Tara Dublin
One of my favorite Portland DJs, Tara was my shop radio companion for a long time. She's now longer working as a DJ, she's doing other cool stuff instead.
Black Star Bags
I met the folks from Black Star at the Portland Bicycle Expo and absolutely love their work. Totally waterproof, lots of cool pockets and custom embroidery on everything from messenger bags to really nice backpacks. I don't own one yet, but my next bag will definitely be from Black Star.
Community Cycling Center
I'm a big believer in what the Community Cycling Center does for people. They recycle old bikes and give them new life; they give hundreds of bikes and helmets to low-income kids; they teach adults to maintain their own bikes and become safe commuters. They even taught me to change out bottom brackets and headsets years ago.
Henry James
No, not the one who wrote The Bostonians. This is the Henry James that manufactures some of the loveliest lugs around. Sure there are frillier and fancier lugs out there, but Henry's have a simple elegance that really appeals to me. Plus his lugs come in more angles than anybody else's, making it possible to build lugged frames in an enormous range of sizes and geometries.
TCB Racks
Wanna carry 70 pounds on your front rack? Well, if you're crazy enough to do that TCB is the way to go. The really good front racks out there are rated for 25 pounds. That makes the TCB freakin' awesome. The stainless steel Blue Suede Shoes rack is pretty slick and astonishingly light when empty. But it isn't for carbon forks. Made right here in Portland, Oregon by a very cool student of engineering. I guess I don't need to build racks anymore.
Stites Design
I tend not to be easily impressed these days but one of my neighbors at Oregon Manifest was dang impressive. His name is Bill Stites and in addition to being a heck of a nice guy he builds some pretty amazing front-wheel-drive human powered vehicles. Take a look.
Chasing Trails
The folks at Chasing Trails were among the first in cyberspace to say nice things about Velvet Cycles. So I figure why not return the love? Yeah, they're in the UK, and that isn't on my list of feasible vacation spots in the next decade, but so what? Maybe you're going there on business or maybe you just need to lay low and hide out from the mafia or an angry ex-spouse for a few months and are wondering where to go. Well, mountain biking in the UK looks pretty darned good to me. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.
Chris King
Yeah, yeah, we all know King makes some the finest stuff around, from those totally killer GripNut headsets to amazing hubs that are probably better than anything many of us have ever ridden. But what you might not know is that Chris King does some pretty cool stuff for us little guys (and gals). For example he sponsors a lot of good events and even lets folks ship bikes to him for shows like Oregon Manifest. Plus he sells some nifty pink gear that helps support all kinds or organizations that are working towards ending breast cancer.
Thursday Bikes
Okay, I'm not going to turn away your business if you absolutely must have a Velvet BMX bike. But truth be told, there is really just one man I would recommend if what you really want is a top notch custom BMX race frame. Thursday. Not only is he a totally stand up guy, he also makes some of the finest BMX frames around.
Over the past 30 years I've ridden just about every brand of BMX bike out there. Back in 1982 (last century!) I started keeping notes on the handling of every bike I rode. Heck man, I have 28 years worth of notes at this point! No, I didn't get to own all these bikes. Mostly they belonged to friends or just nice guys at the track who'd let me take a few test rides. The alphabetical list runs the gamut; Aerolite, Balance, Bridgestone, Cook Brothers, Crupi, Dyno, Elf, Falcon, FMF, GT, Haro, Jag, Kawasaki, Kuwahara, Mongoose, Powerlite, Puch, Quicksilver, Redline, Revcore, SE Racing, Staats, Supercross, Tioga, Thursday, UFO, Univega, and Yamaha. Those are just the brands I kept notes on! I've tried out eight or nine different models from some brands.
The one I like best out of all of them is the Thursday Mi Vida Loca. Of course I'm a sucker for cruiser class bikes anyway, but the Vida Loca is a BMX cruiser with 26 inch wheels and disc brakes. What's not to love about that? Kind of the ultimate marriage of old school and new school. Remember waaay back when all the cruisers ran 26 inch wheels instead of 24s? And when was the last time you saw a true BMX bike (with 110mm rear hub spacing and an American BB) running disc brakes? Pretty much never, huh?
Anyway, before I start going all nostalgia-guy on you, get your butt over to Thursday's web site and buy a dang bike from the man already.