The MADE Handmade Bicycle Show returns to Portland for 2024, and as we love looking at pretty bicycles, we had to stop in first thing Friday morning to walk the dim (but better lit than last year) halls before it opened to the general public at noon.
The MADE show is packed with unique creations from small builders and brands, and there is a lot of cool stuff to see. While many of the brands in attendance specialize in custom or small batch production rigid bicycles, there were also some unique dual suspension models on display.
Small batch steel dual suspension bikes aren’t very common, so this low-slung design from Apogee caught our attention.
Machined alloy components are bolted to a cromoly front triangle and rear end to provide 140mm of rear wheel travel.
It’s designed to be mated with a 160mm front fork to smooth out the trails. Learn more at Apogee.bike.
Nick Neuhaus of Neuhaus Metalworks returned to Portland to showcase his steel and titanium MTB and gravel frames. If you’re not familiar with Nick’s work, he is doing some cool things — the frames all feature 3d printed chain stay and seat stay yokes, saving weight, increasing strength, and providing tire clearance.
Neuhaus Metalworks focuses on small batch production instead of one-off builds with carefully thought out features and geometry. The bikes are all available in a full range of sizes, and are all hand built in Marin County, California. In order to make the bikes (and prices) more accessible to a wider range of riders, he’s also working on creating small production runs in Taiwan as well.
Learn more at Neuhausmetalworks.com
Sage Titanium Bicycles is a local brand focused on hardtail MTB and gravel/road/CX frames fabricated from titanium. They had a number of bikes on display with some beautiful finishes and matching components/ accessories. We had the opportunity to spend some time on their gravel bike a few years ago and found they also ride very well. Learn more at SageTitanium.com.
Our pal Fred Cuthbert returned to Made for his second year displaying his brazed steel creations. (I have one of his bikes in my quiver) We’re still working on getting him to sit down and elaborate more on what he’s got cooking – more on that soon. Check out the bikes at WolfhoundCycles.com.
We recall when Chumba was called Chumba Wumba. The brand has since morphed into a different beast, offering
The titanium SLACR model caught our eye; it’s their aggressive long, low, and slack platform designed for long trail days while also encouraging speeds that are ridiculous on a hardtail. Unlike heavier cromo bruisers, it’s built light enough to stay fun and playful.
Learn more at ChumbaUSA.com.
Mischief Cycles wowed us with their booth graphics and frame decals that were best viewed wearing 3-d glasses. Focused on crafting handmade titanium gravel and road bicycles, the owner also moonlights as an orthopedic surgeon. (what?!) Get a closer look at the bikes at MischiefBicycles.com.
Co-Motion might be best known for tandem bikes, but they also create “single” bikes for adventure cycling, touring, and all-road. This off-road build with its elaborate custom paint job caught our eye with its saturated color palette. Learn more at Co-Motion.com.
In the handmade world, soft tails and the URT have never left. This prototype from Btchn Bikes isn’t quite a soft tail though, but instead features adjustable geometry on the fly.
The top tube and flex stays are also shaped to flex and damp the ride. Ironically, I didn’t even grok this until I saw this post on Instagram.
There was no shortage of eccentric and atypical designs to see, like this off-road low rider mullet. I’m not entirely sure what is going on here, but it sure is a different take.
Portland Rider Joel Armstrong, bike mechanic turned trail builder, turned bike maker had a range of his So Low bikes at his booth. Joel is obsessed with low bottom bracket heights, and had a selection of art bikes, pump track bikes, and trail bikes all designed for us with extremely short crank arms.
There were also a number of component and accessory makers in attendance – we’ll feature them in part two, coming shortly.
Learn more at Made.bike