Tag: 2014

Jan 18 2015 January 18, 2015 January 18, 2015 NoComment by bikeleptic

New Bike Day: 2014 Salsa Fargo Ti

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Sometimes I wish that, like drugs, you could only buy bikes with cash. If you are naive to this or know differently then you, my friend, have much different worldly experience than I do.

My neurologist called me a couple days ago with some blood test results I had taken the other morning and in his words, my vitamin D is “crazy low.” Like so low that over-the-counter vitamins won’t help. So he went ahead and called in a prescription for a once a week dosage with the intention of testing my blood again in a few weeks. Apparently normal vitamin D range is between 25 – 80ng/ml. Anything 10 – 25ng/ml is considered low and something that should get checked out and maintained. I scored a whopping 9.3ng/ml.

Totally makes sense. The last couple of months have been a whirl of general malaise, lethargy, cognitive haziness (moreso than usual), fatigue, muscle aches, tummy issues and more. . . I deal with a lot of this stuff in general and have been having more intensified seizures lately so figured whatever. . . I was just going through another bumpy patch in my body’s deterioration. Well, turns out this might be totally fixable.

In my Vitamin D deficiency daze, I get a text message while I’m at work regarding three XS 2014 Salsa Fargo Tis that were being priced to move. It made me sick to think about because I am a very meticulous person when it comes to things like this. I mean, it’s been over a year and I still don’t have my touring bike built! I budget and make spreadsheets. . . but then I went over and looked at this thing in person.

Shit.

20150117 - BYK - Fargo TiDT Swiss hubs, Stans, carbon fork, SRAM. Shit. I did make a minor change from just “out-of-the-box” and put some Fizik metallic blue bar tape on it to match the dark blue of the powdercoating. Matchy-matchy. I can not express to you how much I loathe cork bar wrap. It rains so much in the Pacific Northwest, and do you know what happens to cork when it gets wet?

It gets slimy. So fucking slimy. And for someone that has texture issues similar to Aspergers it’s not even funny. It’s like that fucking green gel on rocks at the beach. That’s what wet cork rubbing against wet gloves, rubbing against clammy hands reminds me of – why do people expose themselves to that?

Anyway. . . I need to get a different saddle, but that’s going to be a “Princess and a Pea” situation. . . or “Cinderella“. You know. Some story involving something that you can’t get to work just right. The saddle that comes stock with it; the WTB “Pure” is like riding on a davenport. I want something that is narrow (and without a whale tail), but because I want to use this bike primarily for bikepacking and trail riding I want a little cushion for the pushin’.

Sooooo. Did I suddenly win the lottery?

No. By the way, it’s my own business what I do with my money. However, I did mention that these bikes were priced to sell, and I did have to make my decision right then and there. It was definitely an impulse buy. All three bikes were gone within 12 hours of being put on the shop’s website. (And it was local pickup only so we could, you know – start a tiny person Fargo Ti club.)

What makes this bike different than the Kinn is that I feel that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Kind of like bike-packing. Just getting off the main road and throwing on some frame packs and going. It was impulsive, but then so are some of the decisions you have to make when you’re on the trails. Sometimes you just have to go for it.

The Kinn, on the other hand is like a well-planned out vacation. It’s well calculated and planned out to the very last detail. They definitely serve different purposes.

(Also, I have an Ibis coming. And have set up a vague trail day with my friends for when that happens. 2015 is the year of bikeaholic Halley. Every time I think about it, my heart races and my eyes dilate. I start to feel the adrenaline and anxiety. Am I in love? With cycling?)

For all these reasons, I have named my Fargo; чемпиона мира. [Chempiona Mira] – it means “Champion of the World” in Russian. (Oh yeah, I speak Russian by the way.) However, in Russian the word for world also is the word for peace which makes me think of the quote by Ghandi; “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I am also reminded of the Spanish word for “look, see” or “to watch”  which is the verb “mirar.” (I”m taking Spanish classes right now.) I just think it’s so apropos to have a name that is so multi-faceted about seeing the world and also about self-empowerment.

Also, people that don’t name their bikes are weird.

I can’t wait until I get some of this bike paid off so I can afford some frame bags and bling.


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Nov 22 2014 November 22, 2014 August 13, 2016 NoComment by bikeleptic

Event Recap – 2nd Annual Cranksgiving

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Last year I helped my friends Laura and Tom organize this cool event I had never heard of called Cranksgiving. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a scavenger hunt that happens in cities across the nation where groups of cyclists gather food items for a non-profit.

Here in Portland, our non-profit for the second year running is Outside In. Their organization works with homeless and at-risk youth. We think that it’s a fucking tragedy that kids go hungry in this country, so we are doing our part to ensure that some pretty cool kids can have an awesome Thanksgiving. Not to mention Dave’s Killer Bread upped their donation from last year and ensued some gluteny goodness all freaking year long for these kids.

I got an email a few weeks ago from Tom saying that he would love to having me back again with my donation barrel. I jumped on the opportunity and borrowed a barrel from work. The agency that I work for supports over 9000 men and women a year in many different capacities. We have a day center which participants can get showers, clothing, toiletries, haircuts, nursing services, TB tests and much more. We also have two short-term residential facilities for men and one for women where a person experiencing homelessness can stay for up to 4 months while working with a housing case manager, attending classes, workshops and work with someone like me; a life skills coordinator who helps them with employment, volunteer and education opportunities while they address their barriers to housing.

I kinda went rogue and while representing the agency, I wasn’t technically on company time or anything. But it’s about professionalism and all that shit. So, smiles and stats and best practices! And with that I was able to take away 2.5 bags of coats, hats and gloves which some folks are going to be stoked to have this winter! So thanks everyone!

So I found myself at Cranksgiving with over 100 riders (making up 31 teams)! It was pretty awesome to say the least. I got to hand out flyers about our women’s shelter and network with a lot of really cool cats regarding donation opportunities.

2pm hits and the race is ready to go. The weather had been raining off and on throughout the day, and from what I heard in the warmth of Velocult was that the riders got caught in some torrential downpour. I drank two pots of hot herbal tea.

It was difficult to move in the venue with everyone crammed in there all costumed up, many having brought their bikes in with them. I’m really glad the fire marshal didn’t show up. It was kind of spectacular. Though, I wasn’t involved with the registration process, it seemed as if it went pretty smoothly from where I was stationed with my barrel. Because I had some notion of what was going on, I was able to direct those that needed assistance to where they needed to go, so that was cool. . . and probably helpful.

While we unfortunately didn’t get anyone join us this year, there were five different “Today Show” teams that joined 5 of the 70+ rides happening across the US and they did a segment on the history and what it’s all about. So that was freaking cool. You can view it here.

 Here is the full report from Puddlecycle laying out all the epic details and stats. What I do have to say is that the riders brought back almost $1900 in food and supplies. That’s about $400 more than last year! (basic math for the win!)

It all happened so fast, I couldn’t get a non-blurry photo of “Team Wish Upon a Bone”

The first team back made it in less than 1 hour. Seriously, it was like 50 minutes. These dudes were flying. I have no idea how they made it about 12 miles in that amount of time. I’m winded even lifting my bike off the storage hook. And it was rainy, remember. I ride slow in the rain. I tucker down and grit my teeth. But they just sucked it up and flew.

Quickly behind them was Team “Muscles with Brussels.” They were scrambling in the backdoor within minutes. Many members of this team were on the old cyclocross racing team, Team Slow – but they were showing their swiftness with that kind of finish.

There was so much selflessness that happened today. While the entry fee was $10 a person, which went directly to the purchase of food, teams went above and beyond. Bikes for Humanity PDX even donated 9 bikes and 9 mechanic courses valued at $1800 total. Rock on!

So many amazing people made this event happen. I’m not going to attempt to name all of them, but this is about half of them. There you go!

I hope everyone had an absolutely amazing Cranksgiving and that they have a fabulous Thanksgiving. If you need help thinking of things to donate to your local homeless shelter, you can check out my guide.


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Oct 04 2014 October 4, 2014 August 13, 2016 NoComment by bikeleptic

Event Report: ARTCRANK Portland 2014

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Every fall I look forward to attending ARTCRANK. For those of you unfamiliar with this event, it is a poster art show and sale for bikey people. Each year it happens in over a dozen different cities in the United States and Europe, and in each city about 30 different local artists contribute their art to the event.

So that’s the thing; going to the Portland event, we’re going to see local Portland artists. And many of these pieces are special run that you can only get at the event. There was one piece last year out of San Francisco that I happened to see on the “Sneak Preview” images and loved the preview shots so much that I tracked down the artist in the Bay area and was able to order a print and have it shipped up to me. . .

But that’s not how it’s supposed to work.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of good things to say about this evening. This year the event was held at Velocult, which has been undergoing a lot of remodeling. It was really cool to see all the improvements they’ve been making on the interior, what with their new shelving and such. However, even with their substantial floor space, and moving their merchandise out of the way, where the poster viewing was set up, was over-crowded, cramped and shoved to the side. I feel that if they had run the posters all along the back of the shop, it would have made it much more open and allowed for more flow to the space, allowing the vendors to remain in the middle where they were and in the midst of all the activity.

The posters themselves? I can definitely appreciate the professionalism that went into them. These people were definitely artists that created them. And of course this is all opinion and objective; but I felt like the pieces were completely uninspired. There was a couple pieces that I thought were OK but there was nothing there that jumped out that I wanted to actually buy. And the thing is that I went there, out of my way, to actually buy something! I was planning on buying a poster! So it was really disappointing that not only was there nothing there, but it was really an uninviting environment to view the pieces and we ended up leaving after about 10 minutes.

I realized that environment can only be controlled so much, however, I am very familiar with event planning and layout of space. And it was just wrong. The only saving grace was that it was at a bar so the people that were planning this year’s program didn’t have to obtain an alcohol permit or get kegs like last year. But you couldn’t get to the bar to even order anything because it was so crowded.

Hell, I even have a souvenir pint glass that I got from a previous year and had to pay for. This year, their swag wasn’t anything new or special. Same shirts. Same clif bars. Same keychains. They need new sponsors and shit, too.

Like I said, there was nothing inherently wrong with the art, I just couldn’t be inspired by these pieces. I still can respect the time the artists took on them, the energy and skill. For that reason I’m including a list of the artist because there were some really excellent local artists represented there tonight and I wish them the best of luck.

Poster Preview of Doug Merritt’s 2014 piece

  • Andrea Capp
  • Andrew Lockhart
  • Blaine Fontana
  • Cat Cheng
  • daria tessler
  • Darren Cools
  • David Rice
  • Doug Merritt
  • Elizabeth Bisegna
  • Epiphany Couch
  • Eric R. Mortenson
  • Ethan Allan Smith
  • Glitschka Studios
  • Iron Canvas Studios
  • Jason Miranda
  • jenn levo
  • Jennifer Parks
  • Jeremy Pettis
  • Juliana Nagan
  • Kevin M. Fitzgerald
  • Leo Zarozinski
  • Mairwen Eslinger
  • Mandy Grotie
  • Oscar Woodruff
  • Paste In Place
  • Pete Ellison
  • Scott Agrimson
  • The Make House
  • Zach Minard


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Jul 01 2014 July 1, 2014 August 4, 2016 NoComment by bikeleptic

Event Report: The Bike Fair

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This last Saturday, June 28th was the last day of Pedalpalooza! For those of you not from Portland or not “in the know” that is a 3 weekish long bike event that usually has up to almost 300 layman-led bike rides/events. Is that the right way to say that? Anyone can put a ride on the calendar! It always starts with the Kickoff Ride and ends with the Multnomah County Bike Fair. This year we have re-branded it is simply “The Bike Fair” for a variety of reasons. For one, Pedalpalooza actually isn’t “countyist.” (Get it? It’s a joke. Like being racist. Come on people.) Some rides will go into all of the tri-county area. And that’s awesome. Let’s not limit ourselves! Also, it’s kind of stuffy. While that’s what we’ve called it for something like 10 years and it brings the idea of carnivals and funnel cakes, the re-branding gives it a breath of fresh air. To accompany this one of the organizers; Ashley Thirtyseven created a woodcut and created the most beautifully serene poster. Unfortunately at the event she was injured and, such a trooper (I of all people can understand her pain, was like that for the following two days) was directing from a chair. Even if I had to remind her to go back to the chair sometimes.

Skipping ahead a moment because I love this woodblock design so much. Ashley and our other organizers (whom I will name throughout the article) did an amazing job. The poster was then designed I believe I recall by Mike & Sonja of Bike Punk Design. What then happened towards the end of the event was magic. Mike & Sonja have a 3D printer. They made a cut-out of the tree/bike and attached it to a hammered copper display and presented it to Ashley. I tried to get a photo but was shooed away.

I meant to show up about noonish to help set up but was having sound system issues. I didn’t know how spread out the site was going to be this year. Sometimes when the venue is more spread out it’s good to have music in your booth if you can’t hear the main stage. Awkward silence is well. . . awkward. I like to jam out if I’m gonna be jamming out all day. Soooo, I didn’t get there until a little before 2pm. Thankfully the event starts at 2pm and usually it’s not so busy right at the start. Also it starts sprinkling. I actually stopped riding on the way to Col Summers Park from my place and pulled out my rain jacket. Which is silly since I was wearing bootie shorts and tights, but better to not be completely soaked, right? I also stopped right BEFORE I got there to put my rain jacket away because the rain had stopped, crank up the tunes and pull out my cowboy hat. Gotta arrive in style.

Me = Showboat.

It was glorious. The last couple of years had been great and fine and everything, but the location were not that official. It’s more of a hassle to have beer (thanks to fabulous Hopworks Urban Brewery) and deal with OLCC, checking IDs, fencing and all that. But all in all, on a personal opinion – and coming from a background of marketing to demographics; we had several food vendors and other vendors. I think we could have attracted more. When we show our successes from this year, I think that next year will be even bigger. I feel that maybe vendors may have been reluctant to commit to the event because of our last couple of years in being in an unofficial capacity but will be more likely to get on board with us in the future.

And about 2:30 the monsoon arrived. Thankfully everything as far as I could tell had been set up for the most part and not many guests had arrived yet. Those that were there dived under all the pop-up tents regardless if you were part of that bike club or business. It was a forced “get to know the people you are sharing a tent with” bonding exercise. And while the rain only really lasted about 10 – 15 minutes, it was a really cool moment where you got to chat with people that you knew and some people that you didn’t know. All activities stopped and nothing seemed quite so urgent for that moment. And when it stopped we all went back to the tasks that needed to be finished.

Then it got hot. It was already kind of warm, but now to add wet in the mix, it became muggy.

Thank goodness I wore like three different outfit combinations in anticipation for the day. I was planning on being backup relief for the Beer Czar, Kahlil who was a rockstar to our volunteers at the beer station. I was mostly heading up the Shift swag booth selling some fantastic 2014 Pedalpalooza shirts as well as some from years past. The Bike Fair is really your only chance to get them. We don’t sell them online and maybe at one or two other events throughout the year so they’re super rare!

I knew I wasn’t going to joust this year. My back has been hurting too much recently and the last couple times I’ve jousted have either ended up really hurting myself or really good. Plus, I no longer have any gear and borrowing a helmet and padding doesn’t always end well. Here’s a flickr set from my 2012 1st joust.

But Sysfail, the DJ called for “Tall Bike Ring Toss” for an event. Two riders tossing as many tires as they can onto cones within 2 minutes? No chance of combat? I was totally in on that. And I did well, too. While waiting, I stripped down of my Black Star belt pouch and cowboy hat so I’d be more streamlined. Then I realized that I would be going up against Carl who was wearing a pink cowboy hat. My hat went back on. If you’re going to have a showdown you gotta do it right. Carl was one of my co-organizers (and friend) from the WNBR. He also helped out with the Bike Fair and has been a long-time bikey person of note. He’s also a big fat cheater.

We ended up tying on the first round and so we had to face off for a 2nd face-off. Immediately instead of, as the name of the game describes, toss, Carl proceeded drop his entire tire load off at a cone and then hurried to the other cone and tall-bike block me! Not full contact, my ass! I hurled a tire at him. Needless to say, he ended up winning the coveted pink money sign glasses, but it was close. I think I ended up losing by 3 points.

They also had a “Slow Race,” which in the last person to cross the finish line without going backwards or sideways wins. A bike limbo, “bunny hop” competition, tall bike jousting, pie jousting and more!

BikePortland wrote about it here. BP also wrote a special article because it happened to be the Sprockettes 10th anniversary. It was super cool because they had a lot of retired members come and perform or just show up to support them. Jonathan’s wife used to perform with them and he now has two daughters whom I assume go to their summer camps. Because you know, Girl Power!

I also found a great photo article on the Dingo Dizmal blog. I didn’t even see him taking photos. I assume Olive was because he was MCing for a great deal of the day. If you don’t know who are these dynamic duo are; they’re a fantastic clowning tall-bike couple. They do weekly public kid groups but also are available for birthday parties to make balloon animals and paint faces, etc.

All in all it ended up being a fantastic day. Weather ended up being super warm. Tons of people. Great events. Great vendors. Highly successful from my perspective and super thrilled to be back at Col Summers Park.


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Jun 09 2014 June 9, 2014 August 4, 2016 NoComment by bikeleptic

WNBR Portland 2014 Exposed

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It’s finally over. As I sit here Monday morning, still exhausted from a long weekend, achy joints and stiff back I can be satisfied in that one fact. It’s not that I hate it – far from it! I absolutely LOVE WNBR and this year will mark my sixth year on the volunteer organizer commitee – it’s more like that long pause in between planning for next year. I walked to work bleary eyed on Sunday morning with a wonderful thought that I had planned out my month wonderfully and everything was lining up very neatly in my schedule planning. This event ending so I can enjoy Pedalpalooza and finish tying up the loose ends of my tiny event and then focus on finishing the planning of The Bike Fair at the end of the month.

WNBR doesn’t really start on June 7th. Far from it. In fact the organizers generally meet sometime midsummer to talk about the successes and struggles of the current year’s event. Painstakingly go over video footage of the event to get the best estimate we can of participants and prepare for late summer’s volunteer appreciation party. That’s right – we have a big ol’ hoopla to celebrate the dozens of great people that give their time to to help make this happen before, during and after the ride. Volunteering is a great way to give back to the event and it can include everything from fundraising, crowd control, on-ride medic, marshal, mechanic, picking up trash, set-up/take-down and more. Most of the volunteer positions allow you to still actually participate in the ride.

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Photo By Jonathan Maus

I want to give a shout-out to so many volunteers. I apologize that I didn’t get most of your names. Specifically at the beginning of the ride, we had a new position this year; our “Gate Keepers!” These were a team that Timur and I headed up that widened the exit from the park and kept spectators from stepping out into the street. This group of about six people stood holding police line (I actually think it was ‘danger asbesto’ tape) to gently hold people back and firmly tell people to keep up on the sidewalk so the riders to get through. You are all awesome for being out on the front line! Thank you!

Special thanks to a volunteer named Luna who was the ONLY volunteer to stay after the ride left to assist with garbage pick-up duty. Unfortunately she was unable to participate in the ride due to a knee issue. But I got to benefit with her help. Yay me! She, a (probably bored) security officer and I together broke down our volunteer station and then began gathering the garbage and recycling before a couple of the other organizers and volunteers came back from enjoying the ride to assist. We got the site cleaned up, made a final round and I was on my bike with trailer hitched to leave by 11:20pm. Then a second group a volunteers came by early the next morning to do a second cleaning sweep by the light of day. I was happily informed that it looked great and as usual.

So what about the planning process? The sooner the better is the optimum thought here. In fact there is already a bullet point list flying about outlining to-do lists and things like that. Just because we are volunteers doesn’t mean we are amateurs when it comes to event planning. Many of the organizers have backgrounds in event planning, media, marketing, volunteer coordinating and all sorts of varied backgrounds which make this event great. We try to start meet up in the fall once a month, communicating a lot by email and then as it becomes closer to the event meeting more often to ensure that all our bases our covered.

And that finally brings us to Saturday morning. I took the day off from work so I could sleep in, which meant that I woke up at 8:30 instead of 5:30 in the morning. Woohoo! I then just took it easy that morning and ate some food, started working on my to-do list from home, packed up my trailer and was on my way to the start location, arriving at 5pm.

There was already a couple dozen people milling about the park and a body painter set up on the grass with a huge ol’ mirror in the middle of the park where several people had been getting gussies up. We were able to touch bases on what needed to go on that evening and who was doing what, and then it started happening. Riders began showing up – and so did the creepers. My boyfriend, despite not feeling well all week stopped by on his way home from work to see if I needed anything to eat. He let me know afterwards that he was talking to a couple of spectators that said that they had been standing around watching, were leaving to go to dinner and then planned on coming back to watch. That’s just icky. Who does that? “Hey honey, whaddya want to do tonight? Play Scrabble? Go to the movies? Stand in the field and watch naked people like a bunch of creepers?” Seriously. If you want to support the ride but don’t want to actually go on the ride, give the fundraiser volunteers money, wear a bathing suit or take off your shirt so at least you seem like you fit in. Volunteer! Pick up some trash or something.

Every year we have the painstaking task of figuring out where to contain thousands of naked cyclists before the event. This is just one of dozens of action items that we have to accomplish in order for this event to succeed. This is actually one of the more priority items. Like top three. Last year when we had that amazing opportunity to have our event at the Portland Art Museum I was unable to attend due to my appendix removal, but that was apparently a fantastic location. I mean, you got to go tour the museum in the buff! Every location has its pros and cons, though. Being downtown has its cons last year. In previous years we were in a field were we had to mow it for hours  and pick up all variety of unmentionable debris prior to the event. The unique qualities of this location was that it was in a residential neighborhood away from downtown. Why is this notable? Specifically because of one curmudgeon neighbor. Despite doing everything by the book, following all the steps we needed to do as required to hold our event, we were suddenly getting more attention than normal. I mean, people love to talk about WNBR and it is a ratings grabber, but this was moreso than usual. One article after another and at the head of the anti-WNBR bandwagon was this one woman. Honestly, I can maybe remember one other interview that wasn’t done by her. In one article it stated that her husband collected 25 signatures from neighbors. A whopping 25! She states that she is a tax-payer and so something MUST be done! I hate to remind her that all this exposure in the media tells me is that she 1) has no understanding of how the law works, 2) has no understanding of how taxes work and who tax-payers are, 3) in a previous year tried to drive through a protest that was currently in process instead of wait a few minutes for it to pass, showing her anger management issues. . . so in honor of her, I have designed a commemorative bike-tube sticker straight from one of her interviews.

You can buy yours today and I promise to fork over a portion of the proceeds to help pay off all our operation costs from this year and then if there’s anything left over it will roll over into the fund for next year. (Delivery for stickers estimated to begin 6/23)

But going back to all the media coverage! It was a little cray-cray for a moment there. We literally reached meme status. I mean there was a fake article going around on a couple sites . It states ridiculous claims such as: “Their “pre-ride” ritual involves watching adult films and consuming large quantities of hard liquor, and cocaine. After reaching dangerous levels of intoxication, the bicyclists descend upon the helpless berg for a night of unbridled, lawless debauchery.” [source link] As awesome as this sounds, (don’t do drugs, drink and ride bikes kids) our bike ride was really lame to what this description makes it out to be. The article also included every other bit of made up detail like the wrong name for the police commissioner (there’s no one working for the entire county named Jeff Adams), according to our social media stats that’s all wrong. I tried to read another entry of her’s, but she started talking about facts and backing it up with the Bible so I had to stop. On another site they seem to have been a spin-off of the first. But it was less opinionated content and slightly harder to immediately determine as satire. My favorite part on this one was, “...anyone found to be participating in this year’s World Naked Bike Ride will be arrested on the spot, and charged with felonious indecent exposure. If convicted, the criminals could face a minimum of one year in prison, and will be forced to register as a sex offender.” 

My focus on site was social media coverage! Armed with my ipad mini, a wifi hotspot device, my cellphone and my camera I spent the  beautiful 67 degree evening hyperfocused on tweeting and facebooking all the greatest of WNBR coverage. This year I tried out an app on both my android phone and ipad called Sprout Social. I signed up for it the morning of the event and used the free trial so I don’t know how the paid versions are any better, but what I did like about it is that you can add “keywords” to search for (aka hashtags) so I loaded it up with key phrases like “pdxwnbr, worldnakedbikeride, nakedbikeride” and things like that. Throughout the evening I could check up and answer any questions people may have and send messages. The organizers also used the app GroupMe this year for the first time. This app was phenomenal. We set up two separate channels, one for the admin and one for the mechanics/marshals – and it made communication between volunteers and organizers so easy. There was one incident towards the beginning of the ride were a guy showed up at the volunteer station with his chain jammed in his derailleur. I had no tools there so I sent a text on the mechanic channel asking if there were any mechanics near by and a moment later got a reply saying that someone could come in 2 minutes. The system worked!

On a personal level, the WNBR has always been a very important milestone in my Portland history. Back in May 2009, I attended my very first SHIFT monthly meeting. I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’re a charismatic cult leader, if you could do me a favor and just avoid me. . . because that SHIFT meeting. . . I just stuck. I mean, hook, line and sinker. They were looking for volunteers to help out at the 2009 WNBR and that was how I ended up decorating the dance party location for a “Where the Wild Things Are” theme. It reminds me of my inauguration into the bike community – of how I started actually making friends here in Portland. So while the ride is protesting oil dependency, promoting body positivity and highlighting cyclist vulnerability, to me it is  also celebrating Portland, bikes and good friends.


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Jun 06 2014 June 6, 2014 August 4, 2016 NoComment by bikeleptic

Ride Report: Pedalpalooza Kickoff Ride

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pp2014It’s that beautiful time of year again! Twenty-three glorious days of themed bike rides. 278 of them to be exact on the Pedalpalooza calendar, that is. And it all started yesterday, Thursday June 5th 2014 with the official Pedalpalooza Kickoff ride as it traditionally does.

I got there wicked early at about 5:30pm, but wasn’t sure of how long my commute was going to be. There were already a couple very committed people lingering around waiting for something to happen.

The group that was in charge of the kickoff ride had been to the start location a little earlier and then left to do their own relay. They are doing a “Ride Hard Party Hard” contest during Pedalpalooza which includes keeping of tally of not only how many events they attend during this glorious month, but their consumption rate. . . so there’s that.

As people started to assemble I took it upon myself to beckon them towards our ragged bunch and assure people that the ride leaders would be happening – that it wasn’t even 6pm – (the event details said meet-up at 6pm and ride at 7pm anyway.)  But then it happened.

Photo by Hart Noecker

I don’t know when it happened. I had my back turned or I sneezed or was talking to someone, but we went from a ragged group of maybe a dozen people meandering about to a swelling crowd. I got a shout-out from one of the ride marshalls during the actual ride who said that by his count it was about 410!

It was a gorgeous day for it by the way. Sunny, in the mid-60s. No breeze really. (Though I had a wicked headwind COMING to the event.) 

The route was about 7 miles and very flat. A couple roads that we took, though I am no scaredy-cat to riding, I was a little, “Ok…?” when we started turning, but because we were such a large group that was overtaking. . . shall I dare to say a ‘critical mass’ that it wasn’t a problem for the few blocks up MLK Blvd.

We ended at Velocult where they apparently weren’t expecting the company. However, they were having live bluegrass music and belly dancers inside.

All in all a great evening of hanging out with people in the community – some I haven’t seen since last summer.


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Apr 26 2014 April 26, 2014 August 4, 2016 NoComment by bikeleptic

EVENT: 12th Annual Filmed By Bike Recap

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Every mid-April marks the annual Filmed By Bike Festival – this year being the 12th incarnation of the damned thing. Because it always falls the 3rd weekend in April it always kind of screws with my birthday weekend. However, this year, having a low-key birthday, I incorporated it into my plans and bought tickets to their “Bike Party” late night showing after the opening day street party.

Unfortunately the morning brought a downpour, but by the time I packed up at work to leave for the event, the rain subsided and there was only a meager sprinkling to endure before it finally dried up. It was still pretty chilly and despite the New Belgium beer garden heaters, I still found myself running inside a couple times for “snack time” with friends at nearby Dot’s Cafe to warm up and take a break to sit down.

Despite being a whiny cold baby, I did get to see the majority of the acts that were performed during the street party.

Under the awning, Tempos; a circus-like troupe of gymnasts performed some pretty stellar feats and silly sketches. As with that kind of acrobatic stuff, it’s always pretty interesting to watch their muscle control & coordination, etc. And no one managed to crack their head on the struts inside the awning, so that was a plus.

Then there were the antics of Mini Bike Mayhem. My little Blueberry made a cameo due to one of their crew being short a bike. That sturdy little steel beast kept up with the best of them as foam & pvc jousting lances were hurled into the melee of mini-bike cyclists. Wheels and shoulders bashed into each other in a tangle of metal and flesh and faux fur and lamé.

And then we went in to the films. Even though I had to be at work at 7:30 the next morning, I still went to the 9pm showing, because I knew it would be out by 11pm at the latest. I mean, they do Rocky Horror every Saturday night at the Clinton Street Theater, so there’s that turn around. And I wanted to experience the street fair in its entirety.

There were 16 shorts during the opening night Bike Party showing, not counting the FBB trailer at the very beginning. I have to say that these were pretty fantastic little clips from all around the world.

One of my favorite ones (because I’m a total bike nerd) was a 7 minute piece by Paolo Casalis from Bra, Italy called “El Diablo.” From my understanding, it’s just a scene from a documentary called “The Last Kilometer.” This was a character piece on Didi Senft, who has been a symbol of road racing for probably as long as I’ve been alive. 

Then there was this simple 1 minute piece (where I have to admit, I almost cried) by Pablo Correa and  Noe Mendoza from Madrid, Spain called “Miroslav Martínez.” This one was so simplistically beautiful and almost Daliesque or even dadaesque in its execution. And then at the end of the very short, silent, except for musical scene the homage quote to Miroslav is revealed: “Asking why only serves to cut the wings off of dreams in flight.” It just killed me. 

Another one worth mentioning was “Wheelin’” a 6 minute character profile out of Indianapolis, Indiana by Jason Drake, Jeremy Albert, JD Schuyler and Luke Tate. This fantastically displays the work of Steve Carter, a historical preserver of vintage bicycles. 

I enjoyed the entire presentation and the flow of the evening was smoothly edited (as far as I could tell). I had a fantastic evening. Laughed, was entranced and entertained and am looking forward to next year.


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Jan 01 2014 January 1, 2014 January 1, 2014 NoComment by bikeleptic

That Typical End of the Year Letter – On the 1st Day of the Year

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It’s been a long year, eh?

I have now had the Vagal Nerve Device for 40 days. There have been two adjustments since last we spoke, one being just Monday. I am now at 0.75 milliamps every 5 minutes with the magnet therapy at 25% higher (so, 1.0 mA). My neurologist says that the goal is about 1.5 – 2 mA, so I am about halfway to my therapeutic dosage. Over the next three months or so we will continue titrating upwards as planned. Once I am at my goal amperage, we’ll see how I react to it for a couple of months and then see if we can began tinkering with some of my medication.

As far as how I am currently reacting to it – my coworker at the women’s shelter giggles whenever she notices my voice get a little froggy. Every once in a while I sound like a 5 pack a day smoker for 40 years with big poofed up blue hair sitting at the end of a gloomy bar in my gold halter dress with nine gold rings, bronze tan and saggy breasts. I think my name would be Doris. “Hey Charlie, wanna give me a light?”

So basically, that’s my 2014 epilepsy plan.

I haven’t made any glorious plans as far as cycling goes as of yet. When I make plans, I end up spending a bunch of money on team kit, bike builds, team dues. . . and then end up with some sort of medical issues. Sigh. Not this year, fate! I’m going to just see what comes to me in the spring.

I am focused on my new touring bike build. The fork, front rack and stem just went off to powder coating. (I honestly wouldn’t have gotten all matchy-matchy with the rack and stem but the fork was going in anyway, so. . . why the hell not, right?! That’s what I fucking said too! I’m glad we think the same!) I don’t have the budget to be throwing down for a new build all at once by any means, so this bike is a huge fantastic project for me. I have been working it out on a spreadsheet for months.

The nice part about pacing it out is that I get to really think about what components I want to use and ensure that everything is going to work smoothly together before I commit to the purchase. The horrible part about pacing out the purchasing is I have a chance to change my mind thirty times. I am on Spreadsheet Configuration 4.0 at this point. I have promised that I am, at this point, locking in components “for realsies” because I am actually laying money down now.

What about New Years Resolutions, Halley? Last year you had a NYR!

So yeah. On Monday, December 30th I was laying in bed with my boyfriend – mind you he works normal work hours and is sweet enough to stay up late for me so when his head hits the pillow, he immediately begins to fall asleep. Actually, he’s usually asleep on the couch before we even get up to the bedroom. Anyway, we are in bed, and I whisper: “Brad, what about our New years Eve-Eve tradition?” Groggily, barely awake: “What tradition?” “Well, by the time I get home from work tomorrow it will already be 2014, so this will be the last time we are in bed together in 2013 so we should tell each our hopes, dreams, aspirations for 2014. So we can dream them together into 2014.” He’s quiet for a moment. I think he fell asleep. “That’s our tradition?” “Well, it is now. I’ll remember it next year. (Possible lie.) You’ve got to think of something.” And the amazing thing is that after a little reluctance he actually gave me feedback.

The most difficult thing for me working two jobs is that we really only have one day off together and often only get to see each other for at most an hour in the morning and at night. Generally one or both of us are very exhausted at either time and so conversation isn’t the most connected. So these moments are amazing.

As for resolutions. If I stick to plans or if I don’t, it doesn’t really matter – because you know that I won’t.

Just as long as I ride more bikes.

PS. Not to be too cheesy, but I put this up at my work last night because it was topical and I kind of like it. It’s one of those little book of over-used quotes and probably out of context. Especially due to the fact that the person in question I don’t actually know exactly how they were able to transliterate her script. But whatever. That doesn’t make it any less good.

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” – Helen Keller

 


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