Zoobomb | |
---|---|
Genre | Bicycling |
Frequency | Weekly |
Location(s) | Portland, Oregon, USA |
Years active | Since 2002 |
Participants | Over 100 (as of 2005)[needs update][1] |
Website | zoobomb.net |
Zoobomb is a weekly bicycling activity in Portland, Oregon, United States during which participants ride bicycles rapidly downhill in the city's West Hills. Zoobomb began in 2002.[1]
Participants carry their bikes on MAX Light Rail to the Washington Park station next to the Oregon Zoo.[2][3] From there, participants take the elevator to the surface and then ride their bikes down the hills in the vicinity.[4] This process is often repeated several times throughout the night.[3]
The club began locally in 2002 when Zach Archibald, fresh off a bus from Texas, met a few people who rolled up on mini-bikes outside Rocco's Pizza at Southwest 10th Avenue and Oak Street. They eventually took Archibald up to Washington Park to go bombing, and the club fell together once word got out. Zoobombers are mostly teenagers and twentysomethings, with an occasional older rider thrown in. Skateboarders, longboarders and riders of "assacres" (low-rider scooters) have also joined in the weekly run, which routinely draws over a hundred people and has lured riders from as far away as Britain, South America and Japan.
Some of the bikes are left chained up in a pile in the city centre, which has itself become a local landmark. The ride, often repeated several times in an evening, starts with a journey on Portland's light rail system then a hike to the top of a hill, near the city's zoo.