Back for 2026, the MADE bike show in Portland Oregon! [2023], [2024]
It’s always fun to go to the show. People! Things! Ideas! We are lucky and privileged to do such things in our lives. Where else do I go and so many people that I’ve never met know my name. I was really flattered by how many people I talked to this weekend that knew of me and what I do.
I walked the pits as the matador while the Corsair was on display Saturday. This is the way to do it. When people point to “that guy” across a sea of people, there’s no mistaking. At a trade show, be seen. Be remembered. Swagger is EVERYTHING.
I drove up to the show with a theme in mind for my approach, “Constraints & Cheat Codes”. It’s an interesting question in what we do. What constraints frame our creativity and what cheat codes allow us to do things that are hard for others? This seemed to be a good question to ask people in the audios. Sadly, it didn’t work out well and I basically abandoned the task. Not that the question isn’t good but that it’s hard to answer well quickly and on the spot. I should write about this separately.
Josh Ogle really was the star of the show this year. The sheer scale of what he was showing would be difficult for 10 builders to show rather than one solo act. From wild custom full suspension bikes to the most intricately machined components, his work was just wild and at the highest end. Just the machining and modeling would be hard to match but he was solving problems others don’t even know about. It was great to see.
I got to show two of my bikes thanks to the generosity of Josh. He let me place a bike in the back of his booth each day, the Starfighter on Friday and the Corsair on Saturday. Being “in” his booth was a real status bump for me, I’m grateful. Thanks to being there and what I also do, my bike got into the media stream of James Huang’s N-1 and BikePacking.com. Even a small pic in Pinkbike.
I didn’t get a lot of audio interviews this year. I wasn’t really in the groove and my theme plan was falling apart. I would love to do a round table discussion in front of folks one of these days. I think that a few folks with audience response would be valuable. These are the few interviews that I did get:
Joel Chapman – Library of Congress, Archie Green Fellow for “Cycling Lore: The Occupational Folklore of Bicycle Workers in America.” joelchap94@gmail.com
http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026_Joel_Chapman_01.mp3
Sean Hatten – Industry Nine
http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026_Sean_Hatten_01.mp3
Rich Faller – Sanitas Bikes
http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026_Rich_Faller_01.mp3
Matt Lessmeier – Telepathy Bikes
http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026_Matt_Lessmeier_01.mp3
Dustin Simons – Big Block Bikes
http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026_Dustin_Simons_01.mp3
Chris Delere – Benchmark Tooling
https://www.peterverdone.com/2026_chris_delere_01/
Stefan Klein – Paladin Engineering (Sorry for bad audio quality)
http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026_Stefan_Klein_01.mp3
Jonathan DiPinto – Cal Poly Bike Builders (Sorry, first half of talk was lost)
http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/CalPoly-Kid_01.mp3
Walking a show like this, I’m always looking for some kind of print to go with a bike or frame that communicates the intent of the design from a more engineering perspective. This show was typical.
Other than my bikes that were shown with prints, only Fiddlehead Cycles presented a print. Sadly, I didn’t get a photo.
Often, it’s what isn’t said that tells us more than what is. Geometry is not important in this environment. It’s simply not meaningful to those that attend. Choices in paint and handgrip color will be discussed at length.
As usual, I have my photo dump of about 200 detail images that designers and engineers will appreciate. Fine details, close up. This is the stuff that you my not see in mainstream outlets.
