Oregon Cycling News, Tales and Perspectives
In a state so chock-full of cycling opportunities, it takes more than an events calendar to stay on top of everything that’s happening on two wheels. We’ve compiled information on upcoming events, travel stories related to cycling, relevant blog posts and more, to keep you up to date on the Oregon cycling scene.
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Forest Grove Hosts USA Cycling Development Camp
USA Cycling is hosting a camp designed for riders ages 14 to 22 at Pacific University in Forest Grove, July 25-29. The Northwest camp is one of 11 USA Cycling Athlete Development Camps nationwide. The camp offers cyclists a fantastic opportunity to learn from coaches and develop skills/training, and it also provides an opportunity for potential-talent identification.
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Mountain Biking and Beer? The Perfect Vacation!
Six years ago, the new owners of Cog Wild Mountain Bike Tours wanted to create a tour that would really allow their clients to get the “Bend Experience.” After some trial and error, they developed the Bike & Brew tour, which has become their most popular offering. In fact, it became so popular that this year they’re adding a Hood River version of the tour. You could book a hotel on your own with the…
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All Work and All Play: Oregon Bicycle Builders
From the Travel Oregon blog: We live in a DIY culture, and Oregon is at the forefront—this is no more evident than with the bicycle. It’s no secret that this state’s got a prevalent biking community (Portland’s reputation alone puts us on the international map), so it should come as no surprise that Oregon has generated its fair share of handmade-bike builders, some who’ve been around since long before building bike frames was en vogue.…
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Amgen People’s Coast Classic: Ride the Oregon Coast
The Amgen People’s Coast Classic benefit cycling tour has announced the official 2011 route, which will follow the official Oregon Coast Cycling Route. The tour will start at The Maritime Museum in Astoria, at 8:00 am on Sunday, September 11, 2011, and will follow the Oregon Coast Route for six days, ending in Brookings on Friday, September 16, 2011. The 2011 ride also includes two-day and four-day options for those wishing to participate in just a portion of the ride.
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Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway
Scenic Byways are not a new concept; some of the great driving routes in the nation share this designation (including 10 in Oregon). But leave it to Oregon to plan and designate the first official Scenic Bikeway in America.
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Portland’s Sunday Parkways
What would happen if you chose a six-mile route through a neighborhood and closed those streets to all motorized traffic on a fine Sunday afternoon? You’d get all manner of people out – riding, walking, skating, who knows what – to mingle and laugh and relax and get some exercise. And that’s what Portland’s Sunday Parkways program is all about.
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Oregon: The Land Cyclists Dream Of
Oregon offers riders a big ol’ slice of bike heaven – it’s pretty much the perfect place to pedal. Start with a variety of stunning scenery you can ride through. Not to brag, but we’ve got it all. Strands of sandy beaches set between coastal capes. Roaring rivers and placid streams. Massive stands of old-growth forest. Majestic mountain passes. Ancient rock canyons. Rich agricultural land. Oh, plus Crater Lake National Park, one of the most picturesque napping spots in the world. And you can see it all in Oregon, from the seat of a bike.
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Portland: Biking on the Off-Beat
What happens when you create an entire culture centered on cycling? Creativity, imagination and energy take over, and the result is a cornucopia of events and happenings that celebrate all the possibilities of life on a bike.
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Mountain Bike Oregon – Oakridge
Oregon offers its residents and visitors a true bounty of open land, and the trail systems to see plenty of it. Given the appreciation our population has always had for the outdoors, it’s no surprise that magical mountain-bike trails attract many riders here. Moss-shrouded paths carved through old-growth forest. High-desert trails amid the red rock. Coastal trails cutting through the mist. Challenging climbs and chilling descents on the sides of volcanoes. This is paradise for the fat-tire enthusiast.
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Signature Event: Cycle Oregon
Almost 25 years ago, a couple folks had an idea: What if we had a bike tour along some of Oregon’s back roads, promoting its small towns? Must have been a good idea; a thousand people showed up. These days Cycle Oregon is an institution, an annual week-long pedaling pilgrimage that takes more than 2,000 riders on a different route each September, bringing the two-wheeled equivalent of a traveling circus to a series of small towns, showcasing their hospitality and scenery as well as injecting money into their economies.
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More New Scenic Bikeways!
In January 2012, the number of official Oregon Scenic Bikeways expanded to eight, with the addition of the Twin Bridges Scenic Bikeway starting in Bend and the Covered Bridges Scenic Bikeway, starting in Cottage Grove.
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Cyclocross: Good Dirty Fun
As a society, we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to stay clean: skin, hair, clothes… we assiduously avoid mud. But why? Playing in the mud is one of the true sensory joys, when you simply embrace the mess.
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Worst Day of the Year Ride
When you live in a place that offers so much lush green-ness, you live with the winter rain that makes it possible. And if you ride here, you ride in it. But in Portland’s bike-crazy culture, you also celebrate it!
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Sandy Ridge Trail System
It’s a story with a perfect ending: mountain-bike enthusiasts and federal agencies get together and create a well-planned, well-designed and well-built trail system that provides nearly year-round, flowing single-track on the lower slopes of Mt. Hood. And now it’s open for you to rip.
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Providence Bridge Pedal
Portland is a city of bridges – and one of the best ways to capture the essence of this unique city is to ride its bridges. On one day each year, those bridges are turned over to cyclists. The annual Providence Bridge Pedal allows you to wind your way across six, eight, even 10 bridges – in lanes temporarily dedicated only to bikes. It’s a surreal feeling to ride over the towering Marquam and Fremont bridges – 364 mornings a year, these are interstate freeways – on two wheels. You’re free to stop and take in the view of the serpentine of bright colors as 15,000-plus riders wind their way through the core of Portland. It’s not to be missed.
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A Do-it-Yourself Cycle Oregon Tour
The undulating ribbon of pavement stretched out far ahead as our group of seven pedaled in 90-degree-plus heat through the wide-open rangeland east of Baker City. Melting tar in the cracks of the roadway squished beneath our tires, and heat waves shimmered above the road surface. Dried sweat caked our sun-scorched faces. Surely vultures were gathering overhead. And then, in the near distance, we saw a glimmering object beside the road. It was shiny, and we were strongly drawn to it. Was it a mirage, an oasis of the imagination, a heat-induced hallucination?
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Group Bike-touring Tips
Bike touring is like any form of vacation: there can be a wide gap between traveling and traveling happily. If you’d like to plan and pull off a successful small-group bike tour, there are multiple elements to take into account. Here’s a starter list.
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Oregon Event Rides
A panoramic vista after a monumental climb. Dancing at a raucous finish-line party. The delicious exhaustion that follows extreme effort. A sinuous rainbow line of riders extending out to the horizon. Standing peacefully next to a bike in the middle of a freeway bridge that’s cars-only the other 364 days a year. I’ve experienced these moments, and countless more, on event rides in Oregon. Our state offers a cornucopia of riding bliss, and organized rides can be a great way to experience different aspects of that bliss.
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Cycle Oregon Weekend: Family Man-cation
This summer I invited 1,800 people to my son’s fourth birthday. Well, that’s what he thought, anyway. Let me explain. It happened that Cycle Oregon’s Weekend Ride, a two-day, family-friendly event, coincided with his birthday in July. The ride offered different route options, with shorter lengths for those with shorter legs – as well as for parents towing their tykes. And it was being held on the campus of Western Oregon University in Monmouth, which meant we could “camp out” in a dorm room and eat in a school cafeteria. In other words, a perfect man-venture for me and my little man Dylan.
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America’s Top Mountain Biking Town: 12 Reasons Bend, OR, Rules
Mountain Biking Action, a top national trail-riding publication, ran this story on the glories of Bend. (www.mbaction.com.) There are plenty of great mountain bike towns in America but most have a downside. Moab, Utah, is a slick wonderland, but take a wrong turn during the summer months and you can end up a large slab of beef jerky. Crested Butte, Colorado, offers majestic views from endless singletrack. The downside? It has two seasons, winter and the…
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Bend to Host 2011 and 2012 Marathon MTB Championships
USA Cycling announced this week that Bend will host the 2011 and 2012 Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships. The annual event, which crowns 24 national champions in marathon mountain biking, has been held in conjunction with the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge, Colo., for the past four years. Its move to Bend for 2011 and 2012 will mark the seventh and eighth USA Cycling National Championship events held in the cycling-friendly city in a four-year period.…
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Bringing Mountain Bikers to Oregon to Experience Bikes, Beers and Beauty
Once upon a time, Oakridge, Oregon was like many Oregon small towns: surrounded on all sides by gorgeous landscape, fueled by a logging and milling economy and a tiny spot on the map that most outsiders overlooked. But in reality, Oakridge is completely unique – full of vibrant residents who love their town and the quiet living, landscape, chain of lakes and beauty that surrounds them. The town is known as the center of Oregon…
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An Oregon First: The Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway
Oregon Scenic Bikeways are chosen with cyclists in mind: endearing historic downtowns, breathtaking scenery, and bicycle lanes where possible. Oregon’s first designated scenic bikeway celebrates the Willamette Valley, its people and its splendor. The 127-mile Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway (WVSB) travels through one of the most diverse agricultural regions on earth, and showcases the sites where Oregon’s history was made. The Willamette Valley is a broad, alluvial valley bordered by the low, forested Coast Range…
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Tuck Your Bike into a Suitcase and Off You Go
So what to do when your vacation involves flying? You can box up your ride — if you don’t mind the time, trouble and exorbitant excess-baggage fees ($175 on United for any bike!). You can try to find a decent bike to rent at your destination (good luck with that, especially road bikes). Or you can become a true roadie warrior and get a travel bike — like an Oregon-made Bike Friday. Bike Friday was…
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A Race Like No Other in a State Like No Other
Each summer in the southern Willamette Valley, Co-Motion Cycles hosts an event with a unique Oregon flair that you’ll find nowhere else. We’d like to extend our invitation for you to come and enjoy the Co-Motion Classic Tandem Stage Race (CCTR), the largest and arguably the very best tandem stage race in the world. Headquartered in Eugene Oregon, Co-Motion Cycles is a world-renowned manufacturer of tandem bicycles, or bicycles built for two. Tandem bicycles…
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