This past weekend I found myself in Portland. Technically this was the third time I was in town, but the first two times were at the end of the Seattle to Portland ride, and both times I was there for less than an hour before being driven back to Seattle. This was the first time that I had time to explore a bit.
One of the first sights was this sign at the airport.
Bike share
The bike share system is 100% e-bike. It requires that you download both the Biketown app, and the Lyft app. The bikes themselves are scattered about the downtown area either at an official station like this:
or you can drop off or pick up at any bike rack. However there are additional charges associated with picking up or dropping off away from one of the orange stations.
Open either app, scan a QR code, and then you can unlock the bike.
A locked bike.
After you unlock the bike, you stow the short cable like this and off you go.
The bikes themselves are tanks with wide 26″ wheels, but the weight really isn’t much of a factor since they are electric.
A bad picture of the rear nuvinci hub.
Bafang motor in the front.
I thought that this control on the right was for throttle, but it was just for the Nuvinci hub. The assist is pedal actuated.
Overall, they worked really well. One quirk is that you have to use the app to see the battery level, and you only get to see the battery level (in terms of an estimated range remaining) once you unlock a bike, but if it is low, you can immediately relock a bike without charge.
River City Bicycles
Although Portland has many bike shops, I wanted to visit River City Bicycles because I had one of their wool jerseys that I bought off of eBay about 20 years ago when I still lived in Michigan.
Lots of good stuff to look at.
Many interesting bikes hung from the ceiling. Here is a Teledyne Titan, one of the first production Ti bikes.
An Exxon Graftek, one of the first carbon fibre frames.
A Rigi, which has two thin tubs for the lower part of the seat tube so that the rear tire can overlap where a normal seat tube would be. Hence the super short wheelbase.
The highlight was a Naked Bicycles Baba Ghanoush by Sam Whittingham, a variation of the bike that won best of show at the National Handmade Bike Show. The original was a one speed.
I couldn’t leave empty handed. They were clearing out the last of their wool jerseys with the stripes (I already had the short sleeve version). I also got their current jersey with 40% wool content made locally by Anthm Collective.
If you’re in the area, you might as well have a meal at Afuri Izakaya.
Robata-yaki i,e, grilled stuff.
Bike infrastructure
A quick glance of downtown with the bike routes toggled on Google Maps shows a pretty dense network of bike routes. That combined with very courteous drivers made biking around town a pleasure. Also, many of the bridges across the Willamette had bike bikes. Take a look at this spiral off ramp for cyclists and pedestrians on the east side of the Morrison Bridge.
Riding north on the east bank, part of the route is a pontoon bridge.
Heading west on the Burnside Bridge.
I’ve never seen a passing bike lane before (headed west on the Hawthorne Bridge).
Liking this bridge over the 405.
Beyond the intersection, you can see that this one way street has parking on both sides, one car lane, and one bike lane of equal width. Amazing.
Sadly, there are a large number of homeless encampments, especially in the Old Town area.
The perpetual line at Voodoo donuts.
and just across the street is this famous sign.
which I first saw in this video.
A fun couple of days in Portland. I’ll have to go back when I have the chance.
Thanks for visiting, and glad you enjoyed it! Dang, wish I knew you were in town, we could have possibly done coffee/beer or the like.
I’ll keep it in mind for the next time.
Looks like you had a great weekend !! Your jerseys are jealousy making. We spent 5 days in Portland about 8 years ago, and loved every minute, but failed to bike. You have definitely inspired another trip!!
Love all the pics of the cycling infrastructure! I want bike passing lanes in Toronto!