Portland, OR: parking space

I've always loved this photo by the city of Muenster Planning Office (August 2001) representing the amount of space required to transport the same number of people by car vs. bicycle.

In Portland, I came across these brilliant bicycle corrals all around the city... on street (protected!) space for your bike. All it takes is a parking space. StreetFilms.org even made a video about them!

+ mark your calendar: PARK(ING) DAY in NYC is September 18th!!!

Portland, OR: second lives

Welded gate at River City... painted matte black and reminiscent of a Louise Nevelson assembly

Rims and spokes out front of Little Edie's Five & Dime

Mobile and fork tree at the Community Cycling Center

Portland, OR: street language

Having just returned from Portland, Oregon - USA's bicycle mecca - I am excited to share the many ways this city has embraced cycling. On a bicycle, with camera in-hand, I documented as much as possible...

Street sign next to the Light Rail tracks... the sight of a cyclist being projected seems appropriately dramatic.

They actually used the word 'please'. Sweet.

Bike racks prove to be a perfect way to communicate to cyclists...

BikeAccidentHelpline.com has a list of what to do if you have a bike accident.

Agreed.
Spotted this sticker in the River City bike store and what a find!

Immediately added to my blog list... safetyissexy.blogspot.com

Portland, Oregon

Returning next week with reports from the West coast...

lèche-vitrine: Paul Smith

The current window display at Paul Smith's 5th Ave. store with Electra bicycles courtesy of A Bicycle Shop
... btw, A Bicycle Shop moved (relatively recently) from 14th to 22nd Street

forever bicycles

Founded in 1940, Shanghai Forever Co., Ltd. is a China state-run factory and heritage brand. Their bicycles are significant in Chinese history having been the most popular throughout 4 generations in China.

Ai Wei Wei, the Chinese artist/social activist/provocateur, deconstructed the "Forever" bicycle to create...

an installation from 2003



thousands of cut-up pieces of bike frames for a recent installation

photos via The New Order Magazine

slower is awesome

These should be everywhere...
Campaign by Cramer-Krasselt for the Elm Grove Police in Wisconsin

via fubiz

rent a bike

The Bicycle Forest, based in Waterloo, Ontario (CANADA!), has a wide range to choose from:


Penny-Farthing
The free wheeling front axle enables you to coast or pedal like today's modern bicycles. lthough the front wheel is enormous, the Wheelman is still fairly easy to mount thanks to the small step built into the frame.

Mini125
The bike rolls along at a decent speed thanks to the tiny rear sprocket. The sprocket is too small to integrate a free wheel, so the free wheeling mechanism is built into the crank.


Couchbike
The Couchbike is adjustable to fit a wide range of sofas. Rent the frame alone, or borrow a couch from us. Also be aware that the Couchbike may not be legal on all roads.

Rhoades Car
The two passenger, long frame Rhoades Car and pimped it out with hubcaps, a windshield, rear view mirrors and a rugged body made of galvanized steel wrapped over a welded chromoly steel frame. The LED tail lights and two 55W headlights will guide you home safely through even the most inclement weather. The spacious bed in the rear offers 585L or 20 cubic feet of storage capacity for all of your cargo hauling needs.

just in case

For those of us who ride many miles and travel with little to nothing extra in our rear pockets, these might be of interest...

Accidents happen far more than you think they do. Each year approximately 450,000 of us are taken to hospitals unconscious and without identification.

Road ID was launched by a father and son who realized that how common it is to leave your house to work out without ID. They came up with these laser engraved plaques that can be worn on your wrist, ankle or shoe.


Another take on having emergency contact info easily assessable is to program "I.C.E." (In Case of Emergency) numbers in your mobile phone. The idea was launched by a paramedic in the U.K. after the July 2005 Terrorist Bombings in London, were EMS providers were having trouble locating emergency contact information for disaster victims -- it's simple to do, just select those you would want to first be contacted and label them under "ICE SISTER", "ICE DAD", "ICE DOCTOR" etc. and they recommend you have an ICE sticker on the back of your phone so the EMS knows what to look up right away.

And in this smart phone era, there is a 'smart-ICE' iPhone application (for $.99)

Being the safety freak that I am and having worked with the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), I am always weary of anything electronic in the event of an emergency (esp. after being in NY during the black out). So last year after researching what to do in an evacuation, I made these little ICE cards to be kept in your wallet (below).

Once I figure out how how to post a PDF I'll make them available.

pimp my fahr rad

Years ago, visiting Austria, I caught some episodes of the short lived ‘Pimp My Fahr Rad’. Similar in set up to the popular 'Pimp My Ride' but in German, and yes, with bikes. Each episode had a new 'client' that would bring in their bike to have it match their lifestyle. The bike store crew would then outfit the bike with customized parts like this dj's bike outfitted with turntables...



Some of what they tackled was ridiculous, like when they 'pimped' a hair dressers' bike with mirrors and hair spray contains all other the place. That aside, it was pretty to cool to watch an entire MTV show dedicated to bicycles. While they did come up with some wild possibilities for two wheels, they never seemed to concerned with the adding weigh to a bike!?!

Peaks Island, Maine

Tiny islands are wonderful places - ones with few to no cars are the best. Peaks Island is a 20 minute ferry ride from Portland and about 1 mile wide and 2 miles long with a population of 1,000. There are a few cars but most people get by with bikes (though golf carts are pretty popular with the older folks).

spotted on Peaks Island

A custom seat cover outside the corner store. A lovely match for Gerhard Richter's "Betty" - a painting he made of his daughter in 1988 and one of my favorites...

"Betty" by Gerhard Richter / custom bike seat

The island's (no name) bike shop for all your biking needs (including renting tandems!)

Portland, Maine

A sweet package... Mercian equipped with cork grips, tiny brass bell, slick fenders, leather saddlebag, and Brooks saddle.

Loved the simple bike rack (poles) all around the city.