Lustworthy Handmade, Local Carbon...mmmmm

I've always been drawn to US made bike frames.  It's some sort of strange mix of a little nationalism, combined with a buy local to keep the money local sentiment.  A US made bike frame gives a little extra something to the bike.  It's sort of like wearing a nice pair of American made Allen Edmonds. When it comes to bicycles, there have been a few hold-out major manufacturers who have continued to make bicycle frames in the USA.  Trek only makes their most high end bikes in the US, and Cannondale recently halted their US production of frames, outsourcing everything to Taiwan.  Of course, if you are into steel bikes, there are hundreds of custom bike builders who will make you a bike.  But for those of us who have ridden modern carbon, there's simply no way we're going back to steel.  Steel is reel alright...reel heavy, noodly, flexy.  It ain't carbon.

It turns out that Argonaut Cycles has come to the rescue.  If you want to be the King of all Phreds, and you can afford it that is.  For me, it is enough that I know it exists!

Bicycle Traffic Jams

I ride almost exclusively on the west side of Portland, out to Beaverton and the western countryside.  On one occasion, I took the family into town for an appointment on the east side on Burnside, just over the Bridge.  As I sat in the car waiting for them to come out, I was astonished at the stream riders heading up Burnside.  It the evening commute, the weather wasn't particularly nice, so these weren't mere fair weather riders.  It was a bicycle super highway of relatively fit, happy people going home from work.  Well, thanks to Nathan Farney and Gabe Graff, here are some photographs of a legitimate bike traffic jam caused by a bridge raising due to a passing ship.