Saturday, February 19, 2011

Kidical Mass PDX: Bikes & Banjos, Pedals and Puppets

February's Kidical Mass ride felt very un-February, indeed: beautiful sunshine, temps in the 50s, and a great turnout.  50-ish riders left from TaborSpace this afternoon, and together we meandered from North Tabor to Laurelhurst Park, then down to Sunnyside School Park (where there was a sweet pig, Poppy, and chickens to visit!), and then back to TaborSpace for a great puppet show by the Mudeye Puppet Company about reducing waste, and a hand-clapping, sing-alonging banjo performance by Paul Silveria, aka Professor Banjo.  And thanks to donations from Clever Cycles and our new status as part of Portland's Bike Trains program, we were able to offer super-discounted tickets!

Along with us on the ride were Rep. Ben Cannon and Rep. Tobias Read, with kids in tow, who were great to chat with about kid bike bans, local speed laws, trailer safety standard bills, and other burning kids-on-bikes issues.  It was great to have them riding with us, and I hope we'll see them on future rides!

It was also lovely to have Julian Davies (of totcycle.com) and his sweet bikey kiddos Drew and Luc, down from Seattle.  They were trying out a Nihola trike and seemed to very much enjoy it-- I'm sure Julian will write up a full review sometime soon.

Ben McCloud's photos from the ride are on our facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50071&id=190167827674698.  I'll post more as I find them!