Report: Gorge Ride

Gorge Ride - 6/22/05

Reported by Kiran:

Brief showers did not keep 5 intrepid riders from MAXing to Gresham and riding to the Vista House on the Historic Columbia River Hwy (The easternmost point of Pedalpalooza).

Photos by Dat:
http://homepage.mac.com/datn/PhotoAlbum66.html

Stats:
Top Speed-39mph
Detours-1
HelmetCams-1
Muddy pints of $3 strawberries-2
Espresso Drinks-3
Flats-1
MAX trains-3
Buses-2 (flat recovery)

After caffeination in Troutdale the sun came out and riders who still had air in their tires opted for the extended return to Portland via marine drive.

Report: Bike to Tennis Ride

Reported by Carye:

Bike To Tennis, Monday the 20th, 6:15 - 8:30 pm

8 bicyclists (3 men, 5 women) = 4 teams of doubles on two courts at Sellwood Park (We had the competive side - whoa Sara Stout sure can whoop it up with the fellas - and the not so competive side -- Isn't a cute white skirt enough? Joanna, where on earth are you putting those balls?)

Perfect warm sunny Summer evening, lovely ride on the East Esplande from Hawthorne Bridge to Springwater Corridor to Sellwood Park. After game drinks at Red & Black.

Cutest on the Court goes to Joanna Dyer. Meow!

Cutest Accesory: Sponge Bob Squarepants wrist band. Thanks Elicia

Worst Player goes to Carye Bye, that's me, who had plently of time to practice for her event, but did not.

4 out of 8 were new to PP/Shift events. Hooray!

Photos soon I hope!

-Carye

Report: Hash Ride

Reported by Jim:

We had about 25 of portland's most fun riders band together to chase the hares last night. After about an hour of dead-ends, mindless hills and loops, we ended up at the park for some snacks. The snack kitty was refilled (thanks!) and next month's hash has a participant list waiting to go! wheee!

1 rider happened upon us at the start and stayed for the whole event.

See you next month! longer faster harder!
--Jim

Report: Shortest Night of the Year Ride

26 traversed mt tabor

12 rode the springwater

10 climbed powell butte, listened to the guitar and harrmonica sounds of Ali; ate tasty pasta al pest and drank champagne

9 saw the sunrise at 5:30

8 are riding home on MAX right now

the shortest night of the year ride has been the longest of Pedalpalooza, lasting from 21:54 to 06:00.

Report: Framebuilding workshop

60+ eager bike lovers descended upon a non-descript garage door near 38th and Belmont to get a glimpse at the magic of framebuilding from Sacha White, master craftsman of Vanilla Bicycles. Their wait was rewarded with compelling, behind-the-scenes information and cold PBR and Hansens (Vanilla Cola flavor of course).

The crowds were thick so Sacha and Ben ferried crowds of 10-15 at a time through the tour.

Sacha explained the intricacies of turning cold, hard, steel tubing into smooth, gorgeous, functional bicycles that are truly custom. I think it's great to know that in this day and age, there are still guys like Sacha...dedicated to his craft and good enough to do it full time (he's got a 1 year backlog).

Check out my Vanilla Workshop Slide Show!

Ride report: Museums & Collections Tour I

Museums & Collections Tour I

10 enthusastic people for a mid-day Friday bike tour that came after Breakfast on the Bridges and Before the Bike Kiss-In.

Highlight: Running into Elvis

Details:
We met at Old Town Pizza, a few came early to eat lunch. Everyone was made to wear a sticker saying "I collect _____". One person collected Ugly Sweaters, another PeeWee Herman, and another antidotes, and we even had another local online museum director who collects BMX Bikes (200 or so) and has created an online BMX Bike Museum.

From there we walked to our first three locations: Oregon Jewish Museum, Nikkei (Japanese-American) Center, and Hobo's where tours for the Shangai Tunnels start on weeken eves. Then we biked to the Jeff Morris Fire Museum & Oregon Maritime Museum near the waterfront.

We continued the tour to SW Oak & 9th to visit the studio of my Bathtub Art Museum. Our 10 people +1 other guy squeezed into the elevator up to the fourth floor. In studio 405 I gushed enthusastically about my collection and museum surrounded by bathtub artifacts.

Then we stopped by Powell's Books to admire a collection of WEIRD BOOKS - "Baby Bear Squish You Flat: is still my favorite.

We continued the tour by stopping at the location of the first of the ONCE WERE museums: 24 Hour Church of Elvis. And here an amazing thing happened. Who happens to be walking past the former museum spot but ELVIS himself! Elvis the Saturday Market Impersonator that is, who also used to work at the museum!!! Half the group knew him so we asked him questions and learned about his current wrestling nights.

Then we checked out Powells Tech Book Computer Museum before stopping by the once was Old Town History Project (perhaps it just moved??) and once was American Adverstising Museum and learned the lesson that Small museums can come and go - so don't delay in visiting one.

The tour ended at Ground Kontrol, which I consider a "working museum" of wonderful 80s arcade games, Q-Bert being my favorite. Sadly I was late to get ready for the next event, so I left my tour there, but luckily later that night, Pez's Pub crawl went to Ground Kontrol too, so I got my Q-Bert fix after all (Supreme Noser of course).

• Thanks to Jonathan for taking pics
• Thanks to Timo & Santa Cruz Jeff for doing some last minute pre-checking for me and bringing their Church of Elvis souvenirs
• Thanks to Jeff for talking about his experiences at two once were museums
• Thanks to Elvis for happening to walk by exactly when we needed him.
• And thanks to a great group. Your enthusiasm and interest made the tour a success. The weather was nice too.

Ride report: Father's Day Trailer Kids Park Tour

Reported by Patrick:

Five adults and four kids (one tag-along, one bike mounted child seat, and two burley trailers) participated in the third annual TKPT. We left Wilshire Park at noon and rode to St. John's (by way of the Going Street bike/pedestrian bridge) to Columbia Park. Columbia Park was a new park for the whole group and we discovered (in the old northern section) a lovely old-growth, old fashioned park with high swings and lots of play structures. Around 3:00 we returned to the Alberta District and had some ice cream (at the place by La Sirenita). Eleven miles round trip.

Report: Bike Scavenger Hunt

Total partcipants: 74!

from David Ross:
Check the report and photos on his blog.

from Carye Bye:

Kudos to David for putting on a really fun event!! I loved biking all over Portland on a lovely sunny Saturday looking for clues mostly to do with local murals, & public art. In the group I joined up with there was a French Aupair/ nanny who had just arrived a week ago, and with the ride taking us all around SE, Waterfront, Riverplace, Downtown, The Pearl, Laurelhurst, and Hollywood -- she had a fabulous introduction to Portland by Bike. And I was reminded that I have truely become a bike commuter in this town because I could easily decide how to get across town in the quickest, and most bikeable way.

Thanks again David (Ross) for making this event happen!

Report: Heritage Tree Ride

Riders: 33

As reported by Emily:

We had wonderful weather for this ride this afternoon. 33 people were there at the start including a gaggle of kids a few people from my previous tours and lots of first timers, both to Heritage Trees and Bikes. Many thanks to Jeff Bernards and Shawn Granton for help with counts, corking and that group photo!

We truly did have a liesurely ride through the neighborhood and got to see all the trees in full folliage. We were able to see the distinctive bracts of the American Hop Hornbeam for which it is named and we had the bonus of a beautiful flowering Northern Catalpa which was not a Heritage Tree (yet).

One of the Neighborhood Tree Liasons for Irvington, who is also an arborist, came along on his red Schwinn Corvette and spontaneously offered a bonus walk of the distinctive trees in Laurelhurst park at the end of the tour!

A good time was had by all.

Click here to see Deepak Saxena's images.

Event report: Clown House Circus!

Went to the clown house last night. It was lots of fun. Didn't stay too late cuz I had a 2 year old and a neighbor kid whose parents had no idea where I'd taken her...and we were on bikes without lights.

BUT, we stayed long enough to enjoy:

• mud wrastlin'
• flaming spool walking
• lightbulb eating demonstration
• original songs by Dingo the Clown and his cute sidekick (forgot her name but she was from Texaco...err, um, I mean Texas)
• fire twirling
• fire rescue by the clown house firefighters
• general mayhem

I'm sure things got much more interesting after I left. Anyone have more photos or reports to share? I'd love to see some photos of the bike jousting. Feel free to email me or post to the Shift list.

Check the Clown House Slide Show!