Live from Portland!

Tim here, coming to you from Portland, Oregon, at the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show.

To the left here you see one of many amazing limited production bicycles at the show.  You're not seeing things... it's made of wood!  I don't recall the specific species of wood, but it's from Brazil, and I'm told it's being harvested sustainably.  It's from a company called Renovo Hardwood Bicycles, and it looks really lovely.  And they had one of their bikes hanging from a scale to show that it weighs in at just under 18 pounds!

This is just one of many very cool bikes I've seen so far at the show.  Many of the builders are working in steel, which is the material I am gearing up to work with myself.  There are a surprising number of small framebuilding outfits springing up around the country these days, and several of the "grand old names" in the business are still actively building, like Richard

 Sachs, Peter Weigle, Brian Bayliss and Bruce Gordon, who are all at the show.  In addition, there are a number of companies showing framebuilding equipment, which is of particular interest to me.  I got to meet Joe Bringheli, who built the jigs that I recently bought, as well as Hank Folson of Henry James Bicycles, who manufacture some of the most popular and well designed fixtures in the industry.  I had a really enjoyable chat with him at his booth today... a fascinating and very nice guy.

Finally, to the right here is a City Bike from Pereira Cycles, here in Portland.  He (Tony P.) builds some truly lovely bikes in steel.  He won awards at this show last year in three different categories, and I can see why.  Amazing work.