideshare staff, and a variety of consultants involved in the project at outreach events.
• Report to Cherriots Rideshare Program Manager.
• Work indoors and outdoors (in any weather) on any day of the week, with some evening and weekend hours.
• Work approximately 60% on office tasks and 40% on outreach tasks.
• While on duty, wear a program uniform (polo or t-shirt) provided by the program.
• Wear a bicycling helmet when bicycling to and from events and while delivering packets.
Essential Qualifications
Candidates must possess the following qualifications:
• Comfortable speaking with the public
• Can communicate effectively with all types of people
• Able to lift up to 35 pounds, and able to work outdoors all day and in any weather
• Proficient with Microsoft Office applications and basic data entry and email
• Work well in an unstructured and informal environment, with limited supervision
• Work well in a team, and foster team spirit
• Good at problem solving, thinking creatively, and self-motivation
• Enthusiasm about transportation options and helping members of the public
• Prompt, punctual, and reliable
• Proficient in riding a bicycle

Candidates with the following qualifications are preferred:
• Familiarity with the city of Salem, Grant and NEN in particular, and its layout
• Spanish language fluent or proficient
• Experience working with the public
• Familiarity with, and personal experience using, transportation options in Salem, including walking, bicycling, transit, and/or sharing rides

How to Apply
Submit via email, fax or mail by 5/8 at 5p.m., candidates should send a cover letter explaining why they consider themselves suited for the job and résumé of qualifications and relevant experience. No calls, please.

Provide to:
Roxanne Rolls
Cherriots Rideshare
555 Court Street. NE, Ste. 5230, Salem, OR 97301
Roxanne.rolls@cherriots.org
Fax: 503-566-3933

The Bike Concierge finds niche by making bike adventures easy

conciergelead

Fat biking in Post Canyon? The Bike Concierge has you covered.
(Photos courtesy Jennifer Sotolongo_)

— This article was written by Jennifer Sotolongo, a tourism development specialist for Clackamas County who’s about to embark on a bike trip around the world with her husband Dave and dog named Sora. Follow them at @longhaultrekker.

When Thom Batty resumed his regular life after riding the Tour Divide in 2013, he realized that he no longer wanted to spend his days behind a desk. He wanted to get people on bikes.

Read more

Industry Ticker: Yakima’s #sharethetrail campaign promotes stewardship

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Beaverton-based Yakima has just launched a big contest… And the prize really caught my eye. One lucky winner will get two tickets to Mountain Bike Oregon in Oakridge this summer. Check out the details in the press release below:

Yakima Announces #sharethetrail Campaign to Promote Outdoor Stewardship

– Winner of the online photo contest will receive a trip for two to Mountain Bike Oregon Summer 2015 and a Yakima rack system –

Beaverton, OR (April 22, 2015) – Yakima, together with its longtime partners Leave No Trace, International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) and Subaru, has launched #sharethetrail, an online photo contest. Aimed to promote outdoor stewardship, it will feature crowd-sourced images of people taking care of the trails they use and love.
The contest runs through May 15, and the winning submission – as chosen by Yakima and its partners – will receive a trip for two to Mountain Bike Oregon Summer 2015, plus a new Yakima rack system. To enter, people can simply tag their images with #sharethetrail or visit www.yakima.com/sharethetrail to upload a photo.

Read more

City debates cutting park fees for small homes, hiking for big ones

N-NE-SE Portland Good-Bad-Ugly Houses 84

Backers say the proposal would encourage smaller, more densely built houses.
(Photo: Mark McClure)

For years, almost every new home built in Portland has paid thousands of dollars into a city fund that pays to buy and develop parkland. But so far, the size of the home hasn’t affected the size of the fee.

If it were built today, a 900-square-foot bungalow would pay the same $8,582 parks fee as a 3,100-square foot 4-bedroom.

But in a proposal that could shift the local economy toward building smaller homes — and potentially provide a boost for bike infrastructure funding — the Portland Parks Bureau is suggesting that its fees on new homes become proportional to the number of people who are likely to live in them, based on their square footage.

Read more