Jun 4, 2026, 6:05 PM

I spent the last three days out in Bend doing a different flavor of my occasional volunteer #motorcycle work. The organization is called No Kid Hungry, and raises money for grants for school lunches (and presumably breakfasts). The event was called Chefs' Cycle, and it attracted lots of professional chefs, restauranteurs, and foodies who also like #bicycling . Each entrant had to bring in several thousand dollars in donations to participate, and apparently they raised over $1.2 million.

Never mind that, though; I'm here to talk about the motorcycle patrol. We had six riders—in addition to bike mechanics, SAG vehicles, and medical staff—patrolling a 100-mile and a 50-mile course for two days, keeping tabs on 130 bicyclists. For this event, I volunteered to be the coordinator for some reason. This meant I mostly* sat in a hotel room with the event manager, looking at dots on a laptop screen and radioing instructions to my six riders. I joked afterward that I'm ready to give up motorcycling and go into radio.

It was fun. As a fundamentally unorganized person, I was super stressed about being the coordinator (and I'm again stressed about the post-event admin stuff on my plate now), but it went off well, everyone worked well together, and everyone seemed to have a good time. We also got gourmet breakfast, dinner, and snacks each day.

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* On day two, I had to rescue one of my riders who had killed his battery following my instructions, so I did get a little sun and fresh air.

A set of orange temporary road signs along a rural highway. A large diamond-shaped sign in the middle reads "Cycling event" with arrows pointing forward and to the left. A smaller sign reads "Left turn" with the number 50 written on it in black several times. The third sign reads "Continue straight" with the number 100 written on it in black several times.

Six motorcycles are parked along a curb in front of a large lodge-style building, angled out toward the road. Each bike has a yellow "Event Patrol" sign taped to its windshield. The riders of the bikes, all wearing orange and yellow reflective vests, are in various stages of preparation, examining gear and putting helmets on. In the background is a large blue and orange inflatable arch and several brightly-clad bicyclists. A nosy white-haired gentleman in a checked flannel shirt and a black t-shirt is walking along the line of motorcyclists, asking them random questions about their motorcycles as they try to prepare for the upcoming event.

A photo, shot from a forty-five degree angle, of a section of rural road from the perspective of a motorcyclist: handlebars, mirrors, and a tank bag with a paper map clipped to it. The rider is on the double-yellow lines in the middle of the road, and a column of mostly orange-clad bicyclists stretches down the road along the motorcyclist's right. There is a cloudless blue sky overhead, and some trees near the horizon.

A long, thick column of roughly 130 brightly-clad bicyclists pedals down a wide city street, past a large wood-timbered building and into the cloudless sunrise.