Portland Design Works, or “PDW” to the fans like us, are an excellent local bike accessory (& more) maker. From super sweet cup holders to supremely designed grips – PDW really brings a breath of fresh air into an industry weighed-down by bland utility and cold, corporate packaging. Portland Design Works’ gear is not just functionally fresh but it’s also about as far from vanilla as one can get. Products bearing neo-retro-space-age names like “RADBOT 500″ and “spaceship”  & illustrated packaging hollering back to the best toys of my youth, PDW already sets themselves apart. But it doesn’t end here – they’ve gone further, making connections in the community and innovating in both ways big and small with their practical, everyday & urban bicycle accessories for everyone from PRO racers to work-commuting hobbyists. They really have got it happening.

Why am I writing this on our Trees By Bike blog?
Well, besides the fact that I love their stuff to begin with, PDW also hooked us up in a cool way this year. They provided us with a handful of their wonderful lightsets for nighttime deliveries. The heartfelt gift will keep our riders safe, and hopefully it will give them even more attention that they so totally deserve.

Just as a little note, their products make great holiday gifts. As a cyclist I get a lot of bicycle related gifts for my birthday and Christmas, and let me tell you there’s nothing like getting these simpler essentials. Whether it’s a lightset, some grips, a shirt, clip-on fender, or a rack – these are pretty perfect products that would make excellent presents. Just saying.

Thanks PDW, thanks for keeping our riders safe and illuminating our way through the cold, winter nights.

Check out Portland Design Works on ze interwebz
http://www.ridepdw.com/
http://twitter.com/portlanddesignw

We had the utter pleasure of wandering around a small forrest yesterday to tag our trees for this year. I’m serious when I say it was a pleasure, I love Christmas Trees and meandering through a dense collection of Noble Firs really makes me happy. The farm hand, Lee, led me around scoping out some beautiful trees to tag (he also told me about his band and left me with a demo CD at the end!). We were able to grab a grip of good, natural trees…but’s it’s always hard for me. I’m a perfectionist and I have to remind myself, “Max, these are trees – they grow in the ground, they AREN’T from a factory floor.” Weird what an impact our culture has on ideas about beauty through uniformity. But then I spend 3 hours in these trees and I start to see beauty in the twisting, unsymmetrical shapes. Real beauty I guess, the way it once was everywhere.

Well, long story short, we got the trees sorted….how exciting.

It’s been fun (and dangerous) driving though the more snowy parts of Oregon – but I’m glad to relax and enjoy some turkey today (even if that turkey is actually lamb…yumm).

So happy Thanksgiving everyone, and remember to tell your friends and family just how thankful you are. I love everyone in my life very dearly, but I want to mention my mom and pop today. Without them I wouldn’t be the person I am today, and I am infintely thankful for their sacrifices and constant ability to grow as individuals. I love you both very much.

ENJOY THE FOOD AND DRINK TODAY!

We’ve updated our deivery area for this season. While the largest area is no longer included, we’ve beefed up the regular delivery service area and added downtown Vancouver, WA to our Extended Weekend Delivery Area.

As always, though, if you ask real nice and provide some hot refreshments for our rider, we can normally extend our delivery area for you.

That’s right, Trees By Bike is happy to spread the love to our jewish friends! Celebrate the Festival of Lights with some pedal-delivered candles this year.

Thanks to the suggestion of our friend Beth Hamon, we have procured some boxes of candles from Congregation Beth Israel here in Portland, and are ready to ride them out to you today. Here at Trees By Bike we may not celebrate Hanukah every year ourselves, but we have a great appreciation for the meaning and tradition of this holiday. Hopefully this can be a small “mitzvah” to get our Jewish friends’ hanukkah going.  So get your menorah ready and let your friends know!

We will be delivering until Dec 1st, the first day of Hanukkah!

*Thanks to the very generous Congregation Beth Israel, we’re able to lower our price to $5/box!

Order a box of Hanukkah Candles – $5/box

HANUKKAH CANDLES ARE SOLD OUT FOR THE SEASON. HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY AND BE BLESSED.

We are proud to announce that ProjectGrow will be hosting our dispatch lot this year in their North Portland Farm. It’s wonderful to work with such a great organization and we are very thankful.

Also, this year 10% of all our sales will be gifted to Project Grow to say “thanks” for all the excellent stuff they do.

Check out Project Grow’s website and get involved today!

With the season approaching quick, we’ve been making our list and checking it twice.

First on the list was making the business more official this year. With the help of the beautiful and spirited Christina, we were able to complete our Business Name paperwork and get filed. $50 later and we’re actually a business! (Well $50 and all the other hard work we’ve done).

While my ultimate dream is to get Trees By Bike in as a not-for-profit business, there wasn’t the time or the staff to get everything sorted out in time this year. Rest assured though, we’re not around to make profit – we’re here to spread cheer and hopefully raise a little cash to help the world be a better place.

With the help of the Trees By Bike Reindeer (aka Godzilla), we took a look at some trees in the Salem area just today. There were many contacts from last year that wanted to work with us this year, but we’re really looking for the best trees at the best price to make everything simple and affordable. This small farm had some nicely shaped trees, but only Nobles. We’ll see what happens!

Get cheery people, it’s almost the season.

With our delivery season now well over, we just wanted to say a quick “THANKS!” to Molly Cameron and all the folks at Veloshop (Ryan, Jake, and Brent). Without your support, space, and occasional food, TreesByBike would not have done so well.

Thanks a lot for everything.

Help our friend by supporting them. Visit MollyCameron.com and stop by Veloshop for any of your bike needs!

You can also check out this great video by CyclingDirt on Molly Cameron and Veloshop seen below.

Cycling Videos on CyclingDirt

Today, 12/23, Portland Sucks had me, Max, on their show to talk about TreesByBike and the whole delivering giant items by bicycle experience. Robert Wagner and Sabrina Miller were excellent hosts, and extremely entertaining. It was hard to get myself together at first, with a lead-in immediately following some classic comments by Robert.

Check out the podcast here at Portland Sucks podcast #195 here >>

You can also listen live to the Portland Sucks antics weekdays at 8am or subscribe to their podcast on iTunes.

Thanks again Portland Sucks!

Trees By Bike has reached the next level of total Christmas Tree delivery domination. Today, Friday the 18th of December 2009, marks a day that will always be remembered as “Trees By Bike being mentioned in BikeSnobNYC’s Friday quiz” day!

That’s right, the unruly New York bicycle elitist has cast his burning stare upon our woolen northwest backs. And things for us will never be the same.

Link: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2009/12/bsnyc-hot-friday-quiz-action.html

P.S. for the few emails I’ve received. No we do not deliver outside of Portland, and yes we realize it’s funny to ask that question over and over.