Biketown Bike-Share in Portland

A new bike-share system makes it even easier to see the city on two wheels.

Updated Sept. 3, 2024 3 min read

Know Before You Go

You can create an account via the Biketown website or app before your visit, making it easy to rent and roll when you arrive.

Getting around Portland like a local has gotten much easier since the bike-share program known as Biketown arrived in 2016.

Biketown’s 1,000 bright orange, eight-speed bicycles are equipped with integrated baskets, front and rear lights and reflective paint jobs. They also carry communications, payment and locking technology, making them easy to find, reserve, park and ride throughout the central city.

Cyclists riding towards trees beside a field on the Banks-Vernonia State Trail

Bicycling the Banks-Vernonia State Trail

The small logging town of Vernonia has become a central hub for bike routes through the surrounding state forest.

a crowd of bikers riding across a bridge during Bridge Pedal

Pedalpalooza Bike Festival

Portland’s cycling culture peaks during summer’s multi-week Pedalpalooza, featuring 200+ local-led, themed rides, all open to the public.

woman sitting on the ground in front of a pondwith a bicycle next to her

Bicycle Maps & Where to Ride

With bike lanes and paths throughout the city, Portland has great places to ride for cyclists of all abilities.

How to Use Biketown

The best option for visitors is to pay as you go. After paying a one-time $5 sign-up fee, you’ll be charged 8 cents per minute ($2.40 for 30 minutes of use). You can use up to four bikes per account.

Riders can check out bikes at one of 20 kiosks or via the Biketown website or free smartphone app. When you’re done riding, you can lock the bike at any Biketown station in the service area.

Kiosk locations include:

Pioneer Courthouse Square
Director Park
Nike
Jamison Square
Oregon Convention Center
McMenamins Bagdad Theater

The Biketown program, funded by local shoe and sportswear giant Nike, is managed by Motivate, which operates many of the world’s largest bike-share systems, including those in the Bay Area, New York, Chicago, Toronto and Melbourne.

Adaptive Biketown

A woman pedals a recumbent three-wheeled bike with a bridge in the background — The Adaptive Biketown program offers a variety of hand-powered, foot-powered and electric-assist vehicles.

Biketown has partnered with local bike rental company Kerr Bikes to create Adaptive Biketown, a program dedicated to increasing access to bicycles for those with disabilities. Rental options include hand-powered bikes, foot-powered bikes and multi-user bikes. The program also offers accessory rentals like calf support pedals, special grips and self-balancing pedals.

Renting a bike is as simple as visiting the Adaptive Biketown website, selecting your bicycle or accessory and entering the date and time for your rental. Bicycles can then be picked up at Kerr Bikes in Southeast Portland from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. (If you need to rent a bike outside of those hours, special requests are considered.)

Black History Month Collection

During Black History Month in February 2019, Biketown debuted five new bikes featuring vibrant, multicolor and geometric designs in celebration of Black History. The bikes were wrapped in designs that drew inspiration from vintage posters and sociopolitical art of the 1960s and ‘70s civil rights movement. They also included elements associated with traditional African fabric designs, like the front basket’s West African kente cloth pattern. Against Biketown’s signature solid orange motif, the Black Culture Collection bikes’ modern design stood out in striking fashion.

The challenge to design the African diaspora-inspired bikes was led by the Nike Black Employee and Friends network. Nike color designer Marcellus Johnson (who also worked on the color scheme and design elements for the brand’s Black History Month-inspired footwear collection) created the unique bike wraps.

Biketown's Black History Month collection drew inspiration from Pan-African culture.

man bikes past a coffee shop on a bike designed for Biketown Culture Collection — Coffee founder Ian Williams bikes past his coffee shop.

Cyclists bike through downtown Portland on bikes designed for Biketown Culture Collection — Cyclists bike through downtown Portland on Biketown bikes.

Johnson. “I drew from Pan-African culture and used methods of print and collage relative to our journey in a way that speaks to how we as a people can reimagine our future. Through textiles rooted in continental Africa, I wanted to create a visual that embodied a point of view about our connection and journey.”

Women’s History Collection

In March 2019 Biketown unveiled its Women’s History Month collection using its Twitter account to promote a different local woman-owned business every day of March.

These special designs join 2018’s Design Challenge Collection, which featured community-designed patterns inspired by Portland landmarks. And more special collections rolled out throughout 2019 (including veteran-designed bikes for National Military Appreciation Month in May). No matter which bike design you get, borrowing a bike from one of Biketown’s 145 stations is the perfect way to discover the city’s many communities.