I finally had some time this afternoon to post some of the photos from the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show which I attended last weekend. More photos will be coming in a second post this week. This was the first show ever for the OBCA and I think they felt it was a great success because my wife overheard the people at the door talking about how great attendance was. Well no, wonder. Portland is a real bike town and these are the nicest machines from the state's builders. The one negative of the show was that the lighting was terrible. Pardon the photos, I did the best I could given the dark environs.There were lots of builders present, including Strawberry, Ahearne, Vendetta, Pereira, Sweetpea, Bike Friday, Lyon, Stewie, Davidson (Washington), and probably some others I missed.
In my opinion absolutely the coolest bikes at the show were those of Joseph Ahearne. Not only does he built incredibly attractive bikes, but the accessories that go with them are unique and highly functional. Yes folks, that's a fully-functional, detachable "spork" on the front of that bike. The matching racks and U-bolt holder are unique handmade creations formed from chromoly tubing, as well. That rack screws into custom fit receptacles on the top of the front fork. Beautiful work.
Ahearne does something else I've never seen on another maker's bike: a flask holder that screws into standard water bottle lugs. Now, tell me you've never had a moment where you wished you had your flask along for the ride. You can order those from his website if you're jonesing for one.Really the next nicest bikes that were fully lugged were the Strawberry bicycles but sadly my photos are not at all good or representative of the quality. Their stand was half in the shadows and the flash-shot photos look terrible.
So I'll move on to Bill Davidson's bikes which were also outstanding. Bill is from Seattle as I understand it, but they let him show anyway. Hey Oregon is like that. This green bike is his work and it's a stunner. The sticker says Nervex Professional, and if they are the real thing they must have bee n around for awhile. They sure look great.
In the close-up you get a better idea of the detailed lug work on this beautiful ride. I like how the pump is fit behind the seat post. I now wish I had more photos of this bike. I can't imagine how much it must have cost, but it's just stunning.There was also this and another beautiful bike made of bamboo. These are from Daedalus Cycles and are really nice looking. I don't know how bamboo will hold up with age, but these are sturdy as new. There's a bit of the fixed gear crowd aura surrounding Oregon bike building but Ill forgive them when they make cool stuff like this. It would be so much cooler with derailleurs and two brakes.
