In Memoriam

Last week, our fellow bicycle warrior, Ms. Glenna Evans, a founding member of Victoria’s bicycle performance art group The Velo Vixens, died suddenly in a longboarding crash in British Columbia. Glenna was an art student, longboarder, tattoo artist, Recyclista, activist, friend, and family to many of us. Glenna’s contibutions to the worlds of art, bike advocacy, and longboarding inspired us. Glenna appeared fearless in her bold willingness to engage and learn. Her strength in soul, mind, and body will be remembered as an example of a truly righteous woman. Our deepest sympathies go to Glenna’s friends and family. To Team Canada, the Victoria community, The Velo Vixens, The B.C. Clettes, The Brakes, the circus and fire crew, the Vancouver community, the longoarding crew, The Recyclistas, Cascadia, and the hundreds more who felt and knew Glenna’s magic — we send you love!

I hold it true, whate’er befall;

I feel it when I sorrow most;

‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

– Alfred, Lord Tennyson

PEDALPALOOZA!

Hey everyone, nice to see you again! It’s June, and here in Portland that means we’re in the middle of “Pedalpalooza”–a multi-week bikey extravaganza that’s in its 8th year! You can check out the calendar (almost 300 events! Holy moly!) here: pedalpalooza.org.

Here at Sprockettes headquarters we’ve successfully emerged from our annual blackout month, with a couple new numbers to show for our hard work!

We’ll be unveiling one of them (along with some classics) on a ride that we’re leading as a part of Pedalpalooza. If you’d like to join us for an evening of moderately paced family friendly riding, fun, games, and (of course) dancing, here’s the DL:

Sprockettes Bike Ride and Dance Party
Wednesday, June 23rd
6pm
Da Vinci Middle School (NE 27th & Everett)

View Larger Map

Come with your dancing shoes on, and if you want to warm our hearts, all dressed up in pink & black!

A few days after our ride, we’ll be performing at the Multnomah County Bike Fair! This is an all-afternoon event featuring performers, participatory events, vendors, and spectacles in general. It’s also our BIRTHDAY SHOW! We’ve got a pretty flashy song ready to debut to celebrate turning another year older, so don’t miss it!

Multnomah County Bike Fair
Sunday, June 27th
SE 14th and Alder
2pm–7pm, we perform around 4:30, but you’ll want to stay for the whole event!

Hope we see you there!

Summer Fever

Spring is here, and the Sprockettes are taking this month to hone our skills, learn some new dances, and dream about the summer. We call this month Blackout, and we don’t book any shows.  It’s an exciting month for us, and we thank you for understanding that we need some straight-up Sprockettes time so we can bring you the funnest performances ever this summer.

That being said, we’re turning our minds and hearts towards summer.  The sun and heat brings us out of our shells.  Some of you may be excited to see us again, and we love that!  If that’s the case, please check out our (slowly growing) Upcoming Shows page.

If you’re interested in booking the Sprockettes for a show this summer, now’s the time to make your request!  (Yeah, fer realz.  Our schedule fills up quickly.)  Go to the Booking page and fill out the webform.

See you guys soon!

The Sprockettes looking dapper while dancing their new song. Photo credit: bikeportland.org

March Shows

Happy spring, everyone! We’ve got two rad shows booked this month that we’d love to see your smiling faces at.
Sunday, March 7th, 2:25pm:

Portland’s International Women’s Day celebration, downtown at PSU! An event filled day that “celebrates the richness, strength, and value of women and their contributions to the community. ” For more details, visit their website at http://piwd.org

On Saturday, March 20th, we’ll be celebrating the 5th anniversary of a group of our favorite freakbike-building, fun-loving, trouble-makin’ friends–the Dropout Bike Club! Our performance on Saturday night is part of a 3 day fun-filled weekend, including (but not limited to) potlucks, games, dance parties, races, and BBQing. Many events are family friendly, and everyone is welcome! For more details, see their website at http://dropoutbikeclub.blogspot.com/

Epic Fun with the Sprockettes

Your favorite hometown homegirls will be performing this Saturday at the Mini Bike Winter party. The venue location is secret, but there’ll be a ride departing from Alberta Park at 9pm. We go on soon after the ride arrives at the venue, so don’t be late (you wouldn’t want to miss our new song)! Also, bring some scrilla for the rad silent auction that’s planned.

A big shout out to the lovely and talented Irondelles for coordinating this event.

Get your Sprockettes fix!

It’s dreary, cold and windy out, but the Sprockettes still perform.  Come see us this Friday, January 8 at 7pm at Project Grow in the “Port City” building, 2124 N Williams Ave.  Project Grow is will be having its third lecture series from 6-10pm.   Natasha Wheat will be giving a lecture entitled “The Tensions Between Utopic and Dystopic Constructions”.  Hope you can join us during your commute home.

Merchandise now available online-HERE!!!!

Support the Sprockettes. Get yer pink and black on and order your t-shirts here today!

(Shipping is included if mailed within the continental US. Please email us for shipping costs elsewhere. Thanks.)

Colors

W Pink Shirt/Black Moon $12.00 W Pink Shirt/Black Stars $12.00 W Black Shirt/Pink Moon $12.00 W Black Shirt/Pink Stars $12.00 M Black Shirt/Pink Moon $12.00 M Black Shirt/Pink Stars $12.00 M Pink Shirt/Black Moon $12.00 M Pink Shirt/Black Stars $12.00

Sizes

Small Medium Large

We also have wristbands, patches, buttons, posters and postcards coming soon….

BikeCraft Five on the Five

Friends, while the Sprockettes don’t endorse the celebrating or not-celebrating of any holiday, or the buying or not-buying of holiday gifts, we do endorse the gathering of artists and the selling of bike-related objects. The holidays are a great time for these things to happen! These gatherings of artists bring together a community and give us cause to shout in celebration of DIY things that are useful, beautiful, whimsical, and sometimes even waterproof. And the next gathering is BikeCraft V.

There will be cider! There will be food!

And there will be so many exceptional artists selling clothing, jewelry, household wares, bags, drawings, and more, that you really can’t pass up the opportunity to see and be seen at the fabulous-est coming together of bike and art of the year.

Please come out to support local artists while you handily cross people’s names (including your own) off your gift shopping list with a flourish. I’m not sure, but I bet there will be some type of bike pen there that you can use on said shopping list.

The Sprockettes will proudly be selling our bike dance team merchandise, almost all of which is handmade by us. Various team members will also be selling their own handmade crafts so be sure to spend large numbers of minutes or hours at our table.

Keep in mind that many of the arts and crafts pieces you will find at this event were likely to have been transported to the venue by bicycle.
Carbon footprint = 0.
Foot traffic from happy, satisfied shoppers = everyone there.

Saturday, December 5th from 10am-5pm
Sandbox Studio warehouse located at 420 NE 9th Ave.

Sprockettes gettin muddy

A lot of you have been telling us to not get too attached to our softer side lately. So in response, we decided to go cyclocross! But then some people said “Ok, not bad. It’s not the soft side, but it’s still not hard core enough.” So we’ve decided to go single speed cyclocross.

This weekend (sorry for the short notice) after the Cross Crusade race on Sunday, November 8th, will be the Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships at 4pm. This is the Portland Single Speed Collective, and since we’re a collective, how could this not be a perfect match?

Portland International Raceway (PIR) at West Delta Park – 1940 North Victory Boulevard
Sunday
3:45pm for our show
4:00pm for the Single Speed racing

Bring your galoshes.

Get lit and give love!

So I just bought a new bell for my bike the other day at a bike shop I’d never been to before, Metropolis Cycle Repairs. They had an I (heart) PDX bell, which I thought would be a nice accessory to display on my bike. As I watch people on the MAX stare at my city-love proclaiming bell, I think to myself “Hmm, what do I love about PDX?” I think of the fall colors, the kind people, the fabulous public transportation….My mind travels not to exotic places, but to my home.

What’s the newest thing I (heart) about PDX? The Community Cycling Center‘s Get Lit. I’m riding home from work in the autumnal evening darkness in a constant panic that my rear light is dead. The hook on the back broke so I can’t fit it onto the bracket. So it’s zip-tied to the bike. So when the batteries die (they’re already dying), I can either never take the light off to replace them, or I can’t get the light back on in safely, snugly back into the zip ties. But what do I find but a mass of well-lit Community Cycling Center volunteers handing out AND installing Planet Bike rear and front lights. For free. For us. For me. For the young woman who pulled up right after me in a lather of joy and appreciation because her rear light was recently stolen, and unlike me with my dying batteries, she had none. She had none. Now she has some. And they are bright. And safe. So safe.

I (heart) PDX and the way that grassroots organizations will step up to encourage and support biking. We don’t have all the kinks worked out for truly sharing the road (such as building up more and safer infrastructure for cycling and public transit instead of a 12-lane behemoth that practically dares drivers to try to fill it up each day), we are moving in the right direction. By PSU we have bike tracks. We have bike boxes around town. And thanks to the ever-wonderful CCC, we have even more folks out there who can see and be seen on the road. We’re moving in the right direction, and the way is lit.