Next generation spin cycle

Cargo, transport, Opa bikes, more make a Clever business

By Kate Gawf

Pamplin Media Group, Jul 10, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Family transport’s the focus of Clever Cycles, where the two co-owning families really ride their talk, as shown by (from left) Dean Mullin — with Carl Fahrner, 4, as cargo — and Todd and Martina Farhner.

L.E. BASKOW / Pamplin Media Group

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When did bicycling get so complicated? You’ve got your specially designed superhero outfit that includes everything but a cape. You’ve got a massive lock, padded gloves, a leg band, bike shoes, rain gear, not to mention an arsenal of removable blinking lights.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could throw on a flouncy skirt, hop on a bike and roll off? Maybe even give someone a ride along the way?

Why resort to a car just because you have kids to pick up, or groceries, or a dog?

These were the thoughts of two Portland couples as they planned the opening of Clever Cycles, just off Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard.

The key word here is clever, the theme is utilitarian, and the news is good: No longer must you be excluded from cycling just because you’d like to dress like a normal person or can’t get your leg up high enough to get on a bike.

Welcome to a world in which bicycles have integrated lights and locks, built-in fenders with mudflaps, chain guards, skirt guards and fully enclosed hub gears that can be shifted at a complete standstill – to name a few features.

When Todd and Martina Fahrner met Dean and Rachel Mullin, they found that all four of them shared similar ideas. Both couples had moved to Portland within the past four years looking for the same thing – a kid-friendly city where you could get around on foot and by bike.

The Fahrners moved here with their 2-year-old in 2004 from San Francisco, where they depended entirely on bicycles. They never have owned a car.

The Mullins moved from New Jersey in 2003 with two children, and since have had two more. “I guess the biking sort of happened after we moved here,” Rachel Mullin says. “At first we were walking everywhere, and then we realized, ‘Wow, we can go anywhere on a bike!’ So then with each additional kid we had to figure out how to still get there by bike.”

“Rachel’s our family transportation specialist,” Martina Fahrner says. “With four kids and no car, she’s tried out every configuration of bicycle hauling project there is.”

“We met only last year,” says Todd Fahrner of the Mullins. “We knew they were good people when they showed up on a tandem with a trailer-bike, with a trailer behind that.”

All four saw an underserved market for utility bikes, and decided to open a store together. As Martina Fahrner explains: “We are both families who wanted to use the car less, and trying to do that, especially with kids, you end up with a very strange collection of bikes, each one practical for certain things, and we thought conscientiously about what would be a good roundup of that. We wanted family-friendly transport bikes.”

Bikes go to day care, opera

Clever Cycles is Portland’s sole vendor of the Dutch cargo bike made by Bakfiets. You can’t go anywhere in Amsterdam without seeing a bunch of them go by, their large front bins laden with groceries, supplies and children.

Clever Cycles also carries longtail bikes, built with more than the usual amount of space behind the seat for cargo or passengers, and “city bikes,” basically utilitarian bikes meant for commuting, as opposed to the lightweight, high-performance bikes used for racing or touring.

In addition, the shop sells seats for carrying children – including difficult-to-find front seats – and high-quality foldable bikes that can be packaged up and carried onto trains and buses, like luggage.

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