Thirsty Thursday

Sorry about the delay in posts, whenever my lady friend comes back in town it seems to occupy most of my free time. So there is a lot of news in the land of Ports, not to mention the weather has been exquisite for riding recently. It seems the bicycle advocacy groups have been itching for change and are hungrier than Crocodile Dundee at a vegan cookout. Well it looks like the landscape if finally starting to shift around, moving the masses from cars to bikes. A new "cycletrack" has opened in SW Portland, a cycle track is where they bump the lanes over and bikes get the entire right hand lane with the next rightmost lane being utilized for parking. Genius idea, because now there is not only a buffer to protect bikes form cars but also a line of parked cars for added security. Of course when i went to try it out the other day a UPS truck was in between the parking and the curb blocking the whole cycle track, ugh. Change in this city is inevitable, the culture demands and feeds off of it. Hell most of the people desired change that's why we all left our respective home states and moved to this great place.

This was SW clay before the cycle track was installed, notice how parking is against the curb. And I cant figure out how to show the new images, double dang. Head over to BikePortland.org to see the photos.

Another new addition is this little diddy which I am still on the fence about my feelings in regards to the "zebra strips."

A couple problems arise from these guys. First, what happens when you need to pass someone in the bike lane, for instance I was riding downtown the other day and got stuck behind the soup cycle. The soup cycle is an amazing independent pedal powered Portland business, the guy who owns it makes soup in his kitchen and you subscribe to the service where he then delivers a couple quarts of delicious soup to your home or work weekly, so good. But if you need to pass someone you have to dodge the zebra strips and cut into traffic and back in to the lane. Sketchy. Also, getting in to the lane is tricky in traffic, I came from the opposite side of the road from the coffee shop and weaved through traffic and these diddies to get into the bike lane. But still it is a great step forward into "Copenhaganizing" Portland. Of course it seems that all cities are pretty similar in their ineptness at consistency. Portland has been doing all these amazing things for bikes and trying to make downtown car-free, but then they eliminate buses in fareless square. before you could ride any public transportation downtown and it was free, not you can take the MAX, streetcar, and the trolley for free but have to pay for the bus? What gives Sammy Adams, why you gotta do us like this?

In other news, I finally received my trailer from CycleTote and boy is this thing a doozy. I could literally put my roommate the Great Dane, 6 bags of groceries, and a cooler in it without any space issues. All though we did put Mick (the dog) in it last night and his legs were shaking worse than Keith Richards at a dry wedding reception. So that is a no go, besides I picture him taking off at a stop light and pulling me, my bike, and my trailer with him if he got the chance. But I am pleased with the trailer it will make grocery runs a lot easier and not to mention I am rigging an awesome stereo up to it powered by a car battery, it is going to be so great.

In more disturbing but humorous news. I have been referred to as a hipster by roughly five people last week who had no idea who I was, I guess its time to re-evaluate my clothing choices. Or I could just run with it and starting dressing like this guy.

Well maybe not...