Archive for the 'Bike Love' Category

The New Bike Loan Program from Unitus

A good bike can be many things - transportation, recreation, total elation.  And also a big chunk of change. But if you live in the Portland area, getting a Sweetpea just got a little easier with the new Bike Loan program from Unitus Community Credit Union.

Bike Loan

Much like getting a loan for a car, you can now get a loan for up to $2500 towards a custom Sweetpea Bicycle. The details are here, but instead of a couple big payments, you get to spread it out over the course of a year. Our hope is that by participating in this program, it will be easier for you to get your dream bike.  (To see a little press about the Bike Loan Program, click here.)

Introducing: Two Bite Curry

Like all good curries, this one was stewing for a while.

Two Bite Curry

I was chatting with a fantastic lady at the Sprokettes Mobile Dance Party, confessing that I was woefully lacking in the sass department.  This is something I have come to terms with, but every year Pedalpolooza shows me just how high the bar is set.  This lady explained that it was all about the outfit -  she was wearing a dayglo unitard beneath some baggy mountain bike shorts that she credited for her rockin’ groove.  Before, the unitard - pretty tame.  After the unitard - a different story.  The lesson: You have to trust that its in you, and just walk out the door loaded for bear.  Which brings me to the bike.

Based off of the 26″er, this geared cross rig is designed for a couple of different uses.  With room for fenders, brazeons for racks, and a triple chainring up front, it behaves as an trusty upstanding commuter.  For most of the year it will diligently carry groceries, haul the puppy trailer, and pretty much stay out of trouble.  Come the fall, it will lose its racks, fenders and mild mannered ways for  Cross Crusade.

But its true purpose is to help me show up with a little somtin extra, because I’m fresh out of unitards.


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Sweetpea Bicycles featured in Bicycling Magazine

Bicycling Magazine: Beat Stress and Custom Bikes

So if you happen to find yourself in a supermarket in Billings, Montana or a bookstore in Boulder, Colorado, or the millions of other places where Bicycling Magazine is sold, pick it up and take a slow easy walk to page 86.  There’s Natalie hard at work with a quote about why its so rad to build bikes for women.  The whole issue was oozing Portland, but it sure feels nice to be recognized.

On the digital front, we got some sweet lovin from Etsy and Cool Hunting.  Check it out!

You are where you are traveling through.


sweetpea bicycles from daniel sharp on Vimeo.

A few months ago Nau approached us and said they wanted to do a video about us for their website. We were honored. This was a company that worked in bold stokes. They were ambitious, talented, and incredibly smart. They wove sustainability into everything that they did, and managed to make something truly beautiful. We are so sad to see them go. This video gives you an introduction to Sweetpea Bicycles, but it is really about Portland: why we ride, why we love it. One last thing: I am not sure if they got our Pant Spec, but they nailed the Skirt Spec. My denim skirt fits a U Lock in the back pocket and rides like a dream.

Silver Road

Quiet confidence and grace, and a sense of style that I can’t really take full credit for. The woman this bike was built for shares that natural ease and refined aesthetic. A natural rider whose exudes an easy strength.

Silver Road

Ultegra parts, Open Pro Wheelset, totally rad Campy water bottle, reflective decals.


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Preview: Two Bite Curry

Preview: Two Bite Curry

Here is a preview of a rig that just came back from paint.  We are calling it Two Bite Curry: the first bite is hot, the second bite sweet.

One Less Car, One Year Later

(Editor’s note: Completely reckless use of linguistic devices ahead.)

Quietly, like a new years eve celebration that goes to bed at 9:30, we celebrated our one year anniversary of being car free.

One Less Car

There was less fuss to going car free than I would have anticipated - the lease was up, so I put the bike in the back, went to the dealership, gave them their car back, and rode home. That was pretty much it. Not a lot of planning. A little gearing up in terms of a good rain jacket and gloves. We did go big on the fenders now that we didn’t have car or gas payments.

A couple of days into it, we were still pretty pleased with ourselves to the point where even the steady spring drizzle didn’t seem to dampen our moods. When you need to go somewhere, and you can only go by bike, then you go by bike. The simplicity was oddly comforting. When we didn’t ride, we found ourselves walking around the city noticing things we hadn’t really noticed before.

The first hitch came when we dearly wanted to cash in a coupon from the Portland Nursery across town. How were we going to haul plants and mulch? That is when we discovered the beauty of the Zipcar. Like 823-BUMP, Zipcar filled the hole in our transportation options in no time. We took those big trips to the store, and ran luxuriously quick errands on dark rainy nights. We went to the coast when we wanted to. We got a puppy - who we now haul around in a Burley.

We admit that we have it lucky: we are close to a lot of services and there aren’t kids to schlep around. And while we miss hitting the trails as much as we used to, we now have a closer relationship to our travels. Like living on a farm, we know where our transportation food comes from.

I saw an interesting comment the other day, about the cognitive disconnect that people feel when they start to really understand the impact of cars. But I don’t feel any smugness in being car free, nor do I feel like I have escaped the disconnect. We use cars, and might have to buy one someday. But I can say that going car free was easier than I thought. Kind of like taking off the training wheels.

HW Jr. Rolls Out of the Shop

This bike is amazing. Steel, leather, wood, and canvas all working together, not for good, but for awesome.

A couple of notes about the build: S&S couplers, Campy parts, dual lighting, Brooks saddle, Rivendell Lil Loafer Bag, and Full Wood Fenders. Sweetpea design, frame, fork, and rack.

Oh, and the decals are reflective.

You can see the full build in the slide show below:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

A Trip to the Welding Store

(Image courtesy of BikePortland.org)

I love welding stores, but they can be a little trippy. There are always products on the shelf from way before I was born (apparently some aspects of melting metal haven’t changed that much) and the inexplicably fashion-forward welding bandanas (da-glo florals and patriotic variations on the theme of eagles). I tend to regard them as places apart from the rest of the world, unburdened by pesky advances in gender equality or merchandising finesse. I usually march in, find my goodies, and leave, no more noticed than the guy in the gorilla costume you didn’t notice because you were busy counting how many times the basketball was passed among the players.

So imagine my surprise, when the welding store clerk engaged me on the topic of bikes. He rides to work when he can, but also drives a truck. He questions whether riding on certain streets is really safe. And few observations of bike/car dialogue later, I felt Portland seeping into the welding store experience.  Then he dropped the bombshell: “I really think that these Bike Boxes are a great thing. It’s good that bikes can pull in front of cars so that they can see you, and how you can’t turn on a red. It’s going to be a lot safer…”

Bike love knows no borders. Not in this town, at least.

Good for One Sweetpea Bicycle

Good For One Sweetpea

Someone’s gonna get a Sweetpea, and they don’t know it yet.