Category: Northwest Cycling
This Seattle-to-Portland cyclist is all smiles as she rides down the chute to the finish line festival on Sunday at Holladay Park in downtown Portland.
I don't know about the other 9,498 riders in the 2008 STP, but what my son and I will remember most about the 204-mile bicycle tour is the unrelenting heat.
Temperatures soared into the 90s on the final day, as cyclists dove for the cover of shade at all the rest stops and along final 50-mile stretch on US Route 30 into Portland. Many roadside households, especially in Washington state, turned out to cheer us on and spray us down with water as we passed. I shot pictures the past two days, which appear on the jump…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/07/14/sweltering-seattle-to-portland-bike-ride-draws-to-close/
The sunny climb 3 miles after Puyallup is hardest on the 200 mile ride. It's 43 miles into STP.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/07/12/view-of-rainier-over-your-shoulder-at-stp/
Expect to find a long line snaking around the 2nd floor of the REI store in Seattle as cyclists arrive to pick up their STP ride packets through Friday.
Cascade Bicycle Club volunteers in yellow T-shirts are shown helping the first arrivals on Wednesday, as boxes of jackets, water bottles and other paraphernalia are stacked nearly 8 feet high against the back wall.
Some 9,500 riders are registered to ride in the 29th annual Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic this year, about 500 more than last year. Just over one-quarter of them are planning to tackle the 200-mile course in one day, while the rest will be stopping overnight Saturday in Centralia, Chehalis, and surrounding communties. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/07/09/packet-pickup-for-2008-stp-bicycle-classic/
In January last year I announced my intention to ride 4,000 miles in 2007. I can blame some medical problems in the late summer and fall for keeping me off the bike for about two months, but honestly, at this time last year I was seriously off pace.
I announced the same goal for 2008, and now I'm actually slightly ahead of the game.
What's the difference? I'm motivated this year by training for the Seattle-to-Portland bike ride that rolls out of the University of Washington parking lot in just nine days. My son, pictured carbo-loading above, is joining me.
I love bicycling, but I loathe suffering on a bicycle. And I've done plenty of suffering.
There are vivid memories of saddle sores, aching legs, sore back and neck, numb hands. When I first started riding longer miles as an adult about 30 years ago, hitting the wall was just part of the ride. ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/07/03/an-upcoming-big-bike-ride-motivates-june-stats/
The Solstice Parade in Fremont on Saturday featured lots of folks on bikes. I arrived too late for the famous Painted Bicyclists, but did catch this 4-wheeled Scorpian. It's definitely best to see this festival by bike.
Pictures of painted cyclists from this year's parade can be found at irishking. You can check …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/21/fremont-solstice-parade-scorpian-bike/
I shouldn't gloat, but … While most of my neighbors were surviving another gloomy, wet, cold, overcast weekend down around Seattle, I was bicycling under sunny skies in the San Juan Islands.
Here I am on Saturday at the Lime Kiln State Park lighthouse on San Juan Island. People had gathered there to try to catch a glimpse a recently returned pod of orcas with a young calf. We could see the whale-watcher boats, but the orcas never got close to shore while I was there.
What brought me up there was a bike-a-thon fund-raiser for the Stanley Stamm Children's Hospital summer camp. The camp has been held for the past 41 years for children with disabilities who can't attend most other camps; this was the 21st year for the bike-a-thon. It was the first year that Dr. Stamm, who'd broken his arm, couldn't ride his bike in it. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/09/sunny-cycling-in-san-juan-islands/
Excellent bakery, deli and sit-down dining in historic Black Diamond. This is a former coal boom town close by the western slope of the Cascades in Washington state.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/06/black-diamond-bakery/
Seattle bicycle riders will be taking to the streets on Monday to call attention to inadequate signs and bike lanes in door zones.
Seattle Likes Bikes is asking interested cyclists to meet at 6 p.m. Monday at Westlake Center, follow their route, and finish up at the College Inn Pub near University of Washington.
The first half of the route loops around the South Lake Union Trolley (S.L.U.T.) tracks and the signed route along 9th Avenue North that the city has suggested as an alternate. The second half of the ride heads up Eastlake along the proposed route of the streetcar expansion.
As you may remember, the original S.L.U.T. ride last fall called attention to the streetcar tracks that were laid out where bicyclists ride, causing some serious accidents when narrow tires got caught in the tracks….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/30/biking-the-rails-s-l-u-t-bike-ride-in-seattle-on-monday/
New Belgium Brewery kicked off its 2008 Urban Assault Ride series with a first-ever visit to Seattle on Sunday.
Fifty 2-person teams bicycled the meandering course through Seattle and attempted the bizarre and fun challenges along the way, namely bicycle jousting, human wheel-barrow pushing and a big-wheels racing grand finale.
Seven other cities are lined up for the “contest” later on. They are Portland, Austin, Fort Collins, Denver, Madison, Minneapolis, and Chicago (dates below).
I stumbled across the event while cycling along the Burke Gilman trail down by the waterfront on Sunday …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/18/urban-assault-storms-seattle-by-bicycle/
Twenty-three thousand commuters chose their bicycles on Friday in the Puget Sound region, making this the most popular Bike to Work Day ever.
Discontent with higher gasoline prices and happiness over the nice weather are credited with the 20-plus percent increase in participation this year. Maybe some of them will keep riding throughout the summer.
Ms. Biking Bis headed down to the Seattle City Hall where scores of cyclists met up Friday morning for a spirited Bike to Work Day Rally. She took these pictures of commuters with bike shorts under their skirts, above left, and others dressed for success. (More pictures inside.)
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/17/record-setting-bike-to-work-day-in-seattle-area/
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