Rain gear

It rains in Portland. Our average rainfall is about the same as New York's, but the weather pattern manages to give us a long misty season - several months. It's chill, and nothing dries out, but it's not always rain as midwestern thunderstorm-lovers define it.

Still, no one wants to be uncomfortably damp day after day, particularly in an office environment. So, rain gear.


And if you think gawd, that's a lot to put on in a morning, please compare to this other commuter.

Baskets

Add a wicker basket to the front of any bike, and you've got carrying capacity and an old world feel. You just want to fill it with some bright flowers and an artistically placed baguette.


But really, baskets can be utilitarian, and built in. For instance, the "flat bed" front basket on this Belladona is artful and keeps stuff handy. I love the matching fenders.

Tryke

Continuing in the "non-standard bike" them, we present to you adult tricycles - a stable way for some folks to get around.

Clever

Variety being the spice and all, Portland has a good deal of non-standard bikes.

What's a standard bike? I don't know anymore. From my childhood in the rural midwest, all adult bikes were of one of two styles - step through or with a top tube. Some kids had banana seats. Smaller kids had bigwheels or trikes. And that was it.

Not anymore. Mountain bikes and hybrids edged onto the public awareness internationally. But in Portland, the variety seems to go further. Zoobombers with thei mini bikes. Tall bikes. Choppers. I've yet to catch a picture of a commuting unicyclist, but I've seen several. Is it just here?

For instance, I never saw a cargo bike before I moved to the PNW. And the variety of them are endless, and they are everywhere. Here, Pop gets the toddler strapped in for the ride.


Ready to roll

Other Cities' Successes

What I like about this video is how they acknowledge it's not a one-mode-fits-all-bikers thing. Novice riders, racers, touring, mom-with-kids, bmx, singletrack, commuters - and they are all on a connected system.

Boulder Bike Story from Bikes Belong on Vimeo.

Argyle Socks

I wonder if he got them at Sock Dreams?

Fishnet Stockings & Tatoos

Puffy Skirt

Tea & Flowers

This week, several organizations were working on traffic calming for the bike/ped traffic on the Hawthorne Bridge, which they did in an amusing way. Several stations had signs promoting using all 5 senses when in traffic, and each sense had people demonstrating using the sense - FEEL had a couple ladies doing yoga, LOOK had people with binoculars.



SMELL went with smell the flowers, and they had bouquets tied to the posts along the bridge.




Most people got a smile about the displays, much as they do about an amusing piece of public art. But apparently this is serious, as some perceive a problem with road rage amongst the users of the bike/ped way. The comments in the BikePortland.org post show some real anger. I ride this path nearly daily, and have to say I've not actually seen any altercations, so I wonder if it's a matter of a few people getting annoyed about having to hit their brakes in a high use area, and being vocal about it. Since next month the Morrison Bridge will be re-opening with a 15ft wide, separated from vehicle traffic bike lane, I suspect the percieved problem will evaporate when some large percentage of the bridge users head toward the new bridge.

Steady Progression

I came across this graph of bike bridge useage from the Official Bike Count that the city does annually. Amazing how much has changed in 15 years, eh?

Commuting as you are

I don't have an issue with people riding to work in full lycra kits. I most often change from work-wear to bike-wear for the commute for comfort. The faux-fabric kit is certainly more comfortable for a long speedy exersize based ride. But if you're just heading to or from work, meh. Not everyone finds it necessary.

Dressed for work in full scrubs.

Dressed for safety in a reflective vest.

Undressed for the ride. Or something.

Pink Cruiser

Waiting at the lights on the pink cruiser.

Accessories

Fashion accessories: a basket to put stuff in






















A stylish leather trunk

Or the whole handbag and heels

Twisted Sister

My years as National Mountain Bike Patrol have left me unable to pass by when a fellow biker is hurtin'. On the Hawthorn bridge, I came across a young lady with her bike against the rail, hand-turning her front wheel. There weren't many commuters anymore - the flood leaving downtown would have been a half hour before - so there weren't any experienced cyclists around to help her before I rolled up.

I'm not quite sure how she'd done it, but she'd crashed a while back and managed to swivel her front wheel 360 degrees - it was pointed in the right direction, but the cables were looped around and pulling so tight her canti brakes were in perma-lock mode. She was fine - a slight abrasion on the leg - but the wheel would not spin.

I unhooked the brakes and tried to spin the tire back around and it wouldn't go. Erp. I took off her wheel, spun her back through, and hooked everything up again. I told her I wanted her to go straight to a bike shop from here and we discussed which ones were on her route.

She seemed quite grateful, but you know, we bikers have to help each other.

Classy bike, classy bike commuter.


Classic bike. Hard core commuter. Note that these two gentlemen work together.

What Sunday Parkways wants to be when it grows up

I saw this short at a Wild & Scenic film festival. I've not been able to get to a Sunday Parkway in 2009, but it looks like we'll have more of them next summer!

Looking like a cop

Sorry, no photo, but on my morning ride to work, I stopped in the bike lane at a red light, and a gentleman Shakespeare would have termed a "rustic" began crossing Sandy Blvd in the crosswalk ahead of me. He stopped in front of my bike.
"Are you a cop?" he demanded of me. There was no one else there, he had to be talking to me.
"Pardon?"
"Are you a cop?"
"Um. No, not today?" I was a little bewildered by the question.
"You look like a cop," he said, standing there with his fists on his hips in the middle of the street.
"Ahh .. no . ." I'm fit, but not brawny. I'm on a bike with a change of clothing in my bag. No mirrored sunglasses. Black shorts and black jacket, yes, but the jacket says IMBA in large white letters. "I look like a bike commuter."
"You got all the cop gear."
A yellow pannier, a green backpack, a gray helmet, gloves. I'm not seeing this. Luckily, the light turned green, and I steered my bike around the man and continued my commute.
In case you need to know, Portland Bike cops look more like this. Bike commuters look like . . . well, almost anything else. Full business suit, full racing kit, rain jacket, no shirt, bike shoes, flipflops, skirt, kilt, speedos, tie, scrubs, you name it. But not very much like a bike cop.

That's Quite a Rack

Bike up to the world on Akenny


Bike racks for book lovers at Powell's


This is a generic staple rack near Couch. It's been tagged by what I've heard call "the most inoffensive graffitti". Read more about urban knitters at Instructables or knitted landscape or just google Guerilla knitting. And you thought the tall bikers had a strange hobby.

What's all this then?

Bikes. It's about bikes. And what strange, wonderful, artistic and goofy things people do on them in Portland, OR.

For instance, here we see some of the 18,000 people who attended the Bridge Pedal, riding 8, 24, or 37 miles in a zig zag course over 6, 8, or 11 bridges, most of which were shut down to auto traffic for half a day during this event. How many other cities would close their INTERSTATE for a bike ride?

Most of the attendees were on their creaky big-box-store bikes, and wearing whatever was comfy that morning - it had been hot, so there weren't so many people pedaling in the official outfit of Portland - jeans and a hoodie - but there were some. Others wore fun outfits, or decorated their bikes or helmets.

Most just got on their bikes and rode. We do that around here.