Pedal Bike Tours Blog

Portland, Ore. (11/23/10) - BikeCraft, held each year since 2005, is a bike-lover's holiday gift bazaar that showcases local, handmade, bike-themed arts, crafts, fashion and accessories. This sixth edition is free to the public and will take place at the new home of local bicycle accessory design firm, Portland Design Works located at 15 NE Hancock St. Portland, OR 97212.

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

Congratulations to 77 year old Tom Hunter of Denver on being the oldest person to join us on a Pedal Bike tour!  Tom was joined by his wife Jo Ella, (she's only 71) on our Historic Downtown tour.  This was after they had already walked several miles!  Tom and Jo Ella even braved a few raindrops at the beginning of our tour and ended up having a wonderful time.  Along the way they entertained with stories of out-skiing their teenaged grandkids.

After the tour we sent them to our favorite local microbrewery, Amnesia where hopefully they celebrated with a pint and a bratwurst!  The next day they came back to check in on us and told us about the several more miles they had walked.  I thought the fountain of youth was in Florida, not Colorado!   Jo Ella's parting advice to me was "Don't be afraid to get old."  I won't Jo Ella, not if I can stay as active as you two!

Who's going to break the record next?  I know you're out there!

Wow, had a great day riding on the Banks-Vernonia State Trail on Friday.  It's a project of the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a truly awesome non-profit organization dedicated to turning our nation's unused railroad tracks to non-motorized multi-use paths.  The Banks-Vernonia trail is only 30 miles outside of Portland and over its 21 miles goes from the farmland of the valley to the thick undergrowth of the coastal mountains.  The highlight is definitely the 600' long Buxton trestle, 80 feet above the valley floor.  It's sheer joy to roll across this bridge, marveling at the wide open views of the thick forest all around and the grassy valley beneath.

We stayed the night in a cute little one room cabin in Stub Stewart State Park which the trail runs right through.  This placed us perfectly for hitting the trail first thing the next morning (after driving to the nearest town for a serious logger's breakfast of course!)

One thing I didn't realize was that the trail runs almost exclusively downhill in one direction.  We hardly pedaled all one direction.  Thankfully, it was a gentle grade, which is exactly why railroads make great bike trails. 

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.

MMM bike paths.  They make me salivate with happiness.  I used to live in Seattle, steps from the Burke Gilman trail, which runs for many miles almost from the Puget Sound all the way out to the Redhook brewery in the countryside.  Along the way it passes the Gasworks park on Lake Union,  UW, Soundgarden's Soundgarden, and Lake Washington.  It's one of the greatest places and experiences in Seattle.

Portland has the Springwater Corridor running approximately 30 miles along the Willamette river and east toward Mt. Hood and the pathway running several miles along Marine Drive.  We also have the 2.5 mile loop of Tom McCall Waterfront park and the Eastbank Esplanade, connected by two bridges, and it is a fantastic way to see the city and get in a ride or a walk.  Until these paths went in, Portland's rivers were mostly taken over by industry or freeways.  All these paths are part of the 40 mile loop, envisioned to provide access to green space for city-dwellers almost a century ago and all but forgotten until recently.

Now that we have public non-motorized access to some of the river, people are hungry for more; that's where npGREENWAY comes in.

From their website:

"npGREENWAY envisions a trail system providing access to and along the Willamette River enveloping the north riverfront from the Steel Bridge in downtown Portland to Cathedral Park near the St. Johns Bridge and extending through Baltimore Woods to Kelley Point Park.

Our goal is to link North Portland neighborhoods with the Willamette River for recreation and access to jobs. This expansion of the Willamette River Greenway will include a network of trails used for activities such as walking, running, cycling, skating, skateboarding, fishing, boating and wildlife viewing. The North Portland Greenway trails will connect with the existing Willamette River trail system serving residents and visitors throughout the region."

It's already been a long road and probably has years or possibly decades to go, but you have to start somewhere and the citizens of npGREENWAY are in it for the long haul.

It's great to see Portlanders are continuing to realize the Willamette river's importance to the overall health of our natural surroundings and by extension to our own health, not to mention the benefits of exercise and the public's right to access to our common spaces.

I look forward to the day you can ride from the Sellwood bridge to the St. Johns bridge along the river without vying for space with a car.  Dare to dream...

npgreenway.org

Holly is unimpressed with being treated as cargo

So I'm walking down the sidewalk when I sense a presence behind me. I turn around and there, like the mythic Yeti, is an apparition much heard of but seldom seen, it's Phil from Metrofiets riding one of his handbuilt in Portland cargo bikes.

Phil is actually coming to the shop to show us what is only the third of their new creations. You can certainly understand why there's only three, the thing is almost 10 feet long and features a wooden box mounted in the middle, big enough to hold almost 2 adults, or 2 kegs. Phil says it will hold 200 pounds while still being easy to maneuver and up to 600 pounds maximum. He let me take it for a spin and it did take a moment to get the balance down (the key is to look where you're going, not at the box!)

Ever since Clever Cycles brought the dutch cargo bike Bakfiets to Portland a couple of years ago, interest in these utilitarian bicycles has been growing. Over the last six months news of new companies and products has been springing up. The Xtracycle is a bolt on rear wheel which creates basically a long bicycle with a long rear rack. It's been around for a while, but now there's the Yuba Mundo, based on the same concept. Surly has also come out with their own version called the Big Dummy.

Cargo bikes have a bin mounted somewhere allowing you to put things in without securing them down like on a rack. In addition to Bakfiets and Metrofiets, which have the box mounted in front of the rider, a company called Madsen just began building their own version. Madsen's bike has the box mounted behind the rider with a well in the middle for the rear wheel.

In Eugene, Oregon, the Center for Appropriate Transport has been making their own cargo bike for years. More recently, another Eugene company, CETMA is about to launch their own version. And last but not least out of Europe is the Long John, possibly the oldest of the cargo bikes.

The point is, while not new, cargo bikes are becoming hot in the US and it will be interesting to see where the interest goes. With a 200 pound cargo capacity they are excellent for much more than just a quick trip to the grocery store. People here in Portland are even using them to move with. Their growing popularity will allow more people to get out of their cars more often and further reduce our dependence on cars, which as you know, I think is great!