Originally posted by 165-48:17
Portland! w00t!
I love that town. RCB, FTF, very cool shops. Plus Powell's books (yeah we have one here, but it is not Portland!). I almost moved out there...but Chicago is home.
yeah, it's pretty sweet
i live downtown, 2 minutes from powell's. it's a good city to be a cyclist in; drivers don't give you crap and the city management has made a good effort to make things bike-friendly.
as far as my favorite shop, it's Bike Central--the only place around here that has more single speed and track bikes on display than multi-gear road bikes
there are two main bike subcultures that have a weird vibe going on between them: the "true roadies" who wear spandex and proper cycling gear, and people who typically don't wear helmets and ride in street clothes, a lot of times on track bikes or singlespeeds. the roadies will refer to the other riders as "hipsters" and the "hipsters" refer to the othery guys as "logo monkeys", "glow-in-the-dark" and "twinkies." there's always a weird vibe when they run into each other on the streets... sadly. i don't know if that reflects the world at large.
nevertheless, i love portland.