It was so hot this weekend! Liz and I were in the gorge at Brandon & Renee's beautiful wedding at the Maryhill Museum. It had to be over 100 degrees up there! In the morning Liz and I did an out and back on Dog River. It's a pretty steep climb for single speeds, but we managed. That's right "we". Liz is a new member of club singlespeed, and this was her first weekend on the new rig. Sunday we met up with Greg, CJ, Roll, and Devin with her new signal mountain bike, and rode Surveyor's Ridge trail. On the way up there we ran into Scott R's bachelor party crew and we all rolled up the trail. The heat took it's toll on us, but we managed to put in a pretty fun ride (if you don't believe me, just look at that photo again).

I picked up Pete's single speed cross bike from paint today. It looks beautiful. You may remember the paint scheme from our NAHBS cross bike but it is a little different. The colors are slightly different and the logo is white with black outlines that really pop off the color bands. We also included on the down tube an image of our old friend Brett J. Pete and Brett were usually neck and neck in the single speed cross races and Pete wanted a little something special on his race rig to remember the battles. When fall comes around this bike is going to get plenty dirty. We are all looking forward to it. Thanks for stopping in.

We started another touring bike today. Barb is going to be riding around this beauty with a carbon fork ready for long reach road calipers, fenders and a rear rack. She has spent thousands of miles in the saddle and really knows what she wants when it comes to bikes and we are having fun being specific with this build. We are really looking forward to a few bikes that will be coming back from paint in the next week or two and will post photos as soon as we can. I can't wait to see Pete's cross bike. It is getting a paint scheme that Matt and I have really started to love for our cross bikes. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about.

I got my mountain bike running! Pete, Marlia, Brian T, Bridgette, Liz and I got up to Hood River on Sunday. The plan was to ride surveyor's ridge, but a friend who lives up there told us that it was still un-ridable, so we rode 8 mile and Knebal springs instead. It was a beautiful day, and after a few (sorry guys) on trail adjustments to my freshly built up bike, we rode some of the most fun singletrack in the area. I've often said that if I were only able to ride one bike, it would have to be a mountain bike. There is no better biking than railing a left-right turn on some pine needle singletrack at about 25mph. The ride pace was mellow but I had a 36x18 gear on (lack of planning) and after the first hour, I was hurting pretty bad. Luckily the climbs all have the best payoff and the final trail to the car is the best of all. I was following Pete brakeless down the last trail following a creek with a huge smile. My bike was perfect, the trail was perfect, the company was perfect. Another successful ride. I'm waiting for my cool wheels to come in before I shoot pictures of my bike. I'll post some soon. I promise.

Yeah, the ride to the beach was awesome! I asked a bunch of people to go thinking that it would end up just being me and Liz, but we rolled out of Portland 9 strong. Sunday was what feels like the only day I've seen the sun since I was back in Florida in April. We had a pretty mellow pace, and only got honked at by one car on the highway to Carlton. From there it was a steady climb to the top. Andrew turned around at the top of the climb, he wasn't intending to go the whole way to Pacific City. He did great considering he never rides his bike and his seat was about 3 inches too low. The rest of us descended down the coast side of the range, into the ferns and water. That road is so nice, and we only saw a few cars and motorcycles. There's a brief section of gravel somewhere in there and then we came to Beaver Oregon. After as many one-liners as we could come up with, we held our breath and got on 101 for the last 12 miles or so. That is where I was attacked by sudden bonkage. Everything was going along fine and all of a sudden I turned to John and said "My check engine light just came on". I stopped where there was no shoulder and people handed me food that I crammed down my throat. I hung out there for a couple minutes and found the energy to make it the rest of the way. After 95+ miles we made it to the Pelican Pub on the beach of Pacific City. I drank a couple really good beers and felt a lot better. Thanks to everyone who came: Lucy, Elizabeth, Erin, Matt Hall, John, Roll, Brandon, and Andrew. That was a super fun ride with a great crew. Roll and I want to do the Banks-Vernoina to Astoria next time.

Yesterday Nate, Liz, Brian, Jennifer and I piled into Brian's car and drove up to Washington to Siouxon creek trail. I've never been up there and was excited to see some new trail. I can't believe how beautiful it is up there! The massive cedars and firs created a trail surface best described as pine needle carpet. The ferns lining the trail polished my shoes, Brian called it "fern burn." We had a pretty slow pace and stopped to enjoy the views fairly often. It was a nice way to spend Sunday.

This week in the shop we're finishing up Caroline's frame and fork and we're getting ready for the next few bikes. Barb's touring bike, Kevin's cross bike, and Drew's road bike. We'll do our best to show the progress here.

Thanks for reading.