Portland’s annual open-source bike festival ended Monday with a cookout picnic in Woodlawn Park, complete with a vertical flamethrower rigged atop a huge bike-towed grill and a dozen handmade awards for the best rides and riders of the year.
It’s the final four days of Pedalpalooza 2016, and the marquee ride of the weekend is the battery-powered thumper Loud and Lit on Saturday night. But don’t let that limit your agenda. Here are some of the others worth checking out.
Zeppelin vs. Floyd vs. Emo
Only the first two of these are an official pairing along the lines of Bowie vs. Prince, but it’s funny that the moody scheduled their ride against the hairy. Friday, meet 7 pm and 8:30 pm respectively, ride 7:30 and 9 pm.
Epic movies come and go, but hopefully movie-themed bike rides will be with us, always.
BikePortland needed a breather after our early Sunday morning shift, so today’s Monday Roundup will be an afternoon feature. In the meantime, summer fun on the street continues — here are a few of the many notable weekday rides for the last full week of Pedalpalooza.
Bill Cunningham Memorial Street Style Ride
Honoring the great bike-based photographer and unofficial mirror of NYC street style who died on Saturday. “Dress down like Bill or up like his subjects.” Monday 6 pm.
PDX Parking: Past and Future
Meet with other parking reform advocates in the city’s most famous former parking lot, Pioneer Courthouse Square, for a ride to notable car-storage locations that are, have or will one day be used differently. Finish it off with The Parking Lot Movie. Monday 6:30 pm.
Some of the images in this post are not safe for work. Obviously.
There it stood in the middle of SE Woodstock Boulevard, a 42-inch-tall orange breadcrumb surrounded by a bustling commercial district.
The Beaverton 17-year-old who’d leapt out the rolling door of a blue minivan to drop it confidently into place in front of the east curb of a traffic median didn’t tell anyone what he was doing or why. No one asked. Maybe no one even looked twice as he hopped back in the minivan to ride to the next stop, well out of eyeshot.
Seven hours earlier, the boy in question — his first name is Evan — wouldn’t have looked twice at something like that, either. That was before he found out that he was about to receive what was, just for that day, maybe the most closely guarded secret in Portland, Oregon: the route of that evening’s World Naked Bike Ride.
1) It’s not about sex. The WNBR is about loving your body, loving low-car or car-free life, demonstrating the power of bikes in mass motion, metaphorically conveying the vulnerability of people on bikes, experiencing the city in a new way and loving the friends and new friends you’ll see before, during and after. And although all of those things are almost certainly good for your sex life, you’ll be surprised how much fun nudity (or near-nudity) is without sex.
2) Nobody cares that your body is not perfect. Nobody’s body is perfect, so for one night, everybody’s body gets to be perfect.
After a dose of classic Portland Juneuary on Thursday, this weekend is looking clear, dry and (especially on Sunday) downright hot. Get out on a bike before the summertime indicators get too high!
Here are a few particularly interesting entries on this weekend’s Pedalpalooza calendar.
Prop and Juggle Ride
“Jugglers, hoopers, poi peeps, staff spinners, and other prop manipulators get together and we will ride to good flow and juggling spots in parks. New prop spinners welcome.” Friday 6:30 p.m.
Oregon’s biggest pay-what-you-will group ride of the year is three days away. Maybe you’ve heard of it.
Portland’s World Naked Bike Ride will start rolling at 9 p.m. Saturday from Mt. Scott City Park, SE 74th Ave and Knight St., in what’s currently forecast to be a rain-free night after a warm day, with late-evening temperatures in the high 60s and a low of 54 degrees by early morning.
Don’t postpone all your bike fun until the weekend! Here are a few highlights from the Pedalpalooza calendar from the next few weekdays.
Open Architecture PDX
Everybody talks about new building; this ride invites people to do something about it. “We will be touring vacant sites or unused land in the area and inviting our members to sketch their ideas for the site.” 6 p.m. Monday.
Dapper Tandem Twinsies
“We’ll promenade around town looking classy, stop at a classy grocery for classy on-the-go drinks, and play some classy lawn games.” 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The weather will be a little hit-or-miss this weekend, but the bike-fun schedule is looking packed. You really need to check out the full schedule for yourself, but let’s review a few highlights.
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