We did something at Bike Happy Hour last night I’ve dreamt of for a long time, and it turned out to be pretty neat. Our first “Show & Tell” night was all about paying respects to handmade bikes. Despite stifling heat, we had some fantastic folks and spokes show up.
With the MADE Bike Show rolling into town next week (August 24-27), Portland will be the center of the handmade bike world once again. This will be a massive event and I want it to be a big success, so I hooked up with the creator of the show, Billy Sinkford, and we decided to have a little pre-party.
While Happy Hour regulars stayed cool on the Gorges Beer patio by sitting under the misters, sipping cold drinks, and squirting each other with super-soakers, the adjacent parking lot turned into a mini bike show.
Van set the tone with his amazing trio of Portland-made beauties. His 1982 Jim Merz MTB stole the show. Merz was an early local bike influencer who was befriended by a guy named Mike Sinyard from California. Sinyard, who would go onto launch Specialized Bicycles, brought Merz on early to be one of his main builders. Merz actually welded many of the early Stumpjumpers!
Van also brought a 1974 and 2021 Strawberry. The older one was made in northwest Portland by Andy Newlands and the newer one was built by Dave Levy from TiCycles (also in Portland) with Newlands’ blessing.
Then there was Colton’s gold and black Rodeo Labs Flaanimal, Art’s 1989 Salsa A La Carte made by Ross Schafer, Eric and his bamboo bike with hemp lugs that he made himself from a kit(!), Sean from Rendered on the recumbent that’s featured on the Pedalpalooza poster, Mark’s tremendous titanium tall bike, Billy’s brand new and custom Moots/MADE Bike Show collab, Joe’s rare Kinn longtail, Robin’s curvy pink Frances, Jeremy’s Destroy singlespeed, Hurl’s Team 7/11-themed Breadwinner, Mike’s Bantam, Martine’s (aka Bahn Mi By Bike) road bike she made herself, Bob’s 1984 Mark DiNucci (another legendary Portlander builder), and we even had Jake swing by with one of the classic Stumptown models made by (now defunct) Portland brand Mountain Cycle.
And there were even more!
We had local framebuilders show up to represent their craft. Joseph Ahearne of Ahearne Cycles, Bob Kamzelski of Bantam Bicycle Works, and Tony Pereira from Breadwinner Cycles.
Check out the portraits Billy made of all the bikes and their people below:
Speaking of Breadwinner, they had the strongest turnout with four of their rigs showing up.
It was a really great night. Thanks to everyone who came out.
And special thanks to Billy for taking these portraits!
Remember, use code BIKEPORTLAND (yes, all caps) to get 15% off admission to the show. See our recent post for more details, follow made.bike on IG and check out the official show website.
See you next week! (Actually, I’ll miss week 21 but Carey Booth will take over hosting duties in my place.)