Recent Rides
Portland is awesome, but somewhat unpredictable, this time of year. You might get 75 and sunny or 52 and pouring rain. Sometimes both, depending on how far we have to ride.
The LIOTR Bikes at The Vanilla Workshop
I stopped by the workshop yesterday to grab some shots of Sacha working on our frames. Here he is hand shaping the joints on the seat stays, which have been curved by hand. Once everything lines up and is even and balanced they’ll be brazed with silver. More pictures to come soon.
New Sponsor: Chris King
I bought this Pretty & Strong stem cap in 2006 after my father had beaten colon cancer, but was diagnosed with breast cancer (yes men can get breast cancer, though it is very rare). So the fact that @chriskingbuzz made this product that helps fight cancer was a profound thing for me. This simple cap has ridden many thousands of miles with me since, and was the reason we reached out to Chris King to see if they would join us on our mission across the country. They said an emphatic “YES” and we are very happy and proud to ride across the US with @chriskingbuzz hubs, bottom brackets and headsets! Stay tuned for a shop visit post on leaveitontheroad.com.
LIOTR bikes at The Vanilla Workshop
Stopped by the workshop to say hi and spotted Andrew’s completed headtube. 5 weeks to go until we roll out from the Oregon coast!
West Union Road Poppy Fields
Bridge Of The Gods Ride
55 miles from the southwest hills of Portland lies the Bridge Of The Gods. This steel grate bridge spans the Columbia River, connecting Washington and Oregon. When you ride over the steel grating, you can see clear down the water hundreds of feet below. But if you look in any other direction you are rewarded with spectacular views of the river and surrounding rock formations. We return to PDX on the Old Columbia River Highway, which is easily one of the best roads I’ve ever ridden. Climbing through the old forest, surrounded by waterfalls on the left and views of the river valley on the right. Top that off with a good crew of riders and it does not get much better.
Saturday Century
115 mile Bridge Of The Gods ride today with a solid crew. When you’re riding across the bridge you can see straight down to the water. Scary/awesome.
Rapha Lunch Rides
Every Wednesday in Portland a solid crew departs from Rapha’s NA headquarters. You never know what you’re going to get but it’s a safe bet that it will hurt.
Recent Rides
The weather in PDX is perfect. We try not to talk about it because we’re all afriad it isn’t going to last. We’ve come to expect an amazing week-long spring that inevitably ushers in winter #2. The training continues either way, but those 200 mile weekends sure have been a lot more enjoyable recently. Fingers crossed the weather sticks… or better yet, I’ll just keep my mouth shut.
The Vanilla Workshop
We wouldn’t be able to make it across the country without the generous material, social and emotional support from our sponsors. So where possible we’d like to give you a look into these awesome companies that are full of caring & passionate people. At the core of LIOTR is a genuine desire to do some good in the world, and each of our sponsors shares the belief and passion that is driving us to cross the US on two wheels.
We’ve been spending a lot of time over at The Vanilla Workshop lately getting ready for the ride and working out the details of the custom Speedvagens that Andrew and I will pilot. We’ll have a few more Vanilla Workshop posts for you before the ride begins that dig into the details of the bikes, from fit to fabrication to finish. But in the meantime here are a few quiet shots that were captured on an early morning in the workshop.