Legacy marques and small builders show their wares This was a new event for me to attend. I had been to the Hand-built bicycle show (NAHBS) in Oregon on several previous occasions, but that show like much of the rest of Portland events has died because of recent local events and perhaps some internal issues. I am reluctant to go into the city at all anymore with the myriad problems that Portland is experiencing but I had pre-scouted this location and thought that it didn’t look too bad so I decided to give it a shot. The event of August 25-27 was held in what appeared to be an old industrial ..read more

44th annual Covered Bridges Bicycle Tour I rode this event last year and enjoyed it enough to return and ride it again. This time would ride the 44 mile route which included 3 covered bridges along with a few extra miles I added in to get to a 50 mile distance. The weather was expected to be in the upper 90’s and I wanted to get back in before the heat came on! I’ve been riding the Bianchi L’Eroica again recently and it seemed like a good choice to use for this event. It has modern performance combined with an old school look and is a joy to ride. You can learn more about this build here. Gilk ..read more

1954 Urago Debutante The notion of a debutante, that of one whom “after a period of maturation and refinement is being presented to society“, is a good analogy for this bike. Though in this case even as the subject is a bit more mature, she is still “coming out” after her restoration! As noted in a previous post about refinishing this frame I am a little underwhelmed at the result of my painting effort. It was however an attempt to get some experience using professional painting material and equipment, so in that regard the experiment was a success! With that in mind I know that this will nev ..read more

It is sometimes a tough call to decide on how to finish an old bicycle frame. You can choose almost any kind of treatment from a “rat bike” to a museum quality finish and get a satisfying result within that theme. In general I usually prefer to keep things as original as I can and to be honest I don’t mind quite a bit of authentic patina, but this one was going to be different. In the case of this frame a prior owner used brushed on paint to cover small chips in the finish which could have led to rust, and although the frame was preserved it looked pretty bad due to the mismatched colors. San ..read more

The making of a parts bike Over the years I’ve been slowly accumulating bicycle parts. Not through a conscious effort but more as the by-product of working on older bikes as a hobby. You might buy a bike as a project and not use all of the components that came with it, trading some parts out for others and throwing the rest in a bin. I never imagined that some of these leftover bits and pieces would actually get used on a bike again! These extra items might be an off brand, lower quality or simply a component that was not well regarded. The question of what to do with some of these orphaned pa ..read more

Riding 60+ miles on a 60 year old bike! The Covered Bridges Bicycle Tour is a cycling event held by the Mid Valley Bicycle Club outside of Albany Oregon in the Willamette Valley. This will be the clubs 43rd year of holding of this event in rural Linn County. There are several different routes available on this ride with distances of 20 to 100 miles. For several reasons I chose to ride a metric century option. Summertime in the Willamette Valley can be quite warm so I wanted a route that would finish before it got too hot. Also, I have not been riding many events this year so it would be best ..read more

The making of a parts bike Over the years I’ve been slowly accumulating bicycle parts. Not through a conscious effort but more as the by-product of working on older bikes as a hobby. You might buy a bike as a project and not use all of the components that came with it, trading some parts out for others and throwing the rest in a bin. I never imagined that some of these leftover bits and pieces would actually get used on a bike again! These extra items might be an off brand, lower quality or simply a component that was not well regarded. The question of what to do with some of these orphaned pa ..read more

Urago Bicycles was a French manufacturer which was founded in 1935 in Nice by brothers Joseph and Francois. They were known for the high quality of their handmade frames, many of which were built by artisan frame builder Anicet Cattanéo who continued working through the early 70’s. Francois Urago was a track racer in the 1920s -1930s and his likeness was on the head badge for many years. Outside of these scant few details there is limited information readily available on the Urago marque other than the few bikes that are out there to observe. I acquired this frame along with a few parts from ..read more

A few years back when this bike was built I was looking to create a nice vintage rider, an all purpose machine that would be both versatile and a little sporty. At the time I lived in the high desert and contending with rain was almost never an issue. Now we spend much of our time in the Pacific North West where conditions couldn’t be more different. It was time to revise the Lygie to be more suitable for it’s new locale. The Lygie before it’s transition to an Oregon bike Time for a change of character This may be the one in my medley of bicycles that I have seemed to ride the least, for wha ..read more

Here is a bike that is not one of my own but turned into a project for me anyway. Owned by a family member but neglected for many years I decided it was time to resurrect it. This bike was purchased used as a frame and fork from the old Stewart Hunt Bicycle shop in Reno Nevada in the early 90’s. Over the course of the following months it was pieced together from extra or cast off parts from the shop by our young college student who worked there part time. Eventually it became a complete bike even if it was a jumble of mismatched parts. It was ridden lightly until other youthful interests even ..read more