The Buy Local Cycling team is happy to welcome Ruckus Components as a sponsor in our efforts. Ruckus Components is based in Portland, Oregon and exemplifies the Buy Local spirit by hand laying custom carbon cyclocross, mountain bike, and commuter components in their SE Portland workshop. Ruckus also does custom carbon frame and wheel repairs as well as developing prototype frames.
When we started the Buy Local team, companies like Ruckus Components were exactly who we had in mind to help promote to wider audiences -- small, local businesses producing high quality components by hand. Like the carbon bashguard seen on my cross bike, you may see a variety of Ruckus Components appear on Buy Local riders team bikes in 2010 and beyond.
![Showers pass+ logo[1]](http://awholelottanothing.typepad.com/.a/6a010535892f3a970b0120a80c73eb970b-120wi "Showers pass+ logo[1]")
The Buy Local Cycling team is happy to report that we've partnered with Showers Pass, a Portland, OR based technical outdoor clothing company. Showers Pass is best known for their incredibly functional and durable rain weather gear. Although their products are made outside of the US, Shower Pass has a pretty cool philosophy and business model:
We believe that bicycles are environmentally
responsible transportation. Bicycles are fun to ride and provide
exercise that helps keep you healthy. Having good bike clothing can
make riding year-round more practical and enjoyable. We believe that we
are helping more folks ride comfortably and often by providing
functional, lightweight, high quality clothing.
We design our products in the Pacific Northwest, and
source production world-wide. Our contractors ensure good working
conditions and pay the prevailing wage. We are more concerned about
quality than low price, and we convey this to our factories, so they do
not take short-cuts when sewing for us. We try to minimize resource
consumption (such as paper catalogues) and recycle or reuse shipping
materials as much as possible. We support local bike coalitions through
product and cash donations. We support national bike access
organizations, such as the International Mountain Bike Association,
through volunteer work and cash donations.
Buy Local Cycling is proud to partner with Showers Pass and our members are looking forward to some dry and warm rides!
Thanks to team member Tim Schallberger's work and research, we've begun assembling a list of vendors, companies, and resources related to cycling products and services with a local angle. Most listed items are produced in Oregon, or the US, and/or owned by local businesses. In assembling each of our team bikes we've spent a great deal of time talking to manufacturers and figuring out what gets made where, and wanted to share the fruits of that labor.
Buy Local Cycling Vendor and Resources Directory
From the time the idea was born for the team -- to use local builders and as many local parts as possible, it's been a long journey putting a team together, making connections with builders and manufacturers, and finally, doing loads of research to try and meet the goals of the team to ride on bikes and products made locally.
This particular bike is mine, and I'm 6'4" so it's a very large frame (seat tube is about 64cm). It's a custom geometry (after a fit from Seth Hosmer) titanium frame built by Mike DeSalvo in Ashland, Oregon. From there, we assembled parts with the following priority:
- Companies making parts locally in Oregon (DeSalvo frame, Chris King hubs & bottom bracket, Kool-Stop brake pads, Ruckus bashguard)
- American companies making parts in the US (Thomson stem & seatpost, Paul brakes, Selle An-Atomica saddle, Woundup Components Fork, Stans NoTubes rims & sealant)
- American companies making parts internationally (SRAM Force shifters & derailleurs, Salsa components, FSA crankset)
People told us going into this project that it's wasn't possible to ride a truly local bike from the top of the seat to the bottom of the tires, and though it's true you can't build an entire bike from parts produced in Oregon, we did our best here to show you can go pretty far and find some really top quality components and frames produced quite closely to where our team members live.
I want to give a big thanks Mike DeSalvo for believing in our team when it was barely more than an idea. I want to thank Spectrum Powder Works for the amazing detailed all powdercoat paint job and Woundup for making a custom carbon cross fork with fender eyelets for winter training after cross season is over. I want to thank Gordie at Northwest Multisports for wrangling up our parts and Shawn at Ruckus for getting me parts on short notice. I also want to give a big thanks to Mike at my local bike shop Tommy's for dialing it all in just in time for racing. Lastly I want to thank local bike photography legend Jared Souney for taking the time to shoot this and make it look amazing.
More shots of the bike in my Flickr gallery
Pictured above is the beautiful new bike I gave to my wife today for
our combination anniversary and her birthday (her birthday happened to
fall on a Saturday 9 years ago and so we got married on her birthday).
Jeff McNamee started this team with the idea that we have a lot of
local builders making cool stuff and though I was aware of several
frame builders, it wasn't until I completed this bike project this
morning that I fully understood it: there are loads of cool goods made
in Portland and local environs.
The Bike
It all
started last month when local bike scene blogger Jonathan Maus of
Bike Portland mentioned on twitter that local women-specific
framebuilder Sweetpea bikes was starting to build off-the-peg
semi-custom bikes in one of three sizes. Each frame has the
similar-sized geometry averaged from previous full custom Sweetpea
bikes. The program was announced with a 8 week lead time to get a bike
(which is much quicker than the 2-3 years most framebuilders make you
wait for full custom). I emailed Natalie at Sweetpea on the off chance
she had one of the first prototypes or unsold first run bikes around.
Lucky for me, she had one small frame in orange that could be built up
just in time for the big day. I placed the order with an Ultegra build
since the newest Ultegra has a simple adjustable throw for the brake
levers, making them easier to use for my wife's small hands.
The Fenders
After
placing the order, I shopped around for some cool add-ons to help make
the bike more useful. I knew I wanted fenders and a rack on it, and I
thought wood fenders might look cool, so a bit of Google searching
later and I happened to find Paul Sykes making wood fenders in any size
and in numerous types of wood finishes, at a good price. I contacted
him by email and phone and I learned he was nearby in Portland. He was
nice enough to not only hand make a new set in bamboo just for me, but
he also took a break from his work and helped me install them yesterday
in his shop space.
The rack was one I noticed at the annual bike
trade show Interbike, a simple and svelte stainless steel rack from
Tubus. And though they are not local, the downtown location of the Bike
Gallery was luckily a local seller of this German brand and helped
tweak the mounts just right so it worked perfectly on this bike (at no
extra charge, to boot).
The Bags
I've always liked
the Queen Bee bike bags ever since I saw them show up on Bike Portland
a year or so ago. I thought they'd lend a nice final touch to the rack
(my wife currently uses some ugly technical bags to transport her
computer to work) and when I noticed they had a sale, I called to see
if I could pick up a set when I pick up the bike, rack, and fenders.
They said they were sold out of most designs but went the extra mile in
building a set just for me in a design they were out of, and they
rushed it in time for me to pick them up on the way home last night.
The
bags are really nice, a soft leather-like fabric makes up most of the
bag. The sides are buttoned by default and unbutton to extend the bag
out, while at the same time have a reflective fabric to increase your
visibility when expanded. There are carry straps hidden inside as well
as a hidden pocket. They're pretty amazing things while looking great
as well.
Conclusion
Today I put it all together and snapped a bunch of shots of it before giving it to her to ride and enjoy. She seemed to love it.
I
put a lot of effort into providing great customer service in my own
business, and I'm constantly disappointed when large companies treat me
like crap. Getting this bike together required four different local
companies to go the extra mile for me and they all did, going above and
beyond even what I'd consider great customer service. Natalie at
Sweetpea was nice enough to rush a build of a custom bike in just a
couple weeks. The mechanic crew at Bike Gallery were as always,
incredibly gracious and helpful. Paul at Sykes Fenders made me a custom
set of fenders in just a few days and even helped me put them on the
bike. The whole crew at Queen Bee came together to rush a new set of
bags in just one day to help me finish off the bike.
I know I'm
lucky to live in the Portland region, with its numerous bike-related
businesses, but sometimes I forget and take it for granted that just
outside of my backyard is some of the coolest, best looking, and best
performing stuff available.
Several of our team riders (me included) have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of our cross and 29er custom frames from our bike sponsor DeSalvo Custom Cycles. Looks like team member Sean got his custom frame first, pictured above. It's a steel cross frame painted a nice team-matching shade of blue.
I'm assembling the parts for my team DeSalvo Ti cross race bike and I decided to go tubeless since it worked well on my last cross bike (and I was tired of constant pinch flats from clinchers + tubes). I had an old powertap wheel I used for winter training that I plucked the hub from, got a new Chris King front hub, and paired it with Stans NoTubes' new white powercoated 29er rims. I was shopping around for places to build them up when I heard about Epic Wheel Works on Bike Portland so I decided to try them out.
Jude at Epic Wheel Works was great, building them up with a focus on strength that I need as a 200lb cyclocross rider, and she turned them around in just over a week. Highly recommended.
