Oregon Manifest and The Goldsprints

This past weekend Molly and I went up to Portland to enjoy all its weirdness, visit with some friends Paul and Wendy, go to the handmade bike show, and to watch the roller races.. aka The Goldsprints... Roller races used to be popular in the 50s in Europe (they have been around since the turn of the 20th century) and then again in the 90s in the US. Now there is a movement to get the scene back alive. As you will see in the footage I took it is a full on underground scene in the basement of a warehouse on the East side of Portland...loud music, lots of beer, full on hot and sweaty bike geek affair....I loved it...On the other hand the handmade bike show was blast too...except that I wanted to purchase about 5 bikes all ringing in around $3000 a piece....that would have been bad..so we just looked, drank some fine local brews, and took pictures!!! Here they are....Enjoy and keep your hands out of your pants!! Cheers to all the hardworking bike builders out there in the world..To see more on the Oregon Manifest go to www.oregonmanifest.com. To see more on the roller races go to www.westcoastgoldsprints.com, www.rollapaluza.com, or www.bikecult.com/works/rollers.html....


This was a bitchin' cargo bike, the basket could carry 250-300lbs!

Here is a wood framed bike with carbon fiber fork and rear end, you could pick the color/type of wood you wanted....pretty crazy!

I loved this cross bike by Signal. I stared and caressed it for some time, the simplicity of the lines and the vintage paint job make it sexy!!

Now this 29er bike by Caletti made me excited inside (if you know what I mean). Check out the sweet drivetrain! It is belt driven, quiet, low maintenance, efficient, clean, and long lasting...My type of drivetrain...


Denny(my father-in-law), this bike is for you!! Made by Goodtimes Bicycles. All it needed was you and your "goodtimes hat" and it would have been a masterpiece!! This one was set up with couplers for travel and was ready for the road or cross race..

This was Molly's favorite bike made by donkelope bikes out of Bellingham, WA. Price, $3000.00 so it did not come home with us.


Here is the stage with the four bikes set up for the "Goldsprints." Looks all nice and clean at this point....after a couple hours of abuse there was blood, sweat, beer, and tears!!! Below are two videos. The one on the left is one of the women's races..The one on the right is one of the men's...keep watching, it will right its self as I straighten out the camera.....It is unbelievable how fast their legs are moving!!! Hope all the bike lovers out there enjoy this blog...Sorry the men's video would not upload to Blogger.. Will try in the future!