BikePortland

Portland’s Circa Cycles wants to bring $1500 custom bicycles to the mainstream

Former Nike innovation director Rich Fox has created a new process for making custom bike frames that can be done entirely in Portland.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

A Portland startup is marrying the 1980s concept of “screwed and glued” modular frames with modern computer machining to dramatically cut the price of a custom handmade bike.

Its founder’s goal: a chain of minimalist, 600-square foot Apple Store-esque retail shops across the country, each one able to fit and service a line of Portland-built bikes as colorful and distinctly branded as iPods.

Robin Williams in Portland for a
bike show in February 2008.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

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

Robin Williams and bikes: Cycling superfan Robin Williams’ impression repertoire included Marco Pantani, Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich. Tragically, they went uncaptured on video. The Oregonian’s aggregation of Williams’ ties to bikes includes the time he had one delivered to Conan O’Brien.

Robin Williams in Portland: The story of that time in 2008 when the late comedian flew his plane to Portland for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show.

Bike share safety: 23 million rides later, zero people have died on bike share bicycles. In fact, they seem to reduce bike injuries.

Bikeways improve walking: According to every available dataset in the country, protected bike lanes consistently cut sidewalk biking approximately in half.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Traffic on Clinton.
(Photo by Michael Andersen/BikePortland)

If you think the SE Clinton bike boulevard is already turning into more of a car boulevard, you won’t like this news: The Bureau of Environmental Services announced today that during a two-week re-paving project on SE Division set to begin later this month, all eastbound auto traffic will be detoured to SE Clinton.

Not surprisingly, news of the decision is spreading fast throughout the community and many people are very concerned. Why would the city purposefully add more auto traffic to a street that already has too much of it?

(Photo: Google)

Two big issues, gender in the bike world and the nature of Portland bike activism, generated lots of excellent perspectives from readers on the site this week. This one about the “thousand cuts” of being a woman was one of our most upvoted ever; this one early this morning about the recent history of Portland-centric bicycle advocacy groups is very persuasive.

But let’s finish the week on a lighter note, thanks to reader Jake.

One of two new signs installed on Interstate. The bike lane narrows to just 3.5 feet wide as it passes under the overpass in the background.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has installed new signs on N Interstate Avenue in order to raise awareness of the dangers posed by a narrow bike lane.

Discover the hidden bike path gems of southern Clark County Washington at the Portland Century on Saturday).
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to your menu of weekend rides and events, lovingly brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery.

How’s your summer riding been going so far? Are you ready for a century ride — or as our friends at OR Bike like to say, a “Hundo“?

Hopefully you’ve done a bit of training because the Portland Century is our marquee event of the weekend. While most of the route isn’t actually in Portland this year, the support and food and drinks you’ll encounter at the rest stops and the finish line party will be decidedly local.

There’s nothing but warm and sunny blue skies in the forecast. Enjoy!

Saturday, August 16th

Dew Tour – All Weekend downtown on SW Broadway between Jefferson and Salmon
This event will feature some cool BMX action. The best riders in the world will show off their skills in “streetstyle” and dirt jump competitions. And the best part is the whole thing is free to watch! If you’re not a BMX fan, consider this a great chance to hang out on a carfree SW Broadway! More info here.

Attendees of the BTA’s annual member meeting Thursday evening had plenty to talk about.
(Photos by Michael Andersen)

With “The Revolution will Not Be Televised” playing from portable speakers above them, almost 100 Bicycle Transportation Alliance members and staff gathered in the Portland Art Museum courtyard Thursday to drink Hopworks beer, eat food-cart tacos, recognize key volunteers and (most intriguingly) learn about the five major advocacy campaigns the organization had just launched.

Gabe Klein, right, speaks to a panel of local transportation experts at the Multnomah Athletic Club Thursday.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

The author of the transportation reinventions in Washington DC and Chicago offered some advice to Portland-area developers Thursday: start building for parking-free cities.

Self-driving cars will be available in a few years, predicted Gabe Klein, the former transportation director of both those cities, and they’ll mean “the end of parking as we know it.”

Klein, now a fellow at the Urban Land Institute, an organization for real-estate and land-use professionals, spoke to a room of local ULI members and other guests Thursday morning at the Multnomah Athletic Club in southwest Portland.

Bikabout.com founder Megan Ramey, left, with her family.
(Photo courtesy Ramey)

Partly inspired by a visit to Portland last year, a Massachusetts woman has launched “a free travel agency for bike travel” across the United States.

Bikabout.com founder Megan Ramey will host a party at Velo Cult in Portland next week to gather information on the city and invite contributors.

Ramey said in a phone interview Monday that she started referring to Portland as “Graceland” after a 2013 visit with her family. She, her beer-loving husband and their young daughter traveled the city with a copy of Hop in the Saddle, a locally written guide to enjoying Portland breweries by bicycle.

Screenshot of an email promoting a local bike event.

One of the Portland area’s biggest bike event companies apologized Wednesday for sending a promotional email dominated by a big photo of a weathercaster in a bikini.

“Frightening Poll,” said the email from Good Sport Promotion (screenshot at right). “47% of Romanians did not expect today’s heatwave despite having watched the weather last night.”

“Remember Nadia Comaneci?” the email’s text began, referring to a Romanian athlete (but not the woman pictured). “She got the first perfect 10 in the Olympics. (Montreal 1976) This weekend we have a perfect 10 on the weather forecast.”

The current forecast for Wednesday morning.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Update 2:20 pm: PBOT reports that the lower deck will reopen by 5 p.m. The original post follows.

—

If you usually bike or walk across the Steel Bridge’s lower deck in the morning rush hour, try another route on Wednesday.

It’s being closed at 7 a.m. for an inspection, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. PBOT added that it’ll announce the reopening, whenever that might happen, in a follow-up tweet from its @PBOTinfo account.

When a camera failure closed the lower deck one year ago this week, the bridge remained closed for four days.

Elizabeth Quiroz, one of the BTA’s 16-person staff and four-person advocacy team, fits a helmet at a Southeast Portland bike skills class.
(Photo: M.Andersen and J.Maus/BikePortland)

For a moment this spring in the community room of the apartment building at SE 122nd and Halsey, the most important thing the Bicycle Transportation Alliance was doing was asking nine children a question.

Portland’s Circa Cycles wants to bring $1500 custom bicycles to the mainstream

The Monday Roundup: Robin Williams, Detroit’s biking rise & more

Cars will be detoured onto SE Clinton during Division Street repaving

Comment of the Week: How self-driving cars are actually going to work

First look: Warning signs installed near skinny bike lane on Interstate Ave

Weekend Event Guide: BMX, century, Milwaukie, and more

Saturday, August 16th

BTA launches five new campaigns at annual members’ meeting

Tech will make central-city parking spaces pointless, Gabe Klein tells Portland crowd

Virtual ‘bike travel agency’ hosts Portland party and seeks local bike wisdom

Bikini-themed promo for local bike tour deepens criticism of industry’s gender issues

Steel Bridge lower deck will close for inspection at 7 am Wednesday

With biking sidelined at Portland City Hall, BTA strategy shifts to long term

Latest Headlines

Video: Good bike infrastructure vs bad drivers

Merry Christmas! Portland’s upgraded automated speed cameras are ticketing drivers once again

Monday Roundup: Golden gravel route, too bad for Rad, Uber is sad, and more

Video: Meet a nursing student who received one of Portland’s first e-bike rebates

From the Archives

Portland’s invisible machine: Behind the scenes at the World Naked Bike Ride