Portland Bike Lane Spike Strips
Bike Portland is reporting on the latest sabotage of bike lanes in Portland, this time using a strip of tar paper cut to the width of the bike land with tacks pushed through. Glued to the ground, it’s hard to tell the hazard in place until the hiss of air coming from your tires. Just last month tacks were found in another lane, seemingly placed on purpose. Hopefully isolated incidents, but worth keeping in mind that even in bike lanes and on paths certain folks are still apt to attack cyclists for some reason or another.
Read more at www.bikeportland.org
scottOctober 20, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Never understood why people set up traps like this. I don’t get it, I don’t go slashing the wires on huge SUV’s even though I hate them. Makes no sense.
MasonOctober 20, 2011 at 12:17 pm
It could be anit-veloism, but really it could be bored teenagers as well.
Joe PeraltaOctober 20, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Slime™ tubes should defeat that and other rubbish. Watch out for clothesline traps. People who indulge such neurosis usually have to escalate to maintain the kick.
AbeOctober 20, 2011 at 9:38 pm
It baffles me how people can be so negative against something as pure as riding a bike. We aren’t hurting anyone or anything in fact we are creating a better world. I’ll never understand it.
KibbeeOctober 21, 2011 at 8:12 am
Ran over a broken beer bottle about a month back. Heard the glass crush under my tires. No flat. My Secret? Gator Skins combined with Tuffy Tape. Only 1 flat in last 3 years of riding. Maybe I’m just lucky, but before Tuffy Tape, and with cheap tires, I would get punctures monthly.
BrianOctober 21, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Not that it is relevant to this sabotage scenario, but you don’t necessarily need super bomb-proof tires or slime, or tuffy strips for everyday riding. My secret to no flats? Regular checking and maintaining the right pressure in my tires. No flats in 3 years across six different bikes, all are routinely ridden, some every day. And I live practically on a college campus where there is broken glass everywhere. It’s pretty amazing how well a properly inflated tire will help avoid flats.
Joe PeraltaOctober 22, 2011 at 8:52 am
I finally got around to reading the source post. Sorry, but calling that stretch of Marine Drive a “bike lane” is misleading. It’s a narrow 2-lane road with more high-speed car and truck traffic than it can handle, and lousy shoulders, narrow and pot-holed. It’s also an important link for people getting around Portland and Vancouver WA on bikes, so it’s a natural for conflicts between bikes and motor traffic. Apparently some local vigilante with an IQ in single digits decided to “do something about it”.
dontcoastOctober 23, 2011 at 2:39 pm
slime is such a pain and heavy too, if you’re going the sealant route notubes works better IMO
+1 on proper inflation and tire care
Jimmy boyOctober 24, 2011 at 10:11 am
Stealth marketing by the Slime peeps.
JamesNovember 21, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Exactly Jimmy boy