It's hard to believe the Un-Road Trip's all over. Last Sunday morning I took the train into Portland's Union Station where I was met by my friend Peter and Phillip of
Metrofiets.
The folks at Metrofiets handbuild custom cargo bikes that carry everything from children to lumber and everything in between. But even with a large cargo hold, it still rides pretty much like a regular bike. I hopped on board as the cargo, as Phillip pedaled me down to waterfront park. That's where I met up with Mitch, Oregon's only owner of the
Go-One. It's a German made velomobile- basically a recumbent bike in an aerodynamic shell.
It's not cheap, but it does cut down on a lot of drag and it was really fun to pedal down Waterfront Park. Next, Peter and I headed over to the Portland Aerial Tram.
It opened a few years back to transport people from the waterfront up to OHSU in the west hills. It's a twenty minute drive, but only a four minute tram ride. In addition to being a time-saving way of getting around, it's also become a tourist destination with it's awesome views of downtown, Mount Hood, and Mt. Saint Helens.
After a roundtrip tram journey, Peter and I got picked up by Jonathan Magnus of
PDX Pedicab.
The company's been around for a few years and it looks like business is doing pretty well. Though there are a few pedicab companies in Portland now, PDX Pedicab was the first one in town. As Jonathan explained, in a biking city like Portland it only made sense to have some sort of bike taxi available. I got dropped off at
Keen Footwear headquarters to prep for the Un-Road Trip party. All the photos from the party were taken by my pal and incredibly talented photographer,
Daniel Stark.
There were a bunch of fun electric vehicles to zoom around on including
Hammacher Schlemmer's 14 MPH cooler,
GoPet Electric Scooters, and some awesome vehicles from
Scoot On This. People zoomed around as Seattle jugband sensation, The Dexter Street Stompers, played two short action-packed sets.
I also talked a bit about the trip, showed off my recent longboard injury, and played a video of nearly all the modes of transportation, (including video from mere hours ago on pedicab, cargo bike, tram, and velomobile).
To see more of Daniel's photos and watch some video of the jugband in action,
check out his post on the party over on his blog.
And then it was time to wrap up. I got a ride most of the way home with Gary, a member of
Oregon Electric Vehicle Association, who did an electric conversion of his Insight.
I walked back the last mile or so, and ten weeks and one day later I was back to where I started- my parent's house in Portland.
