There is a fantastic new Momentum issue out. I’m really looking forward to their Portland kickoff party after the Pedal Nation Bike Show this April. It’s going to be at the Jupiter Hotel on E Burnside. Great articles and profile pieces in this issue. Elly Blue wrote an interesting article on cycling in PDX and I really liked the Trailblazers piece by Jeff Mapes – “How Bicycle Advocates Defined North American Cycling Culture 1970-2010”. What an amazing time line.
Join PCC and Portland Bicycle Tours, and explore our great city! We provide the bicycle, helmet and the guide on these three hour tours. Space is limited, so sign up right away!
PCC rides coming soon
Bridge History Tour
Explore the bridges, history, public art, and the esplanade bike way that lines the Willamette. Learn about the remodel that changed the landscape of our Waterfront Park and what is in store for our waterways.
July 13th , 6-9pm, $59
Portland City Tour
Take a ride with us as we cruise to some sights in downtown Portland and share a bit of the Portlandia story. Find out why Portland is “the city that works” while learning about our urban growth boundary.
July 20th, 6-9pm, $59
Portland Parks Tour
Portland is a city that blooms all year round! Visit a dormant volcano with an amazing variety of plant species, a community garden teeming with life, and enjoy the calm riding streets we call Bike Boulevards.
Ross already offers bike tours, rentals, bike-share, service and repair from a shop space in Old Town (that he shares with Portland Pedicabs and Icicle Tricycles). Now he’s got a delivery service too. Ross says he launched Pedalivery back in December when his other businesses slowed down in the off-season. “Tours and rentals were slow and I had enough random inquiries and interest in deliveries, so I decided to build a website and roll with this idea.”
Ross says response has been great so far and he’s getting work delivering everything from freight to food cart orders on his various cargo bikes. He’s got a flatbed trailer, a “pick-up truck” trailer, and several converted kid trailers (that he also rents out).
The cost is $10 per delivery in central downtown (an additional $3 to cross the river to the eastside). “I was worried at first that I needed to charge more,” says Ross, “but people seem to tip well because they understand that I’m human-powered and they like the idea… That’s made the difference, people’s generosity and tips.”
Ross has an intern starting later this month and he plans to keep the delivery service going, even as his other businesses ramp up in spring and summer. “It’s been a real positive response.”
This is an event that is planned for September 19th 2010. Feel free to contact me for more information and look for registration opportunities in the Summer Catalog for Portland Community College.
Harvest Time!
Farm to Fork by Bike
On September 19, 2010, Portland Farmers Market fans can dig into Portland’s famed food and cycle scene with a guided immersion experience in urban farming and farmers’ markets. Portland Bicycle Tours will lead a group from Eastbank Esplanade to Zenger Farm via the Springwater Corridor. The group will help with Zenger’s harvest, tour the farm, meet the resident chickens and bees, and then head to Lents International Farmer’s Market for a quick visit. After Lents, the group will journey to the King Market via MAX light rail. At King, PFM staff will give a ‘behind the scenes’ market tour before turning the group loose to shop for lunch and picnic in the park adjacent to the market. Participants get market token for picnic shopping at the market. Join Us!
I was taking a look back at our business journal of activity over the “slow” winter months and it reminded me that we still had events to participate in almost every day. The first week in December was full of Bicycle Business League meetings, Car Free Happy Hours, Willamette Pedestrian Coalition socials, Axles of Evil Bike Polo, and even the annual Bike Craft Fair. Before the halfway point of the month, we had a Christmas lights ride, Marketing workshops, and attended the Travel Portland Open House. We had the first ever Trans Con PDX meeting, and saw “The Metal Cowboy” present his new book at River City Bikes. More Holiday Parties, and Tall Bike rides, polo games, and BBL meetings rounded out the month before heading home for the Holidays.
January Started out just as busy with a New Years Day ride with the Bicycle Transportation Alliance – BTA. We explored the new Bike Boulevard on Spokane St. in Sellwood and took the lane on the Sellwood Bridge. I started organizing for our Rain Garden Class that we are co-hosting with Sustainable Site Specialist Maria Cahill. For More Information and to register: http://www.greengirlpdx.com/rg201.htm
I also started meeting with the Portland Farmers Market about our “Farm to Fork” ride planned for September 2010. This is also a project with Portland Community College, and I will be hosting a few tours for the Summer Catalog. I was invited to be in a Nutcase Helmets photo shoot and they gave me a free helmet for my time. Not to shabby. I finally got the new Bike Tour Fliers that I ordered two months ago (still looking for a reliable printer in this town ) and helped my friend Ben with his bike move. A group of 20 of us used trailers and cargo bikes to move all his possessions across town to his new house without any fossil fuel. I attended the annual Portland Traffic Safety Convergence and we talked about solutions to problems in out transportation infrastructure. Lots of pedestrian issues to improve if you ask me. Next I visited the monthly Volunteer Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting and sat in on presentations from the Bureau of Transportation on the Bicycle Master Plan update for 2030. Still some bike rentals and BBL meetings, and a presentation from National Geographic on the new Geo Travel NW map. This is a beautiful resource that was made possible from Travel Oregon and other partners.
pile o signs for the rally
I was invited as a guest to attend on of Portland’s Sustainable Un-Conferences and it definitely made me think about all kinds of stuff. The model is that the participants get to choose to lead small break out groups on any topic they want. Four or so topics are chosen by popularity of a sign up sheet and the groups move to separate and start discussion. Participants can change or update a group anytime they want. Naturally I did a talk on the Bicycle Business League, but then moved on to visit other groups and their topics. Thanks to GreenPosting.org for the guest pass. I finished out the Month with freelance guiding xc ski trips for a company called NW Discoveries and parties for the former BTA Executive Director. Still hitting up the late night bike club rides and participating in the occasional ZooBomb. We hosted a sign making party at the Pedalworks shop for the upcoming Bicycle Master Plan Rally that was held on Feb 4th. Oh, Man… We had our first annual Tweed Ride and I had a blast. I took the Penny Farthing out to show it off, but the start location was surrounded by train tracks, so it made things a bit difficult. I like to ride that crazy bike, but could not keep up with the group – so I switched out to rock the leather single speed- “Patina”
We’ve had a few tours this week, riding along the new blooms at the waterfront and soaking up some much needed vitamin D. I lead a ride to the NE budget hearing last week and was interviewed for this story that showed up on Portland Online. Here is the link to the storyon the Portland is Better Together page. In other news I finalized plans to offer a couple tours for Portland Community College classes and will be hosting those in July. I’ll post the dates soon. We are also working with PCC on a Farm to Market event that will hopefully take place in September. Sta
What a great time of year! Cyclocross is in full swing, the leaves are turning, and we are continuing to see business at the Pedalworks shop. A little expansion even – we are now offering bike delivery services in the Portland Metro area. Food runs, late night essentials, freight delivery, and messenger services. I attended another inspiring car – free happy hour early in the month and was excited to see some new faces. The first weekend of November brought us a Twilight Ride on the new 205 path here in Portland with regional planners and representatives from the BTA.
Great cyclocross races on Sunday the 8th launched us in to a new wave of building large cargo trikes. With a 4 foot by 2.5 foot flat bed we achieved a 500 lb weight rating and can use the trike to make deliveries. We have been getting a few cargo models ready for an upcoming Bicycle Brown Bag put on by the Portland City and their Transportation Options crew. Cross at Barton Park on the 15th – I got my first flat tire of the season in lap #2 but was able to get a new wheel from the pit and finish the race. After a 5 person multi-day rental, I met with my website master and we added some new picts. I was excited to attend ” an evening with Roger Geller” a low key evening event put on by bikeportland.org. I’m a huge fan of the bicycle master plan update (that Roger has been working on) and it was neat to hear some perspectives about the design process and what it entailed. lot’s of compromise – that’s what. We demonstrated at the bike brown bag with success and heard from some moms about their kid cargo needs and got some great tips on juice bottle retention devices.
On the 20th, I attended the Oregon Bicycle Tourism Partnership Group semi-annual meeting and rocked it to the core. We had great idea brainstorms and checked in with each other on real progress towards shared goals. The Rideoregonride.com website is amazing and I announced that the Bicycle Business League was taking part in the regional networking. Great progress from the Colombia Gorge Historical Highway restoration effort, a nice introduction from the Intertwine Trail Network, and thank you to Travel Oregon for your facilitation and hard work. The free small business services from Travel Oregon have surpassed ANY OTHER local tourism organization. Hint, hint – other local tourism organization.
Our good friend “fool” from the Shift list (among other advocacy efforts) threw a great housewarming party and we crashed the dance floor with eighties intensity and Chromeo Bonafied Lovin’. Bike polo continues on into the winter with the hard core axles of evil getting together three times a week. Good vacation time with the family in Port Townsend, and a food pile to the moon.
is always exciting with the cyclocross season in full swing and special events demanding our attention. This past weekend was the Cyclocross Single Speed World Championships (cxsswc ) at Portland International Raceway and it did not disappoint. Team Portland Bicycle Tours – We brought the tour bus (witch happens to be the best cyclocross station imaginable) and rolled in early to set up our pop-up training station. Everyone raced well in the morning, and we continued the day watching the other racers beat away at the course as we waited for the championship. Steady showers for a few days leading up to the races, the course was peanut-butter mud. The rain held off for the morning races but started up about 1 pm and continued to drizzle all night. Yakima brought a huge geodesic dome dubbed “the thunder dome” and there was even a Black Sabbath cover band rocking the night.
Sawdust pile obstacle
The course got re-directed to run through the dome and we cheered from the sidelines with raincoats and home brews in hand. After the final race, there was a the final event in a week long bout between the two cities of Seattle and San Francisco to see who would get to host next years CXSSWC.
After a debate night, waiting to see who the woman’s winner of the championship’s choice city was, and a 5 round mud wrestling gladiator competition. It was decided that Seattle would host next years event. With all the costumes, debauchery, and wild antics going on, I could not help but think about how bizarre this would all seem to a visitor from another land, who might not understand the history and context of such an occasion.
