Bike Gallery in Action at Cycle Oregon '08

Every year, come September, a small army of Bike Gallery staffers gets busy making sure everything is in place for what to many of our customers is the pinnacle of summer cycling season: Cycle Oregon. This year, the 21st edition of the weeklong cycling adventure was staged in the remote and veru scenic northeast corner of our state - right on the Idaho border - and included such scenic attractions as Hell's Canyon, Wallowa Lake, and peaceful rural towns like Elgin, Halfway and Joseph.

Like in the past 20 years, the Bike Gallery was one of the main sponsors of the event and traveled along with the 2,000+ cyclists to provide a host of services along the way, from on-road and in-camp bike repair, comfort fit services, free clincs, and a mobile store that featured everything from cycling gear - think lots of tubes, chamois butter and lycra accessories - to a full array of camp essentials - like tooth brushes, suncreen and even spare sleeping bags.

On any typical Cycle Oregon day, Bike Gallery mechanics can be spotted working on riders' bikes from as early as six in the morning to as late as midnight. And at the rest stops along the route, riders will come across at least two mobile Bike Gallery service & repair teams, helping out riders with any mechanical or riding problems they encounter. Our mechanics' charter is simple: keep them all rolling.

Also very popular every year are the Comfort Consults we offer each evening in camp. This year we had a number of our Fit Specialists out at Cycle Oregon, including Fit Services manager Aaron "Rambo" Harrison. Their intent goes beyond just keeping them rolling. Says Rambo: "Our Fit Services are all about maximizing riders' comfort and efficiency on the bike. And when you are riding 50 to 80 miles a day for 7 days in a row, a comfortable ride is not some excessive luxury feature, but a bare neccessity; at least if you don't want to look back at your Cycle Oregon adventure as a torturous and painful affair."

Besides providing a host of services to riders, our staff is also actively participating in the fun, mixing it up with riders during the day (we make sure every staffer gets a couple days of riding in) and every evening in camp. According to Bike Gallery's Community Outreach & Marketing Manager Barb Grover - who has been at Cycle Oregon for 15 years and the Bike Gallery's Cycle Oregon team coordinator for the last 5 years - "it's a great opportunity for our staff to interact with our customers outside a store environment and connect around a shared passion: riding our bikes and having fun while we are at it."