Join our new squeaky wheel club!

Posted on by

Happy Earth Month!

April is Earth month! We believe that getting more people on bikes is one of the most important things we can do to help protect the Earth. Bikes don’t burn fossil fuels and therefore help with the reduction of air pollution. By leaving your car behind, you’re helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Biking contributes less to noise pollution. Biking takes up less space on roads and parking lots compared to cars which frees up land for green space. By choosing to ride a bike, you’re making a positive impact on the environment and your health! Yay bikes!

Bike Announcements and More

[Photo credit: Rizki Yulian on Unsplash] Bike leaning on a curb on a paved pathway.

Announcing the Squeaky Wheel Club!

We all know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease but have you ever wanted to be that squeaky wheel to grease the skids to the future of a bikeable Bend? Mixed metaphors aside, our new Squeaky Wheel Club is now forming. Our objective is to have people tell stories about the travails and joys of biking in Bend to the City Council. If councilors hear about where you’d like to bike and can’t; or why your kids can’t bike or walk to school or a nearby park; or how you can’t cross a busy street to get someplace close to where you live; or how you’d love to bike to a restaurant but traffic makes that too uncomfortable, we think they’ll be more likely to fund improved bike infrastructure and safer crosswalks and intersections.

We’ll be having informal training sessions, both on-line and in-person to help you get ready to make a comment at a city council meeting. That will include writing and practicing your stories which can’t be longer than two minutes. We’ll have starter templates to spark ideas and let you “choose your own adventure.” Going to your first city council meeting can be intimidating so we’ll describe exactly what to expect and what you need to do. We’ll let you know when the city council is taking comments and we’ll join you at the meetings if you let us know when you’re planning to speak. 

If you’re interested, please send an email to [email protected] or [email protected] and we’ll send you more information and invite you to our training sessions.

Looking to Donate a Used Bike or Bike Parts?

Lately we’ve been asked about where people can donate used bikes and bike gear here in Bend. We’d like to give a shout out to Bicycle Re-Source of Bend. This local nonprofit organization takes bike and bike part donations, refurbishes the bikes, and gives them to children and adults who can’t afford them. They operate a bike shop at 2669 NE Twin Knolls Drive, Suite 203, where they do the work of refurbishing bikes. Please visit their website or call them at 541-382-6977 for more information or drop by their shop with a bike or bike part you are willing to donate!

Geocaching By Bike

By Jim Elliott

As spring arrives, slowly but surely, there are many opportunities to get out on bikes in Bend. My grandson Wyatt and I discovered geocaching in 2020 and have found it a great way to be outdoors on the cargo bike. Geocaching is an outdoor activity that involves using a GPS device to locate small treasurers hidden in the outdoors. According to geocaching.com there are currently over 3 million caches worldwide.

To get started, I put the geocache app on my smartphone and when we opened it, we were to see the number of geocaches that awaited us. Each cache has a hint as well as location coordinates. There as often hints to the exact location.

Going by bike allows Wyatt and me a chance to explore many parts of Bend and parking is never a problem when you go by bike. He holds the phone and acts as navigator. Once we are close, we start searching following the clues given by the person who hid the cache. Some are small and some are large. Some are in plain sight and some are difficult to find. We always carry a pencil so the find can be claimed on the log that is part of the cache. We also carry small trinkets to place in the caches that have space for them.

We have found some easily and others have taken more than one visit to locate. We have also gotten skunked more times than I care to admit. But every trip has brought great adventures.

Bend Bikes at the 2024 Earth Day Fair

Some of the crowd at our booth and Kaitlin and Jim modeling the new Bend Bikes shirts.

The day was sunny and the people attending the Environmental Center’s Earth Day Fair were full of questions about biking in Bend. Many asked how they could help us make the streets safer for all. The discussions revolved around proven methods to slow traffic in neighborhoods such as narrowing travel lanes, the use of modal filters, protected bike lanes, and raised crosswalks.
 
Our suggestion board that asked the question, “What to you see in the next 10 years of bicycle advocacy for a more inclusive, sustainable and equitable future in Bend?” gained many great ideas including:

  • System-wide protected bike lanes
  • More modal filters in & out of neighborhoods
  • Car free open street events
  • Connected bike network from east & west
  • Guided rides to show bike routes
  • Well-designed slow streets

Commute Options E-Bike Forum

Gear Up for Fun: Hop on a Bike Bus to Bend Bike Night | May 13 from 4:30-6:30pm

If you live in Bend and you ride a bike (isn’t that almost all of us?), head over to The Grove in Northwest Crossing on Monday, May 13 where the City of Bend is hosting a family-friendly bike night! The festivities will include raffles, a chance to speak with elected officials about biking in Bend, giveaways and activities, including a bike safety cone course for kids and an interactive safe riding in roundabouts demonstration every 30 minutes. Ride your bike to the event for a chance to win prizes and show your helmet for food vendor discounts. Visit the City’s website for all the details.

Bend Bikes will host two “bike buses” traveling from the east side of town to The Grove. These casual-pace rides will help get folks across town feeling safe in a group. So hop on your bike and check out the route maps and schedules here to find a good pick-up location for you.

Our ride leaders will push off from the start locations at 4pm. We will also lead a return route, leaving from The Grove at 6:15pm. Please register for the bike bus so we know to expect you!

Interested in volunteering as a ride co-leader? Email [email protected]

Northeast Start Location: Orchard Park & NE 6th Street
Southeast Start Location: Larkspur Community Center main parking lot (1600 SE Reed Mkt Rd)

Bikey Book Club

Next Meeting: June 24, 6:30pm

The Bikey Book Club met this week to discuss Bikenomics:  How Bicycling Can Save The Economy with the author, Elly Blue.  Elly joined us virtually and our discussion ranged from her books of feminist biking science fiction stories to the secret sauce of getting more people on bikes.  We agreed that we don’t know what the secret sauce is but that it is probably a complicated mixture of safe infrastructure, land use patterns that make it convenient to bike, and something indefinable that makes people on bikes feel welcome.  Further, that mixture varies from city to city with some places needing more of one thing or the other.

We will not be meeting in May to avoid the Memorial Day holiday but will be back in session in June.  We’ll be selecting the June book soon and let regular attendees know. You can contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more information.

Upcoming schedule: Downtown Bend Library, Meyers Room

  • June 24, 6:30-7:45; book to be announced