Becky Hawkins
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Bike Summer
🕑 Added 2025-07-29 14:46:09 +0000 UTC
Hi patrons!
Every year, Portland celebrates Bike Summer (formerly Pedalpalooza) from June through August (formerly just June). There are 5-10 group rides per day, with every theme from "Portland Streetcar History" to "Lady Gaga" to "Bagels." There are often costumes, music, and whimsy involved. It's the best.
Someone showed up to a ride with this sweet dragon bike (NOT Falkor, I was informed)
The building below is near a funky 5-way intersection with one busy road and two intersecting bicycle-heavy routes. It's supposed to get a redesign soon, with a car-free plaza at one end. I was there with some other bicyclists to test-ride some different traffic patterns so that the eventual bike lanes make sense. The test ride took place at 8am on a Sunday so that there wouldn't be a ton of cars and trucks on the road. The other benefit of an early-morning ride (besides safety) was the beautiful light and shadows! I took a photo and finished this postcard a few months later.
Workers Tap & Cafe as a video game tavern:
Sometimes I doodle during neighborhood association meetings:
Bike play! It's an annual original outdoor play/group bike ride that's been going for 16 years. Each scene takes place in a different park!
Bike Play has a team of "corkers," people who block cross-traffic at the big intersections to make sure everyone on the ride gets through safely. It can take couple minutes for a large group ride to cross an intersection, and Bike Play usually gets a couple hundred people a night. Corking is usually informal--anyone on a group ride can cork an intersection if they see the need. But the corkers at Bike Play kind of double as volunteer ushers, showing the audience where to park and where to sit when we get to each location. Bike Play runs for two weekends, so there's a slightly different group of corkers every night. I did three nights. It was fun to be thrown onto a team for a couple of hours.
One performance also had ASL interpreters:
This might be peak Portland: Naomi and I went on a group bike ride/ukulele jam. (Other acoustic instruments were welcome, so we brought a melodica and a flute, respectively.)
We stopped at about five parks over several hours. In Laurelhurst Park, there was a queer dance party and A Winter's Tale happening on adjacent knolls. We were far enough apart that the sound overlap wasn't too bad.
The next week, there was an architecture tour that ended at the inspiration for one of Turtle City's firehouses! This was my first time seeing the building in person instead of online. It felt like glimpsing a local celebrity.
I hope you're also having a fun summer! Thanks, as always, for supporting me on Patreon.
Comments
Emily Siskin
What fun seeing and hearing ‘bout Bike Summer! (I’d wondered what’d become of Pedalpalooza, so’m thrilled it’s still around - and even longer - under a new name.)
