BIKES—A yearly showcase of the city’s best handmade bikes has now morphed into a showcase of the city’s best handmade bikes, plus bike-themed local beer, and local bands. We hemmed and hawed—has the Handmade Bike and Beer Festival delved too deeply into Portland’s self-congratulatory obsessions?—before deciding that it sounds awesome. DIRK VANDERHARTHopworks Urban Brewery, 2944 […]
Bikes
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It’s Happening Tonight!
BIKES/PETS—This town has scads of organized charity rides, but only the Tour de Lab, put on yearly by Lucky Labrador Brewing, is bringing the “pets” heat that earns a vaunted Busy Week nod. Pick a challenging 41-mile course or a timid 18-miler, drink free beer, eat hotdogs, and support nonprofit animal hospital DoveLewis at the […]
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Burn! Bicycling Kicks Portland Down to Its Fourth-Best Bike City
Michael Andersen I have no idea why I subscribe to Bicycling magazine. It’s obsessed with a road-cycling culture I could not be less interested in, it’s endlessly repetitive, and it’s stodgy. But I hesitate every time I consider canceling, and I flip through every single issue. They sent a new one today, and it’s got […]
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No Joy in Mudville—Seattle Has Won the Oregon Manifest
In what might be considered a worst-case scenario, gloating and haughty Seattle has won that bike design competition we mentioned last week. Worse than that, Seattle deserved to win. The bike produced by design firm Teague and Sizemore Bicycle looks sort of funny, but it also sported by far the most inventive feature in this […]
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Did Portland Just Produce the Ultimate Urban Bicycle, or Get Schooled By Four More-Urban Cities?
As we mentioned on Friday, the Portland-based squad that’s been laboring for months to conceive the ultimate city bike unveiled their hard work. Check it out: (Here are better pictures from Jonathan over at BikePortland, since he has a fancy camera and an actual interest in photography.) Christened the “Solid”, this fleet titanium beauty is […]
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Come Check Out Portland’s Answer to the Ultimate Urban Bike Tonight
As we mentioned in March, Oregon Manifest has returned after a years-long hiatus. Back in 2011, the competition produced more than 30 entrants, all with their own takes on the most bad-ass urban utility bike imaginable—a bike with the blingy bells and convenient whistles that could inspire fence-sitting car commuters to tumble off that stubborn […]
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Washington Post Columnist Calls Bicyclists “Bullies,” Makes Joke About Hitting Them with Cars
Take heed, automobile enthusiasts! Car drivers in other parts of the country are being crushed beneath the bootheels of bicyclists in a terrifying War on Cars, too. In a piece headlined “Bicyclist bullies try to rule the road in D.C.,” Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy delineated the lengths to which those bicycle bullies will go […]
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PBOT Has Pulled Its Questionable Application for More Bike Share Funding
Remember in November, when the Portland Bureau of Transportation applied for $2 million in state lottery funds to help pay for a theoretical expansion of the city’s theoretical bike share system? The application [PDF] included a bold claim, which has since proven objectively false: That Portland had already found roughly $5.5 million in sponsorships to […]
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Don’t Miss the Naked Bike Ride After-Party… TONIGHT!
Hey, are you attending tonight’s World Naked Bike Ride? Then, trust me—you are going to be AMPED afterwards, and ready to party! That’s why you shouldn’t miss the OFFICIAL World Naked Bike Ride afterparty sponsored by the Mercury and 10 Barrel Brewing. It starts immediately after the ride at 2410 N. Mississippi, and will feature […]
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Friday’s Pedalpalooza Events
Dirk VanderHart Kickoff Ride 2014 The Pedalpalooza Kickoff Ride yesterday was massive, winding through SE and NE from Colonel Summers Park to Velo Cult. My favorite part: That the parade made its way up SE and NE 28th, past the same businesses who’ve opposed a new bike lane. And I remembered how deeply conflicted I […]
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Pedalpalooza Begins! Here Are Today’s Events
illustration by Leo Zarosinski The official Pedalpalooza kickoff ride begins at 7 pm, but you needn’t wait until this evening to get things started. Your first actual opportunity to participate in this year’s Pedalpalooza? Drinking with a stranger—probably illegally—on the Eastbank Esplanade. (The Mercury doesn’t necessarily endorse any individual event, by the way.) Before you […]
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A Call to Arms
Our Annual Bike Issue, and Two Sides of the Coin
It’s our annual Bike Issue!