Bikes Around Town

KISS bike with Portlandia backdrop.

Cherry Linus on a bike rack, I know, I know, it's really serious.

So pretty and so functional. Love the hammered fenders and delicate-looking racks.

Pretty prissy Fuso. Not her best side.

Got caught in the act taking this one. Guy called it his "b" bike.

Um?

Miyata mixtie. Miyata mixtie. Miyata mixtie. There's no place like home.

Playing With Bicycles

Most of my time is spent playing with bicycles. Riding bikes, selling bike crap, blogging rides, bike club volunteering, attending bike network group events, planning my next bike purchase. Am I over-focused? Fixated, even?

This lady, Ranger Madeleine, decided to be a forest ranger when she was eleven, although she didn't make it happen until recently.

My answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up?" was "win the Tour de France". That's a bit out of reach, especially considering my gender, but isn't bike stuff what I wanted to do when I was eleven?

These questions haunt me and plant doubt in my belly, until the weather pokes a gentle reminder at me. Last night as the air chilled and wind swept in, even though it's still summer, I actually started wondering what to be for Halloween.

I suppose, like death, the threat of winter is always on the horizon.

Conclusion? RIDE! Ride. Ride more. Our warm, dry rides are numbered, like our days.

Council Crest

Here's the Hawthorne Bridge, filled with bike commuters early today.

And here's the Salmon Street Fountain, where I met up with Nick and Amy of the "morning excuse committee" at 6:40AM (yes, AM!).

We rode through downtown, then up to Washington Park and the zoo.

Finally arrived at Council Crest Park. What an amazing view! We could see Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams and even Rainier!

Then, a cold descent down to Portland State University, where, amazingly, we ran into Inge. She told us about getting her legs ripped off at PIR last night. Headed off alone to the Pearl District, over the Broadway Bridge and northbound on Williams. There were tons of bike commuters everywhere I went.

On my way to Marine Drive, while crossing the big ramp at 33rd, I noticed a long string of cyclists on my tail. It was none other than Portland Velo! Soon, their fast guys passed me so I pacelined with them for a short while.

They headed west and I headed east at Marine Drive, with a fabulous view of the Columbia River and Mount Hood. Shortly after, I saw the VBC riders on their "two bridge loop" ride.

Getting 35 miles in before work felt pretty luxurious and I hope to join more of these early morning riders while we still have early daylight.

Crater Lake

Richard, Jenn and I arrived at Diamond Lake campground just in time Friday night to set up our tents and get to bed. The next morning, after coffee and breakfast, Richard and I joined the BOB riders.

We went through the pumice desert, which was prettily polka-dotted with pine trees. We saw plenty of small snowdrifts along the 15 mile climb to Crater Lake, even though the air was warm and it felt summery out.

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Finally, we arrived at Crater Lake. This was my first view of it.

Then, around the lake. It was hot and dry and we quickly became dehydrated. A miscommunication with our SAG vehicle left me without water for an hour. But, the climbing was easy and the views were stunning.

Jenn & the SAG team:

The whole group!

Just me.

Another great adventure on two wheels.

Mia Birk

Amazing news! My very own bike club, the Vancouver Bike Club, has secured Mia Birk to speak at our November club meeting. THE Mia Birk!!!

!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure if there are enough exclamation points to express my excitement about this! We're even going to reserve a larger venue. More details to follow.

Pink Upgrades

Rode the Torpado, my Italian stallion, into work Tuesday. The geometry of this bike is very different than the SOMA. Very short reach, not super fast, but pretty comfy. Not to mention - pretty pretty!

The poor thing felt unloved and unmaintained. Spent lunch lowering the stem a smidge, polishing the frame, putting on new bar tape and replacing the old Campagnolo pedals & toe cages with Shimano clipless.

After work, I took off on my new loop. The bike felt improved, especially with new pedals, but something is still "mushy". Maybe new tires next, although the precise shade of pink (in a quality tire) has proven elusive.

Super Stud Sunday

We met at Scott & Ayla's house in Camas and headed out toward Cougar. At Yacolt we ate nuts and balls and red vines. Ayla turned back, respecting her knee, healing from surgery.

Scott, Nick and I continued on. We rode by gorgeous meadows filled with cows, horses, llamas (or are they alpacas?) and lots of picturesque barns.

Then back through Yacolt, this time for coke, drumsticks and strawberry milk.

I worked my fanny off to keep up with these two fast guys on this almost-century ride. They slowed down for me a few times, but mostly I hung on. Average was 15.4 mph, ride time 6 hours for 92 miles and a fair amount of climbing.

Ayla thoughtfully had Thai food waiting for us back at the top of the hill. What a great day!

Solo Saturday

I guess I'm a pretty social animal, especially when it comes to riding bikes. But Saturday, it was solo or nothing so off I went, all by my lonesome. I brought a cue-sheet from "ride with GPS.com" that promised a paved 50 mile loop with 5000 feet of climbing starting at Panther Creek campground and ending at the Walking Man Brew Pub in Stevenson.

I rode out of camp at 10:30, making my way down to Carson and SR-14 along the Columbia Gorge. It was beautiful and made me reminiscent for the gorge tour we rode in May. Then, up (UP!) Cook-Underwood Road. A few country road turns until reaching National Forest Route 6600 - a gorgeous, smooth, one-lane road devoid of cars and lined with trees. Simply stunning.

I'll admit I do a ton of thinking on the bike. Put me out in the middle of the woods all alone for a day and that increases exponentially. This "watershed" sign (below) reminded me of a not-too-distant time in my life when everything changed overnight. I've decided to stop trying to make sense of it and choose to accept and recover instead. Huge epiphany: the details of what happened don't matter; I can stop dwelling on them. What matters is what I've learned: being "over-responsible" will only lead to intense rebellion, which is already at the heart of my nature. Instead of rebelling against people or relationships, I will choose to rebel against unhealthy things. Healthy fun will be my motivator and this will most likely manifest itself by spending as much time as possible on the bike.

So, here I am in the forest feeling pretty darned healthy and happy and smart and even courageous. When the pavement ended and turned to gravel, I thought "I'm tough. I can handle unexpected obstacles. I dare adventure to come get me. YEAH!!!". A couple of miles later, I was picking myself up from a spill. Bloody and out of water, I put some chamois butter on my road rash to prevent the sting and turned around. In case that wasn't humbling enough, the steep 25 mile descent into dangerously gusty wind had me coaching myself out of panic. "I'm small! I'm strong!" It's a bit of a paradox how humbling experiences can create a grain of strength that builds and builds until it's a huge shield.

Power Outage Wednesday

Started the day at the Portland Society meeting where I learned one should never use green scrubbies on their rims. Thanks to Tori Bortman at Gracie's Wrench for the informative maintenance show & tell, complete with the most graceful way to flip your bike over. Also learned that the letters in ATB lube stand for Absolutely The Best.

Rode over to the shop where there was no power for blocks. We played frisbee in the parking lot for a while and then gave up. Went on a 2 mile ride with our Accounting Manager, who is totally new to biking. Then home for lunch and reading until ride time.

Then, off to Nick's for a spontaneous "let's ride to Corbett" ride. We changed to plan B in Troutdale and climbed the steep south hill next to the main drag there. So steep I was popping wheelies all the way up. Yikes!

Then down Lusted and over to Orient, taking a short break for flat repair and finally to Springwater Corridor. A short veer off the path to climb another super steep hill, then off to beer. A gorgeous 85 mile day to tuck into my summer 2011 memories.

Tour de Suck Hard Hills

Our first weakly Tour de Suck Hard Hills was a complete success in terms of reaching high levels of suckage.

We met at the General Store in Troutdale. Sherry and Dana were fresh and happy and optimistic, not knowing what was to come.

We stopped at Women's Forum for yoga and Charlie's Angels poses.

We missed the turn on Gordon Creek (little does Google Maps know, it's called Evans!) and went ahead to Crown Point, where Dana got a pinch flat. After a few tries, we got 'er fixed!

The next portion of the ride will remain unphotographed, due to its dark and disturbing nature. Bull Run. Big hills. Endless switchbacks.

Finally, we finished the climbing and got onto the planned "shortcut" route to complete our 45 mile loop, which turned out to be 70 miles instead. Luckily, beer. BEER! That was our mantra for most of the ride and it paid off.

Tour de Cure Century

What an awesome day! Broke my personal best record by an hour. Start to finish time 6 1/2 hours. Actual ride time 6 hours. Average 17 mph.

Gettin ready:

VBC girls:

The start line.

The finish line: