Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show 2013

This coming weekend, the 28th and 29th of September, is the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show, put on by the OBCA. If you can make it out, it's at Sandbox Studios. Come show your support for local builders, both new builders and those well established. 

Free Admission at the Portland Art Museum

The Portland Art Museum has free admission every forth Friday of the month (which is, it just so happens, today!), from 5 - 8pm. This evening there's going to be food carts, the Metrofeits beer bike (which I'm told will be pouring kombucha), and, yes, free entry into the Cyclepedia exhibit.

My bikes are about to be set up there, and will be on display from today, 23 August, through 30 August. I'll be hanging around the museum this evening for the festivities, and to talk about my bikes, from 5 - 8. If you can't make it over this evening, I'll also be there most of the day on Sunday, the 25th of August.

Here are a couple of photos of the finished bikes that will be at the Portland Art Museum starting today. I hope I see you at the exhibit!

Stainless Steel Touring Bike

Manifest 2.0 Commuter 

Update on 2013-08-25 17:23 by Joseph Ahearne

The Portland Art Museum is open from noon to 5 pm today, Sunday 25 August. I'll be there most of the day to answer questions about the bikes. My bikes are just inside the Park Street entrance to the museum, facing the Park Blocks. Try and make it over if you can. Ahearne Bicycles at the Portland Art Museum

Bikes at the Portland Art Museum

I'm putting the final touches on a bike that will be a part of the Cyclepedia exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. I'm going to be displaying two bikes in the entrance to the museum from August 23 - 30. Both of the bikes will be, I feel, (I hope,) worthy of being in a museum.

One bike is a hard-core commuter with an amazing front rack fixed to the frame; Cycle Truck style. The other is a stainless steel touring bike. I don't even know where to begin talking about the stainless bike. It's been keeping me at the shop for long long hours for the past few weeks. I'll be posting photos and detailed explanations of both bikes in the next week or so. Shop Buddha

I feel honored to be showing bikes at a museum. I never thought that people would invite me to display my bikes in this context. That's pretty amazing. The entire Cyclepedia exhibit is a very interesting look at a variety of bike designs over the years. The fact that the Portland Art Museum has helped make this such a prominent bike event for the summer is, in my opinion, about the coolest thing ever. I love this town. 

I'm going to hang out at the museum on Sunday the 25th of August to talk with people about my bikes. If you can make it down on that day, it would be great to see you. If you can't make it on Sunday, try and make it there at least one of the days that my bikes are showing. It'll be worth it. 

Spring Projects, 2013

We’re pushing the tail end of spring, and it’s starting to feel a lot like summer. I've been busy with a lot of unique projects. A lot of bikes with a lot of racks. Meaning big, elaborate racks. Quite a few of them are integrated into the frame, meaning they're brazed on, and are a part of the bike. I love that sort of devotion.  

Double Seat StaysLillian's Mid-tailI’ve just finished another mid-tail that is on its way to the powder coater. The last mid-tail I built was for a very tall man, and this one is for a shorter woman, so the design is similar, but the proportions have changed. This bike is scheduled to go on a year-long world tour. 

I am most of the way through a crazy commuter with a 24” front wheel and a 28” rear, very similar in design to the bike I built for the Oregon Manifest a couple of years back. It has a basket that bolts to the head tube, and a couple of different places for frame bags to be mounted. It’s one of the coolest and most generally useful bikes that I think I’ve ever built. Maybe I say that only because it’s the one I’m working on right now, which always seems to be my favorite bike. All-round Bad Ass Commuter

Also this spring I made my first attempt at double seat stays, which came out looking bad ass, if I do say so myself. These are on a single speed cross bike with disc brakes that should be coming back from the powder coater in a week or so. 

Another bike I want to mention is a step-through commuter bike with the rear basket integrated into the frame. So many tubes, and it came out to be such a gorgeous bike. I’ll post a full photo run of the finished bike soon. 

 Here are photo highlights from some of the projects I’ve mentioned here. 

Enjoy!