Did I mention how excited Bike Gallery is about being a Platinum level Bicycle Friendly Business? Only one other business in the US shares that honor and that’s New Belgium Brewing. I wasn’t surprised to hear of their achievement. They’ve been busy creating and promoting bike fun all across the country with Tour de Fat in the fall and the Urban Assault Ride in the spring. The Urban Assault Ride returns to Portland on May 31, Not only is it a ton o’ fun, it also benefits our local bike advocacy champions — the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

What’s an Urban Assault Ride you ask? It’s the biggest bike scavenger hunt in the world! Grab a friend, your bikes, and take to the streets of Portland traveling to checkpoints scattered around town. At each checkpoint you’re challenged by a mental or physical task. The team that completes the course first, wins…and the winners get a pair of New Belgium Brewing cruiser bikes. That’s a sweet prize. Time to start training!

Want to join the Urban Assault fun for free?

To honor our fellow platinum business and celebrate the Urban Assault Ride, Bike Gallery is giving away entry for a team and is holding a haiku contest to determine who gets to join the fun for free. Why haiku? I dunno… perhaps because haiku is a compact and meaningful form of poetry, Portland is a compact form of a city and bikes provide a meaningful form of transportation?

Your challenge is to compose a little poem that expresses why you should get the free team entry. Remember 5/7/5 from school? That’s what we’re looking for, although get close and your entry will count. Haikus submitted must be family-friendly too since we’ll post a couple of our favorites on our Web site. But, we’ll select a winner at random from the qualifying haikus submitted. Send your haiku to info@bikegallery.com by May 15th at noon — one entry per person please. The lucky winner of the free entry will be announced here on the evening of the 15th.

Visit the Urban Assault Ride Web page for more information about the event, and start composing your haiku today!