Archive for the 'Pacific NW' Category

You are where you are traveling through.

Published
by
Natalie
on June 2, 2008
in Bike Love, Bikes, News, P-Town, Pacific NW and Poetry
. 3 Comments


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.

Bike Show and Craft Fair Recap

Published
by
Austin
on November 18, 2007
in Bike Love, Bikes, Blatant Marketing, P-Town and Pacific NW
. 1 Comment

It seems as though these last weeks have gone by in a blur of coffee, logistics, gettin’ there, settin’ up, tearin’ down, and goin’ home dog tired.  Thank goodness for the Flexcar.

First up to bat was the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show.  We had been involved with organizing this event for the last five months or so, and if you thought going to an event was hard - putting on the event and going to it is way harder.  But when you are involved with the planning, you get to do some neat things.  Like invite all the bike builders in the state to show their craft . . . all of them.  The response was incredible, and we were so busy the entire time, I only got to take one picture:

Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show

Next up was the third annual Bike Craft Fair put on by Jonathan from Bike Portland.  We had our “Wool for Steel” program in effect for a second year in a row an added a new Quick Release Mitten as well as recycled sweater arm warmers to the S’mitten line up.

photo

We have a few pair left over, so if you are interested, drop us a line.  And the t-shirts will be up for sale in the next day or two.

Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show

Published
by
Austin
on November 9, 2007
in Bike Love, Bikes, Blatant Marketing, P-Town and Pacific NW
. 0 Comments

Oregon Handmade Bike Show Poster

Dearest Readers,

Taking place this Sunday is the first ever Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show.  Twenty five builders from all over the great state of Oregon will be showing their bikes.  We will be there showing a handful of bikes, selling caps and socks, and will be releasing our freshly minted Sweetpea Bicycles t-shirts into the wild.  (Check or cash only.  Available on the web come Monday.)

Its going to be an incredible show and we hope to see you there.

Details:

Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show

World Forestry Center

11 to 7

$5 at the door/kids under 12 free.

We had some fun at the coast.

Published
by
Austin
on September 26, 2007
in Pacific NW and Random
. 0 Comments

There was some frolicking, some digging around, and some getting the feet wet.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Field Trip to Cycle Oregon

Published
by
Austin
on September 13, 2007
in Bike Love, Great Ideas and Pacific NW
. 2 Comments

Made in Oregon Bike Expo

We had, of course, heard about Cycle Oregon.  Two thousand riders canvassing a different route across Oregon every year for the last twenty years.  We had heard talk about a well oiled machine.  Rumor had it that they were so good, the minute you thought you needed to hit the can, there was an empty Honey Bucket right behind you.  We had heard about the performances, the incredible support services, and the beer tent open every night.   It was just about enough to make a loyal RAGBRAI rider bristle with envy.  So when they invited local Oregon bike businesses to represent at what they were calling the Made in Oregon Bike Expo, we eagerly agreed to come.

Made in Oregon Bike Expo

At this point you are probably thinking to yourself “I hope this isn’t a post about an expo.  That would be the most boringest piece of blogging on the entire internet.”  And I assure you that I am not going to bore you with details of conversations with all the amazing people we met, or how cool it was to meet some of the other builders that showed up.

What I do want to write about is Cycle Oregon, because we were absolutely overwhelmed by just how incredible this event really is.  First of all the rumors are true: the place runs like clockwork, the ride we went on was absolutely beautiful, and there is just a lot of camaraderie to go around.  But what is really amazing is that the ride was originated as an economic shot in the arm for rural Oregon communities, and on top of that their proceeds go into the Cycle Oregon Fund which provides additional funding for small rural communities.  The site for the expo was Diamond Lake which from a grant from Cycle Oregon recently restored the trout population which had been ravaged by an invasive non-native.  And as everyone relaxed after a day of riding, they got to make the statement “thanks to you joining the ride, we were able to make this lake viable again.”  The expo was amazing, but we left feeling as if we had just left in the middle of a birthday party. With a little luck, next year we might just become Cycle Oregonians.

Campfire Song

Published
by
Natalie
on September 4, 2007
in Bike Love, Pacific NW and Random
. 0 Comments

We went bike camping.

(Sung to the tune of Woodie Guthrie’s Hard Traveling.)

Chorus:

I’ve been doing some bike camping I thought you knowed’

I’ve been doing some bike camping way down the road

Pedals flying, bob trailer bumpin’, Springwater Trail is a 20 mile thumpin’

I’ve been doing some bike camping, Lord.

(Chorus)

It’s a long hot road to Estacada, headwind’s gonna show ya what you’re made-a

I’ve been doing some bike camping, Lord.

(Chorus)

Clackamas  flowin’, wind still blowin’, it don’t matter cause it’s real pretty goin’

I’ve been doing some bike camping, Lord.

(Chorus)

Ripplebrook campsite, little bit of daylight, dinner and a campfire got me feelin’ right.

I’ve been doing some bike camping, Lord.

(Chorus)

Sun is up, we got to go, we don’t need no Winnebago!

We just done some bike camping, Lord!

The Wildwood

Published
by
Austin
on August 20, 2007
in Pacific NW, Postcards from the Edge and Random
. 3 Comments

The idea was pretty straight forward.  We were going to run from one end to the other.

Shoes sometimes get dirty.

In the years that Natalie and I have been together, we have seen just about every mile marker on the Wildwood Trail except for one: Mile Zero.  And so this weekend we decided to check it out, but we decided to see all the other mile markers first.  So we piled into a cab and trucked the 31 miles out to the end of the trail with the intention of running the whole thing to zero.

We passed a lot of things on the trail.  We jumped over roots and fallen trees.  We ran over bridges.  We interrupted an owl in the middle of lunch.  We enjoyed the quiet togetherness sometimes talking and joking around, sometimes going long stretches without saying anything.  We pointed out banana slugs so that we wouldn’t step on them.  We talked shop and about the Sprockettes.

But as we went on, we started passing a lot of memories we had left by the side of the trail.  We passed by our first long run together where Natalie stoically marched on to the finish.  We passed a killer 18 mile run that we did before the Big Sur Marathon a couple years back.  We passed countless jokes, a couple of fantastic arguments, and we passed by the memory of some great ideas that we accidentally left out on the trail.  We passed by thousands of miles of training in all sorts of weather and by a few dramatic sprained ankles.   We passed by the spot where we got engaged.

The plan was to run from point A to point B.  But every couple of miles the trail would split and we would branch off into memories of our life so far, so together lived.  We finished at Mile Zero as planned, went home, made pizza.

The Boy Bike v.2

Published
by
Austin
on July 17, 2007
in Bike Love, Bikes, Blatant Marketing and Pacific NW
. 1 Comment

Single Speed Cross/Commuter

A while back, we started sending our bikes to Spectrum Powderworks in Colorado Springs. We had a bunch of reasons: Powder is a little more environmentally friendly than liquid paint, the bikes showed up when they said they would, and most importantly, the bikes looked absolutely fantastic.

So after a couple of bad scratches, we decided to send the Boy Bike in for paint version 2. Repainting meant that I would be without my favorite bike for a couple of weeks, but it also meant that I could add a couple things to my original order: braze-ons for fenders and all the decals that didn’t exist back then. When it came back this cool grey, I also decided to splurge on some Full Wood Fenders, which I am absolutely in love with.


Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.

We’ve Got Chickens

Published
by
Natalie
on July 2, 2007
in Great Ideas, P-Town and Pacific NW
. 5 Comments

Meet Frida and The Cheese.

Frida and The Cheese

Along with two other families on our block, we have started a small urban chicken flock.  We are all interested in the fresh, super-local cage free eggs, of course; but I think the real desire to have chickens comes from a careless mix of back-to-the-land bravado, nurturing instincts, and the glory of a backyard matriarchal society.  (No roosters allowed.)  And they are darned cute.  In fact, we have six tiny little chicks, not pictured here because your RDA of vitamin cute has already been exceeded.

Fight. Evil. Crime.

Published
by
Austin
on June 6, 2007
in Bike Love, Don't Try This at Home, Great Ideas, P-Town, Pacific NW and Postcards from the Edge
. 2 Comments