Category Archives: Bicycle Portland
Bicycle Portland
Tuesday Morning Wrap-up (with a little Monday on the side)
Good Morning!
Our fearless leader, taking on the mornings – One donut and cup of coffee at a time.
What a beautiful morning it was on the Steel Bridge! It was so nice to talk with some of you, daily commuters, as you braved the crisp cold air this morning. Thanks to everyone that stopped by for some morning rewards and a nice chat. Seeing everyone riding bikes to work, or home, this morning brought a new appreciation for the city and everyone in it. Whether you all were taking a break from your commute or ride or whirling by, smiles were all around by the handful. Hope you all enjoy your Tuesday!
Here’s one awesome commuter and her sweet bike
The Hawthorne Bridge brought us some great stories to kick off the morning and a lot of squeaky brakes.
If you haven’t seen this already, you really should, it’s pretty neat! Here is the bike counter stats from the Hawthorne Bridge for the last 30 days. http://portland-hawthorne-bridge.visio-tools.com/
Free Rides with Pedal Bike Tours!
If you love art and bikes, you’ll have a blast on one of our monthly guided bike rides to the art galleries of Portland’s Pearl District and the SE neighborhoods. On the first Thursday and Friday of the month the Pearl and SE galleries stay open late and offer free food and drink. Not to be outdone, we’re providing bikes and helmets for free on the ride. So stop by our shop and come ride with us! We will be leaving at 6pm and returning at 9pm. Check out our calendar for specific dates.
First Thursday Ride
1 – 3 miles to the Pearl District art galleries, flat terrain
First Thursday Information
Pearl Gallery Map
First Friday Ride
5 – 10 miles to SE Portland art galleries, a few small hills
First Friday Information
SE Art Galleries Map
Questions? Call 503-877-2453.
Cheers,
Pedal Bike Tours
133 SW 2nd Ave.
Portland, OR 97204
www.pedalbiketours.com
First Friday Art by Bike
This past First Friday, Pedal Bike Tours led a spectacular evening ride to three SE Portland art galleries. If you haven’t joined us for one of our free First Friday Art by Bike rides, what are you waiting for? Rides start at the shop at 6pm. All are welcome.
Our night began with a stop at Pushdot Studio on SE 11th to view Friderike Heuer’s exhibition, (S)elective Affinities/ Wahlverwandschaften. The delicious food and cozy space offered a perfect environment for contemplating the interesting juxtaposition of unique characters and scenery in Friderike’s work.
Pushdot Studio
2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104
From Pushdot, we traveled up Clinton St. to visit the always welcoming, Studio 2507. Here we encountered the subdued and moody images created by Travis Wade for “mixed media paintings by a serious and dark man.”
Studio 2507
2507 SE Clinton St.
Finally we traveled to The Bike Show for bikey art, live music by Halley the Harpist, Bece Kidder, and Crankmychain, delicious biscuits from the Biscuit Bike, and the occasional robot/dinosaur attack. This show was hosted by The Splendorporium and Art for Life Children’s Gallery, a fascinating space near Powell City Park. The little people were in full force and brought a lot of great energy to the show. Also Crankmychain gave us all plenty of reason to dance as we enjoyed the artwork! Thanks Splendorporium!
Splendorporium and Art for Life Children’s Gallery
3421 SE 21st Ave
We’re looking forward to some more great rides this year so come on out and join us! Check the Pedal Bike Tours Calendar for dates.
We Rode, We Donuted, We Pinballed!
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
Portland Recognized in National Geographic
I just saw a great little article applauding Portland’s bicycle friendliness in an issue of National Geographic.
It’s a short article in the “Technology” section but it highly praises Portland’s bicycle infrastructure and how tolerant people are towards bicyclists here. The article cites our 171 miles of bike lanes, bike boxes (which allows bikes to be visible to cars at stop lights) and bike-only traffic signals.
A bar graph on the side shows the increase in bikes being put on bus racks in various US cities, with Houston increasing 235%!
The article concludes other cities could become as bike friendly as Portland simply by repainting street to include bike lanes. As interior decorators say, paint is cheap! It’s a little more complicated than that, many bicyclists in Portland prefer to ride on low traffic streets. This is an even cheaper solution, since it costs nothing to simply choose to ride on quiet streets with few cars. However, it’s Portland’s conscious effort to promote bicycling as an alternative to cars and commitment to improving bikes’ access to streets that has given so many people the confidence to ride around the city.
And every little bit of biking counts! Maybe you can’t ride the whole way to work, or want to get out on a bike while you’re traveling. When people see others riding and smiling it’s likely to spread, and that can also translate into more infrastructure, both for the benefit of tourists and locals. If you’re thinking of taking your bike along for your next adventure, or partial commute to work, check out this article about the 9 Best Car Bike Racks.
Now, let’s get riding!
You must be logged in to post a comment.