Joseph Ahearne.
View slideshow below
(Photo © Jonathan Maus)
Many people have heard about Portland’s large and talented crop of custom bike builders, but not everyone knows that this burgeoning industry reaches statewide.
Much like our state’s heralded craft brewing industry, Oregon has become a hotbed for builders of handcrafted bicycles.
This Sunday you’ll have the rare opportunity to see them all in one place at the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show.
The show is the brainchild of local veteran bicycle craftsman Andy Newlands. Back in March, Newlands formed the Oregon Bicycle Constructors Assocation to help organize and promote Oregon-made bikes.
Newlands first put torch to metal on his Strawberry bicycles over 30 years ago. Now, Portland’s Grand Man of framebuilding is helping newcomers with advice and guidance.
of handmade bike.
(Photo © Jonathan Maus)
At Sunday’s show, alongside meticulously honed lugs and masterful paint jobs will be bikes of a different flavor; Portland’s very own Zoobombers and the Dropout Bike Club.
Zoobombers are known for their artful and aerodynamic conversions of mini-bikes into stylish, downhill speed machines. The Dropout Bike Club, started by David “Chops” Darby (and others), is sort of a kinder, gentler, more inclusive version of Portland’s original freak-bike subculture group, C.H.U.N.K. 666.
Suffice it to say, this event should be an unforgettable gathering and a unique celebration of art, culture, craftsmanship and industry.
During this year’s Cycle Oregon, ride organizers put together a Made in Oregon Bike Expo (read my report here). That event provides a nice preview of the faces and frames you’ll see on Sunday. Below is my slideshow from the Cycle Oregon event (go here for the gallery) followed by a list of builders slated to attend Sunday’s show:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Bike Friday
Co-Motion
Daedalus Bamboo Bikes
DeSalvo Custom Cycles
Dropout Bike Club
Human Powered Machines
Ira Ryan Cycles
Jones Bikes
Keith Anderson Cycles
Landshark
Lyonsport
Maddock Machine
Pereira Cycles
Stites Design
Strawberry Cycles
Sweetpea Bicycles
Ti Cycles Fabrication
United Bicycle Institute
Vendetta Cycles
Vertigo Cycles
Vulture Cycles
Wolfhound Cycles
Zoobomb
Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show
Sunday, November 11
$5 admission
11am – 7pm
World Forestry Center, Washington Park
(Take the MAX, get off at the Zoo and you’re there!)