NoBikes in Portland.

Yesterday, after a morning of heavy rains, the sun came out and dried the pavement, and we went downtown to meet up with out-of-towner Aaron Gates and crew.

Aaron runs the incredible Alaska riding blog NoBikes. He relocated to Connecticut recently, where he's starting work as a financial actuary, but that didn't stop his summer roadtrip through the freaking Yukon and down the West coast, in hearty NoBikes style.

Poached these photos at an hour-long Arvey wallride sesh.
Aaron in green, Richard Gregory from NZ in white.
Andrew Lazaruk, flatty.
CJ Evans, un-turn.
Parking lot.
Caleb Evenson, background.
Caleb, foreground.
Nate Delp, Tony Archibeque, Andrew Lazaruk, Aaron.
Aaron, Caleb, Ben.

These clips are going to NoBikes video #7, which--as I understand it--will take the form of some kind of roadtrip documentary, heavy on the bears, mountains, and wallrides.

Epic.

Ben Piff vs Eggs Benedict.

Ben's been riding the crap out of no-bikes-allowed Ed Benedict Skatepark, occasionally busting out the iPhone to film a little web video. Today's edit is particularly good and casual.

Alley-oop feeble across the axle-high sub!

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.

A True Story.

My first published piece ever, from Dig #52, May 2006. This blog post prompted by an excellent bmxboard thread...


Click image to zoom in and read.

Caleb Evenson's Roadtripmobile/Home.

Since his return to Portland in early June, our good friend Caleb Evenson has (as previously mentioned) been living out of a nondescript minivan, parked on various Southeast neighborhood streets.

He was rooming at DBZ's in December, when a surprise rent increase effectively evicted the entire household. The unemployed South Dakota native returned to the family farm to work, save, fire out a semester of college, and outfit his future home on wheels.

Caleb traces his love for the minivan to a storied 1994 Plymouth Voyager that accumulated 212,000 miles and two cracked blocks before being laid to rest. This one, a 94 Dodge Caravan with 105k, is "just a baby, practically," he says.

Caleb intends to find employment at some point, and then housing. Until then, he seems to be living rather comfortably on about five dollars a day (he estimates), showering at friends' houses. I crossed paths with Caleb at the June bmx video night, and we shot these photos:

Lantern, found in an abandoned meat packing plant; still running off the original battery.
Sleeping quarters. Two bikes. Super 8 camera. Must say, I find that bedding almost irresistably inviting.
21st century nomad. You'd expect to find a laptop computer stashed somewhere in here, but you'd be wrong.
Tailgate.


Side view: pink hubcaps handed down from minivan 1.0; limo tint windows; stray plywood bookshelf.
Stealth.