MADE bike show

For the past five years or so, I've gone to the MADE bike show in Portland every summer, which showcases custom bike builders, people who make related products, and suppliers for frame builders. It runs through Sunday and if you're in the area and love bikes, I would say by all means go and marvel at the sights. Here are some of my favorite things from the show.

There were dozens of one-man frame building shops with interesting designs. I loved the creative use of small tubing on this frame and fork.

No. 22 is one of my favorite new builders because they really nail the custom finishes and make a whole bike with matching fenders look well thought out. These are high end, builds that likely cost about 10 grand but they look really incredible with the integrated paint jobs.

Every year there's a paint trend that blows my mind and this year it was multicolored stuff that was so wild I honestly don't know how someone made it. It could have been sponges or using salts in the paint, but I think it might be hydrodipping. There were half a dozen bikes with paint schemes like this, that looked like they were hand brushed under a clear coat.

The first custom bike I ever got was built by Mike DeSalvo in Ashland, Oregon and I was stoked to see him again, this time with a flat bar gravel bike that matched his Baja bug.

Chatting with Mike, I learned this was his first car that he learned to drive in the early 1990s, which he found for sale a couple years ago and bought back. Now he's restoring it how we wished he could have back when he was a teen (so far it's got the big 1800cc bus engine in it for power and speed).

32" wheels are all the rage and personally, as much as I hate how the bike industry urges everyone to try a new wheel size every few years (along with a new bike to go with it), I am looking forward to someday having a 32" wheeled gravel bike because for tall people like me, we have to run big ugly frames and I can't wait to get a bike with a normal-looking sized frame on it with the giant wheels.

I loved this 80s looking red bike that reminded me of a Murray BMX bike from a Sears catalog and the red, white, and blue one really had a nice NASCAR vibe with the paint and the sponsor stickers.

There were vendors selling parts related to these builds with lots of custom bag makers, but I really loved the colors that Ortelib was showing off this year. I used them for touring the Oregon Coast ten years ago and loved my bags (but mine were plain black).

There was a big contingent of builders and parts suppliers from Japan, including this Sim Works booth that replicated the small shop in Tokyo by the same name with lots of shirts and parts for sale.

The MADE show is pretty fun and there are about a hundred different bikes to look at from dozens of different builders. They also feature parts suppliers for builds including metal manufacturers, which always cracks me up. You might be looking at a custom Mosaic Titanium bike and the next booth over is a steel tubing manufacturer that's talking directly to budding frame builders. It's an interesting mix of bikes built by eccentric people for specific purposes, high end bikes built for demanding clients, and then all the materials you need to custom build your own frames, all under one roof.