Sweet rides
Shortly before graduating from USM and becoming a tech writer, I wrote some features for the local alt weekly, the Portland Phoenix. I wrote this story for the July 8, 2005 issue.
Sweet rides
The Bike Cycle caters to Portland’s urban cyclers, one straggler at a time
The Bike Cycle shop in Portland, opened on April Fool’s Day 2004 by Percy Wheeler and Dugan Murphy, has emerged as a haven for many local cyclists who see cycling as a lifestyle rather than a sport. This unassuming little blue shop on the corner of Deering and Congress streets caters to its own niche market — the hip urban cyclist, that horn-rimmed antithesis to the sport rider on his skinny performance bike, head to toe in spandex. The shop has captured a lot of lucrative business — and the imagination — of many in the urban cycling community.
“I knew this was the bike I wanted as soon as I saw it,” one guy in his early twenties told me when I visited the shop recently. He was sanding rust from the handlebars of an ancient green Schwinn. “It just suits my personality. It’s solid and strong, even if it’s a little heavy.”
Kneeling at another bike behind the counter, Percy Wheeler, the shop’s owner, concurred.
“That’s a tough bike,” he said, motioning to the Schwinn. I frowned at the frame’s many rust spots and the grimy, obsolete parts. It was certainly a bike with character but it wasn’t a bike I’d ever ride. Still, only the coldest heart could deny the love between a guy and his old dawg.
(Read the rest of the story on the Phoenix’s website here)