Wow, Freewheel‘s series on “bikes for the rest of us” generated a lot of good discussion and brought up some points about the kinds of bikes you like and what you look for.
I’ll be at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Portland, Oregon this week. While the show was probably still dominated by boutique designer bikes last year in San Jose, CA, there was a good variety of “utility” designs. This weekend in Portland I predict an explosion of wonderfully practical bikes for running errands and getting to the job. I plan to look at the utility bikes from builders such as A.N.T., Bike Friday, Pereira, Inglis / Retrotec, Sweatpea, Sycip and others.
I think one of my favorite’s last year was Thursday Bicycle’s Muttonmaster bicycle, I think mostly because the story behind it is so cool. The Muttonmaster was first designed for sheepherders in the Najavo Nation in Arizona, where Jon used to live and where he began building bikes. The Muttonmaster is a singlespeed utility bike with a rack built right on to the frame. The photo is Thursday Bicycles builder Jon Norstog trying to convince my daughter to try his Muttonmaster out.
For more NAHBS news, be sure to watch TwentyNineInches.com for 29er news and maybe The Bike Lab for good bike newness.