It’s the monthly First Thursday Art Walk in the Pearl District tomorrow and two items have come across my desk that might make the event extra special if you’re bike-inclined.
First up is the Spring Kickoff Party at Kalkhoff. Kalkhoff USA is a bike retailer that sells top-notch, electrified rigs made in Germany. Roll over to their showroom on NW 11th for a special get together. They’ll have a wood-fired pizza cart, wine, cupcakes from St. Cupcake and of course some tasty German beer. If you get tired of talking about e-bikes, Kalkhoff is featuring the art of Eva MacLowry.
A few blocks away, at NW 9th and Davis, you can see one of Renovo’s new wooden bikes they are making for Audi. KGW reported this morning that Audi of Wilsonville will show off one of the bikes at Urban Studio (935 NW Davis St.) from 5:00 to 9:00 pm.
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So, we did both of these.
The Kalkhoff pedelecs (you have to pedal to engage the electric motor, no throttle) are great examples of typical Germanic attention to detail and quality. They claim a 50 mile assist range–they look practical, maybe even fun albeit a little weighty (sales personnel swore the bikes ate hills for breakfast). The bikes are fully specced on the floor — dyno-lights, fenders, racks, suspension, stand — near-perfect sweatless commuters.
The aromatic pizza (Tastebud Farms!) & lager alone were worth the trip! Most interesting though, was the number of Kalkhoffs parked outside on the sidewalk which were obviously daily riders.
We stumbled into different galleries thinking each was Urban Studio and thus discovered some beautiful art we might not have seen (we bought some) but when we got to the Urban, that was fun too. As my wife pointed out, everybody in the crowded place was wearing black (including us!), and she thought that was too silly.
The $7K+ Renovo-built Audi Duo belt-drive wood frame bike was in a rack atop a cheap little $40K Audi hatchback. The entire time we were in there, we were the only ones who went up and gazed at the wood bike (and it was good that it was placed up there, where I couldn’t drool on it). Most folks were drooling over the Audi supercars parked nearby, and when I asked some Audi reps, they admitted to knowing nothing about the gorgeous two wheeled conveyance in their midst.
The sound system baseline was sorta thunderous just above the bike so we didn’t hang out much, but that bike was as fine as any sculpture we saw in the Pearl last night. Sigh. (If Mr. Wheeler needs someone to test-ride one on a trans-am, I’m his boy.)
Thanks for the heads-up, Jonathan.