The photos within this essay are by no means recent, but they offer a very intimate look into Portland’s framebuilding culture. I love the old portraits of Ira Ryan and Jordan Hufnagel.

See the full story at Storehouse.

Today’s videos are so amazing…

“This profile film follows US Army Veteran, Ari Sonnenberg throughout the streets of Portland, OR as he describes his 15 years in combat, his transition into civilian life and his struggle with the Veterans Affairs system. Throughout everything in Ari’s life, cycling has been a constant source of therapy and joy.

To view the entire story, please visit Juliet Zulu.”

Thanks for sharing this video, Brenton!

Hey Portland, if you’re looking for something to do today, swing through Blaq Packs’ new store grand opening. There are details over at Blaq and check out the sale flier posted above.

This weekend in Portland brings the OBRA championship / the Athletic Sprint Omnium. If you’re free, roll out and check out more information at the Athletic.

This is making the rounds today and for good reason!

“Ruckus Composites is a Portland Oregon based Carbon Fiber repair business, repairing thousands of bikes a year for customers, bike shops and frame manufacturers. Every so often a bike never gets picked up, and ends up in the dead pile. For several years we have been wondering what to do with these lost souls, this year we cracked the code. Working with local and national non profit organizations as well as grass roots cycling teams, Ruckus will repair and custom paint these bikes and raffle/auction them off to raise money and awareness for causes that we believe in. The proceeds from these frames will go directly to organizations in need, the bikes will go to the lucky winners of the raffles.

The first two frames will be raffled in support of Presented By Let’s Race Bikes (PBLRB). PBLRB is a Oregon based project dedicated to supporting and enabling elite female cyclists to compete on a national level. They are breaking down the financial barriers associated with professional cycling by offering support to female athletes through crowd sourced initiatives. PBLRB has raised money to date with support from The Athletic and Sellwood Cycles in Portland OR. We are excited to work with them and proud to support their efforts in cycling. ”

(more…)

The city of Portland and its bike-friendly streets need no introduction. People there have adapted their blocks to child-friendly play zones, their streets are lined with green bike lanes and there are even designated bicycle avenues.

Spending the day with your family, on bikes is a fairly common weekend activity. Especially for Benji from Poler and his wife Nahanni, who take their two daughters, Olive and Sparrow out for rides frequently.

While Olive is old enough for her own bike, Sparrow catches a ride with Nahanni on her Signal Cycles step through commuter via a contraption called the TykeToter.

I’ve never seen this product before, but it’s genius. The TykeToter goes on in seconds, can be used on any bike and gives the child an early introduction into balancing a bicycle.

These two women looked so happy scooting around the neighborhood that I had to shoot some photos!

Joshua Bryant is a frame builder out of Portland (who looks an lot like this dude Franco650b on Instagram). He specializes in road / touring / randonneur / dirt tourers and coincidentally builds out of the old Hufnagel studios off Burnside.

This frame in particular, dubbed the Fatrob, is a special bird. Built as part of a collaboration with Matt from Folly, it’s a 650b, tubeless, neon pink, SON-powered “get rad machine” – although I didn’t see Joshua get rad on it during this ride. We’ll have to follow up at a later date.

Why do I like this frame? How could you not? It’s pink and a playful mix of old and new school components. Oh and with the Plug, Joshua can keep his iPhone charged to get the ‘gram mid-ride…

Dogriver Super D
Words and photos by Kyle Von Hoetzendorff

I have my rituals you see, and they must be respected. Coffee, breakfast burritos, a Porta-John in that order, my body demands it, directs me. As long as I have been racing in the Pacific NW it has always been the same. I expect it, settles the nerves. Forget about going to bed early, having a protein shake, or sitting in a bath of ice cubes while there is perfectly good hot water pulsing just beyond the walls. Take the shower, have some pizza, stay up all night. I know who I want to beat and we were out drinking last night.

This is amateur racing in your 30s, this is beer at the starting line, long-range intimidation practices, strategic heckles, head games. Fitness at this stage isn’t just about VO2 Max or lactic thresholds, its about the rest of it, throwing life’s little chosen challenges into the mix, try whiskey soaked sleep deprivation giving you the shakes in the starting gate. Not that everything requires a debauched approach; it’s just that it also doesn’t, so why not?

Super D racing, like all types of racing, fits this program perfectly. In this particular case, the Mountain Man Challenge Dogriver Super D, the extended descent is punctuated mid race with a ball buster climb. This would be the  decisive section, whoever could make it through the climb the fastest with a modicum of energy in reserve would rule the day. Alex “KrunkShox” McGuiness would take first place in just over 22 minutes, followed closely by all-pro Matt Slaven and Team Robots very own “Chaz”  Sponsel. I would finish in just over 25 minutes, mid-pack, I would be tired, I would want sleep.

Take a survey and the vast majority of cyclists who haven’t spent a day descending don’t have any idea who strenuous it can be. It’s “cheating” they say as if descending is the unfortunate outcome of so many arduous minutes spent slowly suffering on the cranks while climbing the nearest crucible. In fact, as our frozen water cousins found out years ago, the descent presents its own unique challenge that once appreciated can be developed and refined. Time passes differently here, we don’t chat, life, outside life, must be put on hold, clear your schedule, erase the board, we are talking undivided attention. Your nerves not to mention your legs, butt, back, arms, neck, chest, and abs are constantly on high alert, think Gorbachev and Regan white knuckling their red phones. This race is after all an act that is antithetical to our biological imperative, you are challenging gravity, and gravity has, and will, ALWAYS win.

Why do it then? Take away the wolves, the lions, the tribal warfare and your left with an egregious surplus of need-to-survive.  Chemicals man, chemicals bend reason, chemicals create their own logic, and this is how I find myself hurtling down the side of a mountain, oxygen deprived, on the edge of control, in a race for no money and no fame. Chemicals.

I am not saying that this is better than that, than something, anything else. If you are reading this lovely site then you probably like bikes, and if you like bikes, have the time to like bikes, then your life is pretty good. Sometimes it’s nice to know that it’s good for someone else too. Its chemical man.

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Follow Kyle on Instagram.

Yikes! The crew at Speedvagen have been working on something extra special with their new 2014 Overt Road Machine. Head over to the Vanilla Flickr for more incredible details like that seat mast medallion!

This weekend, there’s a lot of events going down in Portland, beginning Saturday morning with the Tiny Tire Enduro, then Brian Vernor’s movie for Saucony, Finding Strong is premiering and finally, Sunday is the Super Swap. Head over to the Athletic for details.