Biking Portland

For the past 5 days I’ve been in Portland, OR — the high-king poobah of city cycling, or so I kept hearing. Although I never planned to travel far from the downtown core, which is compact and well-serviced by mass transit, I decided to rent myself a bike and put the city (and myself) to the test.

Renting was easy. I picked up the bike from CityBikes, who also loaned me a helmet, lock and map. The total was $65 for almost five days of biking. The bike was nothing great, a basic Schwinn hybrid, but it did have fenders and lights. And a bell!

All in all, the decision to rent a bike was about 20% awesome and 80% ridiculous. The ride from my hotel to the convention center was half a mile; biking a distance that short is like melting butter by sticking it into a furnace. Yeah, it melts fast but you sure look like an idiot.

The awesome 20% came about when I was able to get away from my conference for an hour or two — a rare occurrence — and tried to put my bike to good use. One trip took me to Lucky Lab Brewpub and Clever Cycles. I got some tasty beer, checked out weird Euro-cycles, and generally had a good time.

A second trip took me to Russell Street BBQ, a Memphis-style BBQ restaurant that tries to source their meat ethically — a rare thing in BBQ, I’ve found. After that, I biked along the Willamette River using the Eastbank Esplanade and the Springwater Corridor, both of which were pretty — although the esplanade can be a bit crowded by pedestrians.

But with the exception of the river ride, I could have easily walked to any of my destinations. So what was the point of biking at all? I’d say that biking, even over short distances, had two big advantages.

First: biking is faster than walking. And it lets you set your own schedule (unlike mass transit). But it’s not so fast that you can’t stop to smell the roses. Even on a short ride, like the mile I biked to the BBQ restaurant, I was able to adjust my route to bike past interesting homes or businesses. I couldn’t have done that as easily in a bus, car, train or taxi. If I’d walked I would have had even more flexibility, but I would have been constrained by time — I only had an hour.

Second: biking in Portland, and forcing myself to bike everywhere I could, taught me a lot about biking and really exposed my deficiencies. At the age of 34 I’m basically a newcomer to biking. I didn’t do it much as a kid, thanks to growing up on the steep slope of the Rocky mountains. And I didn’t bike much in my teens or twenties, either. I’ve really only committed to biking more within the last year.

So forcing myself to bike more in traffic, as opposed to secluded paths, really brought my weaknesses to the forefront. But it also taught me some better ways to integrate myself with the flow of traffic so that I’m visible but not an impedance. It also helped that Portland drivers are incredibly aware of cyclists, and really treat them with respect — mostly.

Also, Portland’s slight hilliness revealed the sorry state of my muscles. Coming back across the Burnside Bridge from downtown I had to get off my bike and push. And it’s not like I was riding a single-speed; I’d rented a cushy hybrid, complete with a wide range of gearing. I’d simply reached the end of my legs’ strength. I got better as the week progressed — fixing a slight problem with the rear wheel also helped — but it’s clear that I’m a ways from biking any sort of serious incline, or for any significant length. That will change with time, hopefully.

All told I’d say I biked around 20 miles between Wednesday night and Sunday morning. That’s pretty close to the amount I’ve biked weekly over the past few weeks. Compared to a die-hard bike commuter, that’s a pretty small total. But for me it’s pretty good. And that’s the comparison that matters, honestly.

June 1st, 2008 / Tags: bike, travel, Portland / Trackback