It happened. Kael turned 13. There is now a teenager in our house and another cargo bike in our family.

On March 22, 2013, Kael received a custom made cargo bike. This bike is the combined efforts and creativity of friends, family, and Tom Labonty. I thank you all for your involvement. Kael has taken the Cargo Flyer out for many rides. One of the first rides was to Fred Meyer where he purchased a Nerf gun with birthday money and then happened upon a free pile on the way home. What a lucky kid.

The Advanced Wood class at my high school built the box. The box started out as salvaged lumber from two futon frames found in free piles. The Advanced Wood class deconstructed the frames into lumber, planed the wood, and did all sorts of thises and thats to give it a professional look. Then the Metal Shop teacher offered to cut out a metal badge for the bike, using a rendered copy of the Cargo Flyer logo I sketched out. So many people were drawn to this project and quickly offered to help.

Kael now has a bike and a key to a U-Lock. The city is his. I wish him well as he goes forth and explores life. Freedom.

If you are just making it to the party, here is a quick recap–Kael’s first bike was a Radio Flyer trike so his 13th birthday present is a homage to that; in addition, Kael’s first two-wheeled bike was used as the front fork for the Cargo Flyer. Here are previous posts: Teen Cargo, Kael on a Metrofiets, Teen Cargo 2, and Almost Done. In addition, here is a photo set of the bike build.

Video of Cargo Flyer.

It all started years ago …
Kael, age two.

To all of the wonderful mothers out there, on and off cargo bikes. To you we tip our helmets.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Cargo Moms.

Today the pallet deck. Next the pallet rails.

Which is worse, the wind or the rain?

Frost covered the morning landscape; our hands were covered with gloves, and our wheels left thin, snake like, lines in the street. It would be cold for the first part of the ride until we warmed up. We knew we would warm up soon.

9 stops, in three neighborhoods, to pick up food donations. A 31 mile ride. It was not work for Ruhiyyih and me. It was fun. We rolled through the city with purpose, but at a leisurely speed. We talked about our week, and found two pedestrian bridges we had not seen before.

This was February 9, Saturday, and we collaborated with The Southeast Portland Food Project.

The idea is simple. Purchase an extra item or two every time you go shopping and put these food products in the green “Food Project” bag for collection on pick up day. Pick up is the second Saturday of every even month, i.e., February, April, June…. Next one will be April 13, 2013.

Ruhiyyih and I did the collection with our Yuba and Bullitt cargo bikes. Cargo carrying bikes can be a great asset to this organization. At one collection site, when the homeowner saw our bikes, she stated that she would collect some extra heavy things for next pick up, determined to fill our bikes.

There are many ways to integrate cargo hauling bikes and the dedicated people that pilot them into food collection. I found The Southeast Portland Food Project to be simple and well run, not mired in bureaucracy. There is a clear goal and purpose. The people we met were friendly and committed to supporting our community with food.

Head on over to their web site to lend your support–Contact

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Previous post on The Southeast Portland Food Project, or see more photos.

The post from our pals across the ocean has arrived! And they did an homage to our photo. Nice job, guys. Awesome!

Head on over to Paris Cargo Bikes and read their full post. Don’t forget to book mark their web site because great things are happening in Paris…Paris Cargo Bikes.

WANT MORE PARIS CARGO BIKES? Here you go ….

If you have not favorited, liked, or are following Paris Cargo Bikes Meeting, I recommend you do so. They have a great deal of awesome going on. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Vimeo.

Here is our post to Paris Cargo Bikes.

In October and November 2012, KGW TV (NBC affiliate) gave a glimpse of Portland Prepared, posing the idea of preparedness and relief coming on cargo carrying two-wheeled vehicles through such emergency programs as Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NETs). For more, check out the lively discussion on this topic within the comments of the Bike Portland KGW post.

November 2012, in the aftermath of Sandy, Jonathan Maus (Bike Portland) reported on signs of hope on two wheels for New York City.

Bike use after disaster is not an new idea, and it is not limited to the three references above. However, I believe the visibility was in full effect during Sandy. Bikes can be used for disaster recovery and they are quite effective.

However, we must take seriously the idea of relief coming on two wheels, and for many, it is hard to imagine the future.

This is when turning to science fiction helps. These writers craft visions of the future that, while not exact predictions, are inferences to that which could be, pieces of possibility or blushes of the future.

In Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, he reports on an society many years in his future, but one that has shades of our current culture. Bradbury writes about ear thimbles (cell phones/radios); robot tellers (ATMs); mech hounds (smelling machines); interactive TVs the size of a wall; the lack of porches; Political Correctness; and even the idea of farm life being removed from daily life. In 1953, these ideas were fiction, but 60 years later, these ideas show a chilling insight into our society.

And no matter how technologically savvy a society gets, bikes appear.

In reading, The Wind Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009), I came across another vision of the future, and while many would say that this vision is less realistic, and therefore less probable than Fahrenheit 451, I say this is not so. The society that Bacigalupi creates is a far cry from what we know–in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, society is similar enough to what we know that the reader can readily relate; it is the structure of social interaction with which Bradbury plays.

Likewise, in its most basic story telling, Bacigalupi’s future is still a society where people act in a certain way based on the problems of the past. In this way, Bacigalupi’s vision is still one from which we can understand the future while stuck in the present.

The Wind Up Girl is set in Thailand in the 23rd century. Global warming has melted the ice caps and raised the oceans and seas, reducing the land in which humans live. Thailand has a huge damn with dikes to keep back the waters. This is a time of genetically modified animals used for work, and great food companies such as AgriGen and PurCals–they are called calorie companies because food exists, in most ways, strictly for the calorie content. The food is constantly engineered by these companies to escape pests and blister rust, updating often to new versions supposedly resistant to the current disease such as cibiscosis 111.mt7 and cibiscosis 111.mt8.

Most, if not all, of a person’s caloric intake is based on engineered food such as U-Trex rice, SoyPRO, HiGro corn, or TotalNutrient Wheat.

In this vision of the future, petroleum powered machines are too costly or impossible to use. Instead, great, massively engineered springs are wound to store joules.

The machines and vehicles that are powered by these springs are using energy stored up by human or animal compression of the springs. Energy came largely from calories spent.

In this future, transportation cannot come from petroleum powered machines. It is either animals, compressed springs, and bikes. Bikes appeared prominently in this novel. Your dystopian society will typically have bikes. Bikes are the machine of survival. Simple. Free of technology glitches and void of man’s failures.

Here are a few choice quotes found in The Wind Up Girl that relate to bikes. I will leave you to ponder the power and implications.

A seethe of traffic greets him, morning commuters clogging Thanon Rama IX like the Mekong in flood. Bicycles and cycle rickshaws, blue-black water buffaloes and great shambling megodonts. (4)

From below, the calls of water sellers and the cry of megodonts echo up. The chime of bicycle bells stream across the city. By noon, the city will be largely stilled, waiting for the sun to begin its descent. (64)

He [Hock Seng] squeezes around triple-locked bicycles, stepping carefully.

Mai shakes her head. “No. I came alone. I catch a ride with a farmer near the edge of the city. He brings me on his long-tail, up the khlongs. I always get here early. (163)

She [Kanya] straps the box of belongings to her cycle’s cargo rack and pedals across the compound. (195)

She [Kanya] wonders if it was really better in the past, if there really was a golden age fueled by petroleum and technology. (211)

This style of science fiction is often grouped under a more commonly used genre called Dystopian Stories, and less so under Speculative Fiction.

The future will contain bikes. Gi Bu Sen. I am sure.

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Bacigalupi, Paolo. The Wind Up Girl. San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2012. Print.

Two cargo bikes roll into a bar …
… and the bartender says, “I assume you’re here to get loaded.”

Punch line c/o Phillip Ross.

The Southeast Portland Food Project
Food Donation Pick Up
Saturday, February 9, 2013

The Southeast Portland Food Project (TSPFP) collects donated food the second Saturday of every even month (February, April, June, August, October, December). There is a donation pick up next month. Let’s collect and transport this food by bike.

TransportLand are not the organizers, but we will be there. For more information, contact The Southeast Portland Food Project.

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A little background on our promotion of this volunteer event:

In our work with The Oregon Food Bank (OFB), the idea of volunteers on cargo bikes has come up many times as a solution to (a) a volunteer need within the OFB system, (b) a desire to move beyond reliance on automobiles for transport, and (c) a need for new volunteers, especially younger adults.

Our plan with The Oregon Food Bank is still in creation. Dean Albany, the OFB man behind our partnership, connected us with The Southeast Portland Food Project as a way to actualize volunteer cargo bike delivery of donated food. TSPFP strives to build a stronger community while providing necessary food to hungry neighbors. Awesome.

One of the goals of TransportLand is to be a conduit for eager volunteers with cargo carrying bikes, and organizations with cargo carrying needs. Join us and create another line of connection in the Portland community web.

Bring your bike, and bring a friend.

Both photos from The Southeast Portland Food Project website.

Ruhiyyih and I went to Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) in December. This trip required my first passport and for pragmatic reasons, was my first trip outside of the United States; I am not counting various locations in Canada, nor just across the border into Tijuana.

I had three requirements for where we went: (a) beach, (b) warm–above 75 degrees, and (c) within our price range. So Puerto Vallarta it was, and I so enjoyed the trip. Puerto Vallarta is a destination for tourists both from and outside of Mexico, so the town is not indicative of a small Mexican town unencumbered by the trappings of tourists. However, The cultural differences were still plenty and the environment, people, and pace of life put a smile on my face.

Cargo bikes would do well in Puerto Vallarta. There were, of course, the vendor cargo bikes for food and drinks. However, a well organized business plan could bring cargo bikes into delivery transport or personal use, populating the city with an alternative to VW Beetles and scooters. I began formulating a way to live here, deliver goods by cargo bike, and make a modest living.

Dreams.

Portland has benefitted from food and service vendors that utilize bikes for transport. This allows a company to create itself much easier than if it had a building, trucks, and extensive staff. Company growth can also be carefully, and financially maintained to avoid overspending. Portland has seen its share of businesses that work by bike. Food and beverage bike set ups may be most obvious, but there are many. Think of a business, and you will likely find a business that uses bikes for transport.

Above is Taco Pedaler, Portland’s response to the food vendors I saw in Mexico, using a similar Mercurio cargo trike.

TransportLand has a list of cargo bike related businesses. Check them out the next time you need a painter, builder, plumber, flooring, farm fresh food, flowers, mattress, trailer, transportation, and of course–food. And if you ever need a delivery in Mexico, say 15 years from now, I may be there. Look me up.