Bikes and More from the Chris King Open House 2023

Reportage

Bikes and More from the Chris King Open House 2023

With this year’s Chris King Open House coming right after the 2023 MADE Bike Show, the event decided to shift gears and focus on the Portland area’s outdoor brands. Chris King opened its doors to the public, unveiling the process that goes into machining bike parts in the USA, while inviting the broader outdoor industry to display their products. It was a full day of bikes and more! Check out our Reportage, sent in by Chris King and let us know your favorite bike in the comments!

Radar

Dynaplug Racer Plugger Kit for the 2021 Chris King Open House

Mr. Meerkat is pleased to announce the new Dynaplug colorway, anodized, and wizardized with lasers by the magicians at Dynaplug in Chico, California. These tubeless tools enable you to plug holes in your tubeless tires to keep you rolling.

This limited edition colorway includes a turquoise body with black caps and the Chris King Buzz logo laser engraved in the center. Retail is set at $52. In stock now at Chris King.

The Custom Gravel Beauties of the 2021 Chris King Open House: Baum, Bixxis, Legor, Prova, Victoire

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The Custom Gravel Beauties of the 2021 Chris King Open House: Baum, Bixxis, Legor, Prova, Victoire

For the past five years, we’ve hosted in-depth documentation of the annual Chris King Open House and for the second year in a row, this showcase has gone virtual. Yet, don’t fret, because we have a beautiful showcase of some incredibly talented, international builders for you today. With a catalog spanning the globe, ranging from Australia to Italy, Spain, and France, we’re bringing gravel offerings from Baum, Bixxis, Legor, Prova, and Victoire to the web for you to enjoy from the comfort of your home or office. These bikes feature an extremely limited run of grey and turquoise Chris King bits which won’t be available to the public but have informed the paint designs for each of these noble steeds.

I hope you’re ready for some delicious gravel bikes! Let’s jump right in…

The Bikes of the 2020 Chris King ‘Not So’ Open House Part 02: Pursuit, Rock Lobster, Sage, Speedvagen, Sycip

Reportage

The Bikes of the 2020 Chris King ‘Not So’ Open House Part 02: Pursuit, Rock Lobster, Sage, Speedvagen, Sycip

With Covid-19 throwing a wrench in the spokes of the traditional tradeshow schedule, even open houses have had to switch to an online, or virtual, format. We saw this earlier in the year with ENVE and now, the 2020 Chris King Open House. While it wasn’t safe to travel to Portland to document the bikes, Chris King’s in-house photographer Jacob Olsen did a stellar job at documenting all ten bikes, while videography team Modify Content knocked out some great, in-depth video profiles of these handmade marvels. We’ve got part two today, featuring Pursuit, Rock Lobster, Sage, Speedvagen, and Sycip, so let’s jump right in…

Radar

The 2020 Chris King ‘Not So’ Open House Video!

The 2020 Chris King ‘Not So’ Open House brings together a group of the very best bike builders and bike brands to showcase the brand’s new colors and products for 2021. Each of the ten builders being featured stepped up to produce an amazing bike that showcases the new additions to their new color offering (black with gold infill text and gold!) There are also some great edits from brands like Yeti and Specialized, so see those below!

CKPC had a lot of fun putting the video edit together, so enjoy!

The Bikes of the 2020 Chris King ‘Not So’ Open House Part 01: Bingham, Breadwinner, Caletti, DeSalvo, Mosaic

Reportage

The Bikes of the 2020 Chris King ‘Not So’ Open House Part 01: Bingham, Breadwinner, Caletti, DeSalvo, Mosaic

With Covid-19 throwing a wrench in the spokes of the traditional tradeshow schedule, even open houses have had to switch to an online, or virtual, format. We saw this earlier in the year with ENVE and now, the 2020 Chris King Open House. While it wasn’t safe to travel to Portland to document the bikes, Chris King’s in-house photographer Jacob Olsen did a stellar job at documenting all ten bikes, while videography team Modify Content knocked out some great, in-depth video profiles of these handmade marvels. We’ve got part one today, featuring Bingham, Breadwinner, Caletti, DeSalvo, and Mosaic, so let’s jump right in…

The 2019 Chris King Open House: Mercredi, Mosaic, Northern, Pursuit, Sage, Sklar, Speedvagen, Stinner, Sycip, Victoire

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The 2019 Chris King Open House: Mercredi, Mosaic, Northern, Pursuit, Sage, Sklar, Speedvagen, Stinner, Sycip, Victoire

This year’s Chris King Open House chose 18 builders from all over the world to display their new colors for 2020: Bourbon and Violet. Thanks to ENVE, Santa Cruz Reserve, SRAM, Brooks, and Spurcycle. these bikes were built out appropriately for such a showcase. Below is a gallery of half the bunch, in alphabetical order for your enjoyment, with each builder’s description of the bikes. Make sure you comment on your favorite because there is some gold in these galleries!

The 2019 Chris King Open House: 333fab, Allied, Argonaut, Breadwinner, Caletti, Davidson, DeSalvo, Isen

Reportage

The 2019 Chris King Open House: 333fab, Allied, Argonaut, Breadwinner, Caletti, Davidson, DeSalvo, Isen

This year’s Chris King Open House chose 18 builders from all over the world to display their new colors for 2020: Bourbon and Violet. Thanks to ENVE, Santa Cruz Reserve, SRAM, Brooks, and Spurcycle. these bikes were built out appropriately for such a showcase. Below is a gallery of half the bunch, in alphabetical order for your enjoyment, with each builder’s description of the bikes. Make sure you comment on your favorite because there is some gold in these galleries!

the Chris King Open House Returns on October 12th!

Radar

the Chris King Open House Returns on October 12th!

Last year’s Chris King Open House was a great time and this year, to coincide with their two new colors for 2020, the factory will be open to the public once again, and once again, a number of beautiful custom bikes will be on display from a whole roster of talented builders. We’ll be covering each bike in detail, as well as the weekend’s events, so please, come out and enjoy the hangs with food, beer, and Beautiful Bicycles. Head to the event’s Facebook Page to sign up so they know how many to expect and we’ll see ya there!

The 18 Beautiful Bicycles of the Chris King Open House

Reportage

The 18 Beautiful Bicycles of the Chris King Open House

For the past few years, Chris King has opened their doors to the public as part of an entire weekend of events dubbed the Chris King Open House. This event’s intent is to be coordinated with a product launch of their new colors for the year, as well as to showcase what makes their operations tick, and to display a selection of custom bikes, built by some of their best builder customers.


the two new colors for this year: matte turqoise and matte mango.

This year, they sent out an open invite to 30 of their best builder accounts, offering up discounted pricing to them to build a bike for the show, passing on the discount to their customers. Out of those 30 builders, 17 showed up, and they were displayed alongside a Pegoretti bike, which we looked at on Friday. These bikes lined the halls of the Chris King factory, where visitors could look at their features in great detail, chat with the builders about their process, and if they were so inclined, purchase their dream bike.

I was invited up to the Open House to document these bikes for the builders and for Chris King, as well as offering up an ultimate dream bike gallery for you, the readers of this website. Please enjoy! Which bike do you like the best and why? Oh and if you’re interested in one of the bikes showcased here, be sure to reach out to the builders, who are linked in the bike descriptions below.