Sunday, October 09, 2011

Minneapolis West.

Heading home now. In some ways, it seems to have been a loooong trip. In others, very short. What i would definitely say is it has been highly enjoyable. Portland has a nice way of life: the priorities seem in good order. People, health, food, quality of life issues. I'll be back for sure.
Highlights? Catching up with Sean and family. The Maul, of course!...surpassing all my objectives, aesthetically, and functionally. Awesome!. Riding in sight of Mt Hood. Again, thanks to Kevin and Sean for that one. Doing a little welding with some ti tubes. I'm going to come back to this in a future post. I had chance to catch up with Nick Sande as well - and we reflected on his bike packing trips out of Portland. The area is ripe for that sort of thing, with major differences in climate as you move over the rain shadow of the mountains, east towards Bend.
I also managed a short trip to the Museum of Contemporary Craft to check out the winners of the Oregon Manifest design challenge. Say what you like about expensive, custom commuting bikes, but i fully expect to see some of the design features here trickle down and make your next town bike a whole lot better to use. I also had a great time visiting Ruckus Components. Super bright guys.
I didnt get chance to ride the Mackenzie River trail, which i had been hoping to cram in. No matter, it's not going anywhere... I'm looking forward to seeing my baby and my baby now. Persephone needs a wee hug and a head scratch too. Home soon.

5 comments:

simondbarnes said...

Sounds like a great trip. Not sure about the front and rear of the new bike but everyone had very different views on aesthetics. I'm sure it'll be a great bike for you :)

Anonymous said...

Love to hear your insight on how the XC Enves compare to the AM. I have a very similar bike I will be building a new set of wheels for. Wonder if you should later upgrade the fork to the new 15mm Niner.

Unknown said...

Holy fuck Jon that machine is... a MACHINE, v cool v cool. Look forward to hearing more about the Maul.

Nick said...

Did you go up Mount Hood to the Timberline Lodge then? You may know it as The Overlook.

martysavalas said...

hopefully heading to mckenzie river on monday, after cross crusade on sunday.

local trails and lookout mountain in the ochocos this week.

fuggit. i'm moving here...