Pedal Bike Tours Blog

Art By Bike- First Friday

Free community bike ride to Southeast Portland’s Monthly Art Walk

We had so much fun last month we’re doing it again! Check out highlights on our blog. On April 2nd feed your soul and stretch your legs with Pedal Bike Tours and Art Scout Art Consulting on a free bike tour from Pedal’s shop (2249 N Williams) to First Friday, southeast Portland’s version of Last Thursday where galleries and other businesses throw a street-side party of art, food and community.

Easy riding for everyone, bring spouses, significant others, grandparents, children, even portable pets! We’ll ride on quiet streets through lovely neighborhoods and pause for nourishing art and refreshments at three different galleries.

Date: April 2nd

Time:5:30pm-8:30pm

Where: starting at Pedal Bike Tours, 2249 N. Williams

Stop 1) B. Rogers Gallery

Address: 2415 NE Broadway St.

Telephone: (503) 236-0600

Hours: Wed-Sat 11-6, Sun 12-5 First Friday till 8

Sky, Roads, and Rivers Pastel works by Andrea McFarland.

Stop 2) Grass Hut www.grasshutcorp.blogspot.com

Address: 811 East Burnside St.

Telephone: (503) 445-9924

Hours: W-Su 12-7pm and First Fridays

“Balls Out”, as in give it your all. A group show of 50+ Artist from all over the country who were given a panel of wood, ink, and felt to do what ever they wanted to do with.

Stop 3) New Space www.newspacephoto.org

Address: 1632 SE 10th Ave.
Telephone: (503) 963-1935

Hours: M-Th 10am-10:30pm, F-Su 10am-6pm and First Fridays

Photography show with works by Bryan Wolf and Elizabeth Fleming.

Gathered For The Ride

Woo hoo!  Last Saturday approximately 15 pinball/bike riding fans rolled out of the shop and hit the streets to go in search of some fun.  Led by our staff pinball wizard Miles, we hit the road en-masse on our way to four stops around the city.

Outside Red Flag

We left the shop and headed east, through the quiet streets and mansions of Irvington, our longest ride of the tour.  On the edge of the Laurelhurst neighborhood we found our first stop, Red Flag.  The fact that’s it’s a relatively new bar with four pinball machines goes to show how popular pinball still is.

Keeping right on schedule we hopped back on our steel steeds and shot the short distance to our next stop, The Standard.  Another newish bar, The Standard is tucked cozily away off the main drag of Burnside.  Once you pass through the patio into the bar you’re greeted by five gleaming machines of pinball beautaceausness!

Working It

After several quarters worth of ‘balling we tackled the deepening gloom with one thought in our heads, donuts!  Past the former headquarters of Jantzen swimwear we pedaled at top speed to reach the second incarnation of that purveyor of deep fried delights, Voodoo II.  The line was so long we had to take turns standing in line and playing games.  A few pinheads even decided to try their skills at the bubble hockey table.  Lucky, lucky Laura (she of the “Bile” t-shirt) actually got the VERY LAST Bacon Maple Bar!  Now that’s some good ju-ju!

mmm, Bile

Stomachs fortified by dough and heads buzzing from sugar we rode through the Lloyd district back to our own dear neighborhood and into our last stop Billy Ray’s Neighborhood Dive.  When was the last time you visited a bar set in an old house with the entire second floor devoted to pinball?  That’s right, we moved in, took over and ‘balled until we were spent.  (Bonus, the Blazers beat the Mavericks on the tv behind us).

In time, some pinners moved reluctantly on to other pursuits while others were still pounding the flippers way into the wee hours.

Great tour everyone thanks for coming!

See more photos here.

You Must Concentrate, Grasshopper

We have just set another record.  So far the age record on our Historic Downtown tour is held by 73 year old Renata from Germany.  Now, 7-months pregnant  Emily Hooke has just set another one, two really, because I’m not sure we’ve had any other pregnant ladies on a tour!

Emily and her husband Joe are visiting Portland from Columbus, Ohio.  They called us yesterday evening looking to do a bike tour and we were able get them on our Downtown tour the very next morning.

Once they got back to the office they had nothing but good things to say about the tour.  Emily is a real trooper, showing no signs of being tired, other than a little sweat from the last hill to the office.  “No problem” she said “it was easy.”

“It was less strenuous than you would think a 3 hour bike tour would be” says Joe,  “The pace was easy, we took several rest breaks and stopped to learn about history and what there is to see here.  I’d say it’s good for people from 8 to 80.”

We like to think we’re going to break those records too some day!

What’s next for Emily and Joe?  “A shower and some lunch!” says Joe as they head out to enjoy some more Portland summer.

Good job Emily and Joe!  Thanks for choosing a Pedal bike tour!

After losing the crown for “Most Courteous Drivers” in the country last year, Portland has once again regained it!

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/06/survey_portland_drivers_nation.html

Now, in addition to being the most bicycle friendly large city in the country we’re also the most courteous drivers.  This means only good things for Portland bicyclists.  As all Portlanders know, drivers here respect bicyclists like no other place in the country.

Come for a ride here and find out for yourself!

Last Saturday we did the first ride in our Safe Routes To Work series. Starting at the Little Red Bike Cafe in North Portland a group of intrepid riders headed out into the wilds of Portland’s back streets with one mission in mind, get downtown safely. Now, of course, Portland being the most bike friendly large city in the US, this isn’t difficult. However, even here there are lots of people who are still a little leery of cars and would appreciate a little help figuring out just what is the best way to get where they’re going. With the help of the official city of Portland bike map the Pedal bike gang was able to outline a super quiet and safe way to get to our destination, The Portland Farmer’s Market, mostly on bicycle boulevards or quiet streets marked on the map in green. Although many in the group were accomplished commuters, we still were able to show them some streets and back ways they hadn’t previously known about. Along the way we saw lots of beautiful houses and greeted friendly neighbors and cats. Once we got to the market, it was packed, as usual. Also as usual the line for Cafe Velo was a mile long.

Cafe Velo- so good it

. After buying supplies for a small picnic back at the shop we continued on, leaving downtown by a completely different route than we came. Back at Pedal hq we dined on the season’s first strawberries and apple cider from Wandering Aengus ciderworks before rolling along back to Red Bike Cafe. Thanks to everyone who took part in the first Safe Routes To Work.  Join us tomorrow for the second installment starting from Delphina’s Bakery in Northeast Portland.  Happy Commuting!

Super commuters Stacy and Kristen

Every day it gets easier and more enjoyable to ride a bike in Portland, Oregon!

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/adams_promises_to_sacrifice_a.html

Portland’s own Jeff Mapes has done what many would like to but few have the skill, time or energy to do- document America’s 4th bicycling golden age and compare it to the bicycling meccas of Europe.  The book is a comprehensive chance for us to drag our eyes off the pavement ahead of us and see how our local scene fits in with other places in the US and Europe.  The bottom line-we’re way behind, but catching fire quickly.

Mapes includes a lot of great statistics for an objective look at where we all really stand, but he also tells a lot of stories of the people who are shaping the “Pedaling Revolution” and pulling more people out of their cars every day in this country.  I learned a lot about the culture in my own town, and a whole lot about the happenings in New York, Chicago, Boulder, Davis, Copenhagen and of course the big daddy, Amsterdam.  Being a seasoned political journalist, Mapes knows how to tell a story and still keep it succinct.

I’d recommend this book for anyone who’s interested in getting a quick yet indepth look at where we are today in biking and where we might be going.  After all, by this time next year we’re all going to be on bikes (I wish).

My how cheap gas changes headlines!  Last year it was “SUV’s rot on sales lots while millions flock to gas efficient cars.”  Yesterday there was a New York Times article entitled Study Says Minicar Buyers Sacrifice Safety.  The implication is that if you want to be safe you should be in the largest vehicle possible.  So if everyone drove M-1Abrams tanks then it would be SUV drivers sacrificing safety.

It’s a matter of escalation, if everyone drives a larger car than the last person, then of course the smallest vehicle is going to be the most unsafe.   Anyway haven’t SUV’s been proven to be a rollover hazard and therefore more dangerous than smaller cars?

So where does that leave bicycles which are a lot smaller than the smallest car?  Here at Pedal, we recognize the dangers of being a defenseless human on 20 lbs. of steel moving at 10-20 miles per hour, but we do it anyway.  Dangerous?  More than an encasing yourself in steel.  Good for you?  Certainly.  The health benefits for ourselves, our neighborhoods, cities, and planet are undeniable.  Here in Portland bicycle use since 2000 has risen 144%, yet traffic fatalities have stayed the same.  It’s getting safer to ride a bike here every day.  The answer is not to jump in the largest vehicle possible, but rather the smallest.

Once more people get out of the tanks and into smaller cars, or better yet bicycles, then the world will be safer for everyone.

Pedal Bike Tours is proud to be teaming up with Bikes to Rwanda to do a Cafe Bike Tour at the 2009 US Barista Championship March 3-8.  Baristas from around the US will be competing to see who’s the best coffee slinger in the US of A.  On Thurs. March 5th and Fri. March 6th.  we’ll be riding to several of Portland’s best cafe’s to sample their wares before the big parties happening afterwards.  Bikes to Rwanda works to get cargo bikes to coffee farmers in Rwanda, allowing small family farms to get their precious beans to market before they spoil.  Come on down and check it out!

We just got back from a soul-energizing trip abroad. You know how it is, you haven’t been away for a while and you finally just do it and as soon as you get that passport stamped you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

We spent 2 weeks bussing it in a loop from Cancun (skipped it) down the peninsula, through Northern Belize and the Cayes, then out Western Belize into Guatemala, explored Tikal (Indiana Jones style!) then ducked out Guate into Chiapas, and back to Cancun via Palenque and Merida (viva Mexico)!

Why there? Because it’s nearly the cheapest flight out of the country and I’ve been meaning to see Tikal since I missed my chance 15 years ago while traveling in western Guatemala.

I won’t bore you with a lot of stories of jungle choked ruins, boat rides up crocodile infested rivers, snorkeling with sharks and sting rays or showering under pristine waterfalls. What I do want to mention is the incredible number of bicycles we saw, particularly three wheeled cargo bikes like this one:

One of hundreds of cargo bikes we saw.

These things were everywhere and carrying everything, from chicken cages, to crates of oranges to mobile food stands:

We saw the same model, same setup everywhere we went. It’s single speed and the entire front cargo area pivots on the front wheels.

We even saw them on the side of the road seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Of course we saw lots of regular bikes too. Everywhere you looked there were people pedaling complacently, on their way to work in the fields or home from the office. Kids, farmers, whole families sometimes; father riding, mother sitting sidesaddle on the rear rack and baby on her lap. They were as common as the stray dogs one sees everywhere.

In the whole two weeks I only once saw a brand I recognized. Of course with this many bicycles, there were also lots of bike shops. In larger cities they seemed to cluster in certain sections of town, there’d be 5 bike shops within a block. In smaller villages it was likely to be a shed, open on three sides, with one guy hammering on a wheel and another reading the paper by flashlight while a customer waited for his sole means of transport to be beaten back into service.

Of course when on the beach they had cruisers, which take on rust and just keep on rolling. If helps when your island is only 5 feet above sea level

I was very encouraged to see so many people riding their bicycles for the short distances they travel to carry out their daily tasks and I hope they continue to do so until the next time I’m able to go back and visit.