PDX Photo Roundup

I am still in Portland, learning more about bike repair at United Bicycle Institute and gallivanting about town, trying to soak up as many good bicycle ideas as I can. Finding time (and energy) for writing to you has proven more difficult than I expected. I hope you've been okay with the break from daily posts. Thanks for checking back in and all that!

Little Oil and Mama Oil are back at home in Seattle, bless their hearts. I miss 'em big time and actually took a little vacation back to Seattle over the weekend, which was fabulous!

So, if you've been reading Riding on Roadways you might already know the kind of things I like: cargo bikes, Pedal Parents and kids, amusing, artful or lovely bikes, DIY bike accessories, happy cyclers, pleasantness and weirdness on the street... All of these things are abundant in Portland. It is a pretty amazing place. It is not a heaven on Earth, and I do love Seattle more, but I know that if I lived in PDX I'd never be able to complete a sentence or focus long enough to read a line of text without having my head turned by an odd bike or an awesome biker.

Since I might never blogify all the cool stuff the cool people of Portland have shown me since I got here, here is a photo round up to show you at least some of it.

I'll certainly follow up with you on some of my trip, so please do let me know if anything in particular jumps out at you and you wanna know more.

Meet Buddy. Little Oil finally thought of a name for my Bridgestone light touring bike! And just after I rearranged the cockpit and replaced the Nitto Randoneur drop bars with Soma Sparrows upright and comfy bars and 9- speed Campagnolothumb shifters! What? SO cool! I also put the Cetma rack and the Swift Industries Pelican Porteur Bag back on for the trip. This gave me the hauling capacity I needed to transport two weeks' worth of stuff and also left me with a very fun bike to ride my first week in Portland.

Little Oil got dressed up to see me off. What a sweety!

I took the Bolt Bus down. This was not all it was cracked up to be. They promote their service as a sort of "Greyhound plus," but I found it to be a distinct, "Greyhound minus." As you can see, they didn't even rebrand the buses.

When I arrived at my friends Elly and Joe's house, I found mints on my nicely folded towels. They have been such gracious hosts and cool people. I am lucky to have friends like them.

Now, I already fix bikes and teach a lot of people how to fix bikes at my job, but at UBI I've had the opportunity to really nail down some useful approaches to essential mechanical skills, like wheel building! Those two robot bugs up above here became wheels only a few minutes later. Go Bikes! Go Learning!

I've caught up with a lot of my favorite Portlanders, like Russ and Laura from Path Less Pedaled.

Dodge the red shell!

Ooh, get the invincibility star!

Oh no! Blue shell! Clever bike lane graffiti turns my morning commute into a game of Mario Kart. Fun!

This town has such an abundance of cool cargo bikes, like this Ahearn Cycle Truck! Handbuilt in PDX!

Joe's cargo trike. Just after this picture was taken someone tried to buy an ice cream off of Joe. This was apparently not the first time that someone has assumed that Joe's cargo must be dessert. I've heard the same story from other riders of similar bikes. Must be something about the box trike, makes folks think of sweets.

How about this lovely cycle truck I spotted outside the Community Cycling Center? Can you make out the wooden platform? I think this bike was built by one of the mechanics at this wonderful shop. Visit next time you are down here, it is worth the trip.

Meet Tracy and Teal. They ride their Yuba Mundo to tumbling class, but not to school currently, 9 miles is too far. Teal's 2.5 year old sister often rides in her seat behind her. Teal likes the bike. The Yuba appears to be the most popular brand of longtail in Portland.

I took one for a test ride at Joe Bike. It felt good to me, but the one-size fits all frame size felt pretty large to me. I think I'll need to test one again before I try to tell you too much more about this very interesting cargo bike.

Another model of cargo bikes which are very popular in PDX is the bakfiets. This one has adorable duck decorations and a grinning rider.

This one here is ridden by my new friend Kath and her two adorable kids.

And here is the now-famous Non-Driving Mom of Six, Emily Finch. Kath and Emily are amazing moms and amazing cyclers. Expect to hear more from them and about them on this here blog.

I think this might be the hottest xtracycle on two wheels. Please, take a moment to soak it all in. Click on the image and embiggen it for yourself. You wont be sorry you did. An xtracycle Pedersen! Whew! Rider and mechanic and dad and chai tea deliverer Atom, sure did a great job with his bike, huh?

Let's leave the PDX Photo Roundup there, for now. There are a few more adventures planned before I head home, so keep an eye out for more Riding on Roadways soon!