October is a great month in Portland, as local breweries unveil their best seasonal ales and tasty restaurants switch up the menus to reflect seasonal availability. The first week of the month was full of meetings, Re-Direct, PSU, SBDC etc… The shop continues on and I noticed more people stopping by for minor service/ repair. Fender installations and wheel truing taking up some time. I also tuned my cyclocross bike to perfection in anticipation for the Cross Crusade’s first race of the series at Alpenrose. I moved up to a new category this season and because of the random start selection, ended up starting dead last. So far back in the line, that they actually give you a free case of beer to make up for the disadvantage. I came home with a nice case of the Deshutes organic ale. Delicious. I still made it in the top 100 (mediocre) but had a blast, and got some motivation to train more.
I applied for a position at PSU to be a part of their bike hub, but will have to wait to hear back. After a few solid days of rentals and a glorious brewery tour, I participated in another bike league meeting and went to City Hall. Celebrating at the BTA’s Bicycle Commute Challenge party and rubbing some elbows. We ended up having an after party at the liberty bell and I talked with some members of Umbrella about a possible collaboration. I had another Brewery tour on the 10th and rocked out to another Cross Crusade race on the 11th. I placed 53rd out of 130 or so and felt better about my racing. I have noticed a definite improvement over last season, and I think the close range bike polo maneuvering has played a role in my confidence overall. I seem to get better every time I ride, imagine that. I had the shop open all the next week and felt the rental season starting to slow down. Still doing okay but being aware of the trend. I finally started taking some time to detail my personal fleet of bikes, and worked for a couple days on really dialing in my trusty single speed commuter bike. I made some new signs and have been doing a lot more designing in my sketchbook.
I had a successful web design meeting with Dave and an awesome soak at the Kennedy School with Drew. It seems to be this time of year that I take time to get together with friends for dinner more often, and I love sharing food. I attended a Bicycle Brown Bag with Timo and the PBOT team with Graig Raisman as the guest speaker, talking about bike/ traffic infrastructure and design, and a sideshow of what he ad experienced in traveling throughout Europe. Great discussion topic, and very interesting with the recent release of the Bicycle Master Plan update, and understanding some of the new designs. I feel a Portland Bikeability Ride coming on – Master Plan Update style. A busy week for service, I need more space to store bikes! I worked on my xc bike more (constant love needed ) to race again on the 18th. Great course, a little bumpy maybe, but a gnarly hill at the end of the laps took it out of just about everybody. More bike polo games and drinks with the PSU Transportation class (some good friends of mine) we talked about the future of the street car here and what the Max line will be doing. Yet another Brewery Tour on the 26th, an awesome couple that spend their time traveling for a living – writing reviews for a PR firm. Good, work – they said they would leave a review on my Google Business Listing. Check it out!
On the 27th I attended and testified at a Portland City Planning Commission Hearing about the Bicycle Master Plan Update for 2030. What a turnout – and strong community support for the plan. Several local planners and advocates stepped up to let their appreciation and occasional concern be heard. I never realized how easy it is to take part in the process of community design.
The morning of the 28th I attended another Oregon Manifest event with Creating Conversations. The event was titled: Creating Conversations Through The Love Of Bicycles. It was an interesting conversation/ interview with a panel of local bike business owners. Then an event that evening: Dreams on Wheels, where we heard from Mikael Coleville Andersen of Copenhagenize.com speak about cycling infrastructure in Copenhagen and the cultural differences between the scene stateside and abroad. It was a very entertaining evening at Oregon Manifest.
We finished off the month with a couple more tours and explored the possibilities of our own seasonal offerings. A rain gardens tour comes to mind with all the storm water swishing about. We are excited here at the shop to visit the next Bicycle Brown Bag topic: cargo hauling. Trailers provided.
