Portland Summer Street Jam: Rails, Stairs, Prizes, and Photos.

Turnout for this summer's weekly nighttime street rides has been excellent beyond all expectations, and this week DBZ even got Cult to throw down for a sponsorship! We hit six iconic Portland spots and awarded prize packages at the end of the night.

1st: Thaddeus. He iced the Harriet Tubman rail, grinded all the way across the PepsiCo big ledge in the dark, and grinded up 90% of the 14-stepper at Benson Technical. He also hopped the big Benson rail and bushes into the hillside.

2nd: Nate. He no-handed the Rose Quarter nine-stair and pulled a clean ice-to-nose-to-bar at PepsiCo.

3rd: Zane. He rode non-stop all night, putting freecoaster and all four pegs to full use. He got the best line of the night at the PepsiCo ledges: feeble-180 into a straight 20-foot rollback down the sidewalk, to fakie double-peg. I didn't get a single pic of Zane, since everything he did was a line.

MVP went to Draven. He was riding with a bum hand and took the hardest slam of the evening right off the bat, going OTB on an icepick at Harriet Tubman. Draven also railhopped the Rose Quarter nine.

This was my first time shooting "action sports" with a DSLR. Here are the best pics.

Nate's suicide no-hander at the Rose Quarter nine

Draven, railhop 

 Jared, barspin at PepsiCo

Thaddeus grinding across the entire channel at PepsiCo in pitch black

 DFG, hard 180 to smith

Thaddeus grinding up most of the Benson Technical 14

...

A million thanks to Robbie at Cult and everyone who showed up. See you guys next Tuesday at 9pm.

EASTSIDE STREETRIDE.

The "Summer Thursdays" of 2009 were an epic success. Hard to believe that was four years ago. DBZ and Ruecker are scouting spots for a midsummer night's street jam, happening this Tuesday.

Avoid disappointment by showing up at the right place at the right time. Any out-of-towners looking for floorspace can send me an email.

Point and Shoot: Nick Morris.

Lateral gap to handrail, care of Nick Morris, two Thursdays ago. (Caleb Evenson raccoon eyes in the background.)



Is it any wonder that Nick's broken wrist has yet to heal?

Point and Shoot: Portland Summer Thursdays...

Summer street rides have been going well for over a month now, but this was the first night of the season that the camera left my jeans pocket. Two shots:


Allen Burger, smith up the Lincoln High driveway ledge, bar height and then some. Good grief.


Visiting from Philly, Dan Bob, nose-to-180, waterfront warmup.
...

Portland summers start late but go forever. Check the Thursday night photos from late August and September of last year.

See you at Lovejoy Fountain, 9 o'clock, Thursday!

T minus:

Worst-Organized Bike Rally on the Planet--Right Here, Thursday.

Let there be no confusion.

If you came out for the street ride any of the last three weeks, you probably scratched your head, doubted you were in the right place, and eventually went back home, disappointed.

Our apologies. We can all explore the miscommunications in person, in depth, this Thursday, at the first successful street ride of the Summer.

This oughta be the one.

The Google aerial.

STREET THIS THURSDAY. FORECAST IS CLEAR.

SUMMER THURSDAYS ARE BACK.

DBZ and I have some stuff planned for the season. Stay tuned...

A new Thursday flyer from DBZ.

(It's a reference to this.)

Come ride bikes.

Thursday Night Street Ride #5.

Mob. [Piff photo]
Dances with wolves: Tony Tuominen... [Caleb Ruecker photo]
...and Nick Morris. [Piff photo]Ruecker, DBZ.Ben Piff, proper damn clicked. [Ruecker photo]
Nick, PGE Park. [Piff photo]
DFG rolls in. (Play structure previously noted here).[Ruecker photo]
Richie Johnson jam-whips the worst bank in Portland. [Piff photo]
Brad Barker, wallride from flat to flat. Five minutes later he Wasson wallrode from the bank, over the post, and back into the bank, first try. [Piff photo]

Ruecker, Tony.
The night is young. [Ruecker photo]
And it's still summer.

Thursday Night Flyer.

I never expected to see Ruecker in white denim. But I get it. I guess.

This week marks the fourth Thursday night street ride in a row. Summer 2k9 will be one for the ages.

The rendezvous point.

Fresh spots welcome.

Street Jam Recap.

Nice turnout Thursday night. Whole buncha kids I'd never met, shredding and having a blast. Good spots, great vibes, beautiful night. Once we got the mob moving, I didn't notice anyone hanging on the sidelines. At least two broken chains, but no flat tires, no run-ins, and no significant injuries.

I only broke out my pocket point-n-shoot when I wasn't riding, which wasn't very often, so this is a pretty lazy documentary. Help with names for these photos would be appreciated.

So. Briefly:

This driveway is one of the smoothest natural flyouts in the city. The goal here was to catch a branch in one's mouth:

DFG.

Crash.

Mikl "Yellow Helmet " Baranov.


Nick Morris from Southeast was grinding everything. This Lincoln High classic has approximately a bike length of runup.


Pallets...
...Made our way to the Pearl District towards midnight. Dalton Holt from Olympia sent the gap of the evening. (Dalton has a little blog here.)


And at another historically significant Portland spot we challenged Yellow Helmet Baranov to wallride over a bike.



Nothing beats Portland in the Summer. Kids are riding hard.

THURSDAY. STREET RIDE. PORTLAND.

I'm just hoping my tires stay inflated. Map here.

All credit to DBZ.