Report from the Made in Oregon Bike Expo

Ahearne’s off-road touring machine.
See all my photos from the show.

Today was a layover day on Cycle Oregon. That meant that we could either do a ride up and around Crater Lake (which I did; it was awesome), or hang out at Diamond Lake.

Ride organizers thought this would be a perfect opportunity to showcase some Oregon-made bike products; especially the work of our large and talented crop of framebuilders.

Showing up to show off their work were:

Vendetta Cycles from Albany

• Jeff Jones / Jeff Jones Bicycles
• Bill Stites / Stites Design
• Jim Bombardier / Bi-Saddle
• Natalie and Austin Ramsland / Sweetpea Bicycles
• Ira Ryan / Ira Ryan Cycles
• Conor Buescher and Garrett Clark / Vendetta Cycles
• Tony Pereira / Pereira Cycles
• Dwan Sheppard / Co-Motion Cycles
• Joseph Ahearne and Mitch Pete Hedman / Ahearne Cycles

I loved Jeff Jones’ bikes. He’s an interesting guy, sort of an iconoclast, and has some very different perspectives on mountain bikes. He goes for “vertical compliance” and does some amazing things with titanium (so amazing that a frameset will set you back $4,300). He aims to give you a comfortable, well-handling ride without using suspension shocks. I’ve heard he’s got an eight-year waiting list so he must be on to something.

The work of Jeff Jones.

A sweet little ‘cross bike from Sweetpea.

The big news from Jeff Jones is that he’s now having Merlin make some of his bikes so he can concentrate on development instead of manufacturing.

The bikes of Vendetta Cycles from Albany also caught my eye. They plan on coming to Portland in November and you should definitely spend some time in their booth.

Land Shark by John Slawta

My favorite bike of the day was Joseph Ahearne’s latest creation. It’s an off-road touring beast of a bike. Like all of Joseph’s bikes there’s more than meets the eye. How about the head badge? It’s a detachable, titanium spork. And he even attached a cute, little owl on the stem.

When I posted about this show a few weeks back, some of you were bummed you couldn’t make it up to Diamond Lake on a weekday. Well, you’re in luck, because all of these builders, and many others will be coming to Portland for the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show on November 11.

Until then, take a gander at all of my photos from the expo.