Phil (ascentale)@trouble asks:
Q5. Is there a fun personality in your area who cycles? Or does bike advocacy?
For example, in Portland, Oregon: https://www.unipiper.com/
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐@ascentale @trouble @bikenite #BikeNite A5. Well, I mean, *I'm* pretty fun!
But seriously, yes, Vermont is the Oregon of the Northeast, so we have our "Keep Vermont Weird" stickers just like you have your "Keep Portland Weird" stickers, and get this—my town has an actual circus school. One of their juggling faculty is one of our biggest bicycle advocates.
Of note, there is a local woman who rides around town on a unicycle while wearing a gorilla suit and other costumes.
gene x@ascentale @trouble @bikenite A5: the person I see riding around most would be Gary Fisher since I’ve seen him on trails when I used to mountain bike as well as cruising around SF. There’s also Deep who had the first trike with a sound system I had seen and then there’s the Tricycle Sound System at parties/events I guess? #BikeNite
@genex Is Bubble Girl still around? https://www.sfbubblegirl.com/about-bubblegirl-and-pinkie-tuscadero/
@ascentale I haven’t seen her but I haven’t been to bigger group ride type events much either
f*cking b*tch club@ascentale @genex I want her outfit!!
Ryan@ascentale @trouble @bikenite A5. I live near Portland OR so it would be cheating to re-use the unipiper...
One of the bigger bike advocates I know of in the area is @enobacon since they started - or are at least the most visible to me - using bike lane sweepers to keep the bike lanes free of debris and leaves.
As for Westside I'm not sure all whose who but Rudy - one of the regular ride leaders for Westside Wednesday - is always very vocal and enthusiastic on rides.
😀🚲@yantor3d @ascentale @trouble #bikeNight the #bikelaneSweeper belongs to @bikeloudpdx and many volunteers are working on the policy and action to make biking easier for everyone. We're currently trying to figure out where to leave the leaves that they would stay out of the bike lane.
Ed W8EMV 
A5 - Here in Ann Arbor, Hannah Stanton-Gockel has been organizing "Bubbles for Bike Lanes" rides with bicycle-mounted bubble machines and cadres of riders riding down marked bike lanes that need improvement. Here's her talk from Neighborhood Week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW9mHSeDW2M
I did the East Stadium bubble ride, which reminded me why every route I actually use across town avoids East Stadium's ultra-narrow "bike lanes" that are half in the gutter.
Bubbles for Bike Lanes - Hannah Stanton-Gockel | Neighborhood Week 2025
@w8emv @ascentale @trouble @bikenite We used bubble machines on our summer rides! Bystanders remembered the bubbles more than anything else. “What are they doing? Who are they?” ‘Dunno, but look st the cool bubbles!’
@ascentale @trouble @bikenite Alt text for image:
A bride and groom in traditional western wedding attire - a black tuxedo and a white dress - walk arm in arm along a bridge with old stone work railing. A downtown city skyline and lush green hills are in the background, along with the iconic "Portland Oregon" sign featuring a rearing reindeer. Ahead of the couple is a man in full Scottish outfit - kilt and all - riding a unicycle while playing bagpipes with flames coming out of the drones.
bjb 
@yantor3d Thank you for adding this! I've updated the image. I didn't realize that Buffer had added the image as an attachment (I was probably just not paying much attention)
Victor ForbergerDepends on your definition of fun and of two wheels.
https://badgerherald.com/banter/2016/04/13/who-is-madisons-thong-cape-scooter-man/
Who is Madison’s Thong Cape Scooter Man?
Madison residents revere the man like Gotham does Batman. His cape flaps at length in the wind, a standard of freedom for all. His scooter is mighty, a vehicle befitting a king. His nude thighs shine in the Wisconsin sun, drawing the attention of all those nearby. The hero in question is, of course, Thong Cape...
Megan Lynch (she/her)@ascentale @[email protected] @bikenite A5. In #DavisCA, I was definitely one of those people due to the #CargoQuad. When/if I get a recumbent trike, I will probably be that person in Albania...there are not that many recumbents in the country that aren't just passing through. And I assume they're passing through. I haven't seen a single one in my months here.
I missed getting a photo, but there was a guy in Pogradec who had his cycle decorated with lots of vintage lights like Quadrophenia. #BikeNite
@gcvsa @ascentale @bikenite A5. That was my quad. Had to leave it in the US.
It was made by Ti-Trikes. Due to the experience I had with it (don't know how searchable that will be on Mastodon), I'd recommend getting one of Utah Trikes' quads instead.
It was nice when it worked, expensive and a PITA when it didn't because Ti-Trikes customer service is poor. Dealer support is poor as well.
Mark Connolly moved to @@meganL @ascentale @bikenite 🎶Aren't you the guy who used to set the paces
Riding up in front of a hundred Faces
I don't suppose you would remember me
But I used to follow you back in '63 🎶
😀🚴🏼♀️🚴🏼🚴🏿♂️❤️
Nate Allen@ascentale @trouble @bikenite A5 The guy who started the #BikeBus phenomenon worldwide is a guy in #Portland named Sam Balto, and they had an officially Stranger Things themed ride for the kids recently. BikePortland is like a cheat code for this.
https://bikeportland.org/2025/11/24/video-sam-balto-on-the-bike-bus-stranger-things-collab-398299
Trouble@ascentale @bikenite in the San Francisco South Bay area we have our own chicken man who is very punny, gives away rubber chicken keychains and makes posts like this:
edd
Sean Reynolds@ascentale #BikeNite A5. My friend Kirkland was named in a recent thread in Reddit as being one of Alameda’s “that guy”s, local personalities. He puts on a number of trivia nights and is an all around dapper gentleman.
I’m almost positive I’ve seen Kenny the Clown riding around town too.
dr2chase@ascentale @trouble @bikenite A5 #BikeNite I think that might be my work colleague @crschmidt, who one day got an e-bike (I bugged him pretty often about biking to work before that) and then became a total evangelist and founded a dadgum non-profit e-bike lending library. https://cpp.ebikelibrary.org/
So, him.
Simon 🇳🇿🐮@ascentale @trouble @bikenite There's this guy here in Wellington, who rides around on an e-Pennyfarthing
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018867270/commuting-on-an-e-penny-farthing
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018867270/commuting-on-an-e-penny-farthing
JF 
@ascentale
A5: in my area (Greater London). There is Cycling Mikey, a person that rides around with a helmet camera and that report people driving with their phone at the wheel to the Met Police. They are happy enough to prosecute.
At some point he was also standing at a junction in Regents Park and preventing motorists from driving wrong side of the road at a junction. Search Gandalf corner in YouTube/maps
@trouble @bikenite
@ascentale
Mike was posting a lot of that on twatter attracting some disgusting replies but he keeps going.
His father was killed by a motorist I think and he is firmly convinced that publicising his work makes people think twice before pulling their phone out whilst driving
CW: The video below can be triggering
https://youtu.be/6zahycYG3Eo?si=c49zK07yvqI9SsPh
@trouble @bikenite
Hero or Villain? - I Spent A Day With Britain’s Most Notorious Cyclist
Inky says "What the hell?!"@jfparis @ascentale @trouble @bikenite Before I watch it how is it triggering?
Matthew Newell@ascentale @trouble @bikenite there is/was Pink Brompton Lady who was a semi mythical figure in SCR circles (forum based stupidity before London got cycle lanes and some common sense). A late middle aged woman on a custom pink Brompton who could and would drop almost any roadie who was in the vicinity.
My fastest ever transit of Horseguards (Back of Downing Street so not inconspicuous but nice road surface & good vision) was trying to catch her - I was almost on her wheel when our paths split
@MatthewNewell
Never heard of her before (2016 is about when I started cycling again in London)
@ascentale @trouble @bikenite
Never heard of her before (2016 is about when I started cycling again in London)
@ascentale @trouble @bikenite
David S@jfparis @MatthewNewell @ascentale @trouble @bikenite same here.
I did see a similar figure when I first started commuting, although only the once. I was blowing bubbles by the end.
Brompton guy
Michael ᚋᚔᚉᚆᚓᚐᚂ
Jon Roach@ascentale @trouble A5. I don't know about "fun personality", but this week I learned that the person who in the last five years wrote loads of cycling-advocacy letters to the local newspaper, riling the comments section just as much as you'd imagine, doesn't actually cycle, and, by the by, parked their car illegally to take photos of a local sex shop against which they were also obsessively campaigning, costing the local authority tens of thousands in processing their litany of complaints. 🤷♂️
PS It wasn't me.
Siegfried.@ascentale @trouble @bikenite A5. Don't know, if this counts, but I met this guy recently on the streets.
#bikenite
#bikenite
Mark@trouble @realSiegfried @ascentale @bikenite That’s a Penny farthing (or high-wheel) bicycle. They were common before the advent of the safety bike, which nearly all modern upright bikes derive from. Antique for sure!
dragonfrog@ascentale @trouble @bikenite A5 a fellow involved in our local bike co op makes fun outlandish bikes - here he is with one of his creations.
He let me try riding this one and it was very difficult to ride - I did not get the hang of it in the short time. The steering felt somehow backward because the steering tube is behind you and the handle bars extend forward to where you can hold them.
He's a really lovely fun fellow.