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.