Features
-
Truths of Year-Round Commuting
By Stephanie Noll, Deputy Director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance National Bike Month in May corresponds with the time of year when I feel like everyone in Portland is moaning, “It’s still raining!” So with approximately two more months of intermittent rain ahead before the magical sunny summertime arrives, I’d like to share: My top 10 personal truths of year-round bicycle commuting. Read More
-
The Race Across America - Riding the Line Between Endurance, Beauty and Time
By Laura Kindregan & Chad Moore Any athlete preparing for a big event feels the adrenaline rushing, the excitement flowing and the trepidation of the unknown during the months and months of preparation colliding into one race. For athletes competing in The Race Across America (RAAM) Powered by Trane, it is more than just a race, it becomes a part of them forever. Read More
-
Young Phenom from the Northwest Races in Europe ... at age 15!
By Dave Campbell Bicycle racer Sam Rosenberg, who usually sports the colors of Hutch’s Eugene / Slocum / Co-Motion / CLIF Bar from Eugene, Ore., has had quite a spring. The sophomore at Churchill High School scored a top 10 finish at the Junior Cyclocross National Championships in Wisconsin at the beginning of 2013, then went on to win the Dirty Circles Series in Woodland, Wash., over a field of the region’s top category 1/2 Senior men. Read More
-
A Bike Snob Abroad
By Darren Dencklau Eben Weiss, more widely known as BikeSnobNYC, has been putting his satirical brand of humor on the state of cycling culture for quite some time now. What started out as an anonymous blog by some unknown smartass from the big city has become a social phenomenon, and his popularity — much like cycling — has skyrocketed in the past few years. His latest effort, Bike Snob Abroad, is a lot less about categorizing and poking fun at tattooed skintight-jean-wearing fixed gear riders and heavily bearded uber commuters who live and sleep in yellow rain jackets and cheap bike shorts. Read More
-
The “Coffee, Canals and Clerkenwell” Tour of London
By Peter J. Marsh In January of this year, I found myself back in Greenwich, England, where I was born and raised, with my trusty Bike Friday, exploring the streets I last rode in 1972. Since I had lived in the Northwest for 40 years and not visited England for 25 years, London had changed enormously in my absence. So I looked on the web for a local cycling club that might have casual group rides further afield. I found that Greenwich Cyclists were strictly non-competitive with rides every month — the next was billed as a “Twenty-mile jaunt across the River Thames.” That looked interesting because I had never biked much on the north side of the river. Read More
-
New Common Sense Building Features ViaBike Cycle Club
By Darren Dencklau People state numerous reasons for not making the commitment of commuting by bicycle. A lack of bike parking, security, not having a place to change clothes or no shower access are typically high on the list, and rightfully so in some instances. Seattle’s ViaBike Cycle Club is looking to curtail those excuses. Read More
-
May Trivia: The All-Time Greats
By Dave Campbell In the last few years and indeed the last few weeks, we have had the great fortune of witnessing the exploits of riders who are already being counted amongst the all-time greats. Belgian Tom Boonen and Swiss Fabian Cancellara’s achievements in the Northern Classics, Belgian Philippe Gilbert in the Ardennes, and Spaniard Alberto Contador in the Grand Tours all come to mind. Surely young phenom Peter Sagan of Slovokia is already on his way to such status as well. This month’s column celebrates the all-time greats. Oh, and as no one will dispute that Eddy Merckx is the greatest cyclist ever, he is featured in only one question! Read More
-
The History of Head Tube Badges
By Paul Johnson, Classic Cycle Bicycles have personalities. Some bikes develop theirs over miles and miles (like a notched headset that pulls to one side). Sometimes they take on the personal style and behavior of their owners such as the battered and grimy commuter or the sleek racer. Other times a bicycle is born with a personality tattooed to its forehead — a head tube badge. Read More
-
R+E Cycles Turns 40 and Brings Back the E
By Christine Soja Angel Rodriguez and Glenn Erickson weren’t trying to establish a long-run custom bike shop when they banded together in 1973 — they were merely two broke guys with an abundance of hair, trying to make a living doing what they loved and knew how to do — fix bikes. Current owner, Dan Towle, had no idea he would one day own and run R+E Cycles when he first came to work there in 1987, but it’s easy to see how it happened. Read More
Opinions
-
Taking the Time Machine for a Spin
By Joe Kurmaskie For those who know me, the mantra “It’s Always A Good Day To Ride,” isn’t just a cool catchphrase of mine, it’s a way of life. Having made the voluntary choice of weekend-only access to a car, it’s also, at times, a harsh reality. Wind, rain, sleet, hail, sleety/hail, sideways rain, it doesn’t matter and it doesn’t last. Eventually, and more often than outsiders would believe, the Pacific Northwest gives up its seasonal riches and you find yourself trekking the boys to school through a sunrise masterpiece worthy of a roped off area in an art museum. Read More
-
Gios 3
By Maynard Hershon When we left the Gios build saga, I had found many of the components I needed and assembled some of them on the vivid blue frame. I decided to use the wheels that had been on my Rivendell for years, gray Mavic rims spoked to old Shimano 600 (predecessor to Ultegra) hubs. If the hubs and rims are newer than the (1984) frame, they’re not much newer. Read More
-
The Mean Streets Of Springtime
Winter commuting by bicycle: cold, wet, quiet mornings, just the sound of water slicking the fenders and one or more of my sons sniffling back a runny nose and asking me, from the back of the bike, about why only some of the geese have flown south by January. Sometimes the ride feels like that scene from Twelve Monkeys, when the Bruce Willis character comes up to the surface and finds snow and silence. There are still clashes between cars and riders trying to share the road, but winter seems to lower the frequency and intensity. Read More
-
Gios Blue — Part 2
By Maynard Hershon When we parted an issue ago, I’d been given a Gios Torino frame and fork, made of steel in Turin, Italy, in 1984. I had a few parts, none that especially delighted me. I’d at first thought that the frame was too small, but soon I decided it would be fine after all, given thoughtful bar and stem choices. I began looking for parts to make the frame into a bicycle. In doing so, in winning and losing bidding wars on eBay, in buying stuff I couldn’t win, and in reaching out to friends for items they no longer used, I learned a buncha lessons — and had a buncha fun. Read More
-
To Live and Die ... in the Saddle
By Joe Kurmaskie Fitting that I was on my bicycle when I got the news that Peter and Mary were gone. Their deaths reached me through a fellow cyclist in one of those 30-second, on the fly exchanges our community is famous for — a bit like insects transmitting information by rubbing antennas as they pass. This friend dropped in on my left, he was riding his Trek Madrone off to some sunrise group ride, sparking a moment of envy in what remains of my hardcore rider DNA. Read More
-
Gios Blue
By Maynard Hershon Thirty years ago a couple of prominent European teams rode Gios bikes. I admired the riders and how good they looked on those purplish-blue bicycles. In the late ‘70s in New England I met a young racer from Lubbock Texas, David Mayer-Oakes, who also looked great on his Gios-blue Gios. So in 2000, when I ordered my Rivendell, I asked for Gios blue paint. Star bike-finisher Joe Bell found a paint shade as close to Gios blue as you could ever want. Great color. Read More
-
Or Worse
By Maynard Hershon I’m riding south on the paved Platte River bike trail, heading up a short hill, looking ahead to the blind left-hand turn at the top. A guy coming toward me rounds the corner going way too fast. He sees me, realizes suddenly that he’s not going to make it around the corner, and yells, “Sorry!” The instant I see him, I figure that when he sees he’s not gonna make the turn, he’ll grab at one or both brakes, lock a wheel and slide out, directly under my front wheel. Read More
-
Helping Out While Wearing Tweed
By Joe Kurmaskie Sign of the times: the indication for setting my bottles and cans outside for recycling day was three deep when I came out of the house. This being Portland, though, the trio of homeless gents rode brand name bicycles; one was smoking American Spirit cigarettes. They had evidently worked out a system to divvy the spoils. It brought to mind the advice of an Episcopalian minister just before he was transferred to Montana by the uptight Florida congregation of my childhood - his downfall had something to do with bringing a bad element to the doorstep of our WASPy enclave in the name of charity. Read More
-
Defensive Riding
By Maynard Hershon I’m riding with two guys, one I’ve ridden with previously named Dan, the other a thirty-ish dude neither of us had met. We’ll call him Will. We ride down one Denver bike path to another, this one headed west toward Morrison and the foothills. I sit at the back at first, half a bike length behind Dan, Will behind me. At some point on the bike path, we pass a few other riders. Will finds himself in front of Dan and I. Read More
