I got my @omnium a piece of jewelry today in the mail from @madronecycles custom made to match the bikes color way. If you have not read about it, the Jab is sweet because you can change the standard on it. I’m currently running a Shimano mullet setup with a Shimano MTB cassette. For reasons I plan on switching to SRAM MTB down to the road, so I had them throw in a shim which adapts it to that standard. Noice! Autographed by Ian who I interviewed at @made.bike see it in my profile where he explains it.

The 4th artist to draw Kiba, my bike, and me currently hails from Florianópolis an island in southern Brazil. Check out @ninholl portfolio on his Instagram account, he is well immersed in biking culture and has a unique style that caught my eye instantly. Also he did the impossible: he managed to make me look cool. Thank you friend for being a part of this!

After spending a 3 day weekend in Portland for Made, I came away thinking that Portland was a better cycling city than my Seattle. I loved (where I rode at least) the ubiquitous bike paths and strong cycling culture (and they have Made!). But at least according to one system , Seattle is ranked a bit higher, at least by their measures! I found that surprising, but there has definitely been a lot of major improvements in the recent past in Seattle. According to peopleforbikes.com Seattle is higher due to a massive recent expansion of protected bike lanes, 20 mph speed limit baseline, lower cyclist fatality rate, and multi-use arterial paths. Of I think Portland still does have a stronger cycling culture: Made, Chris King, all cycling builders. And of course it is just one ranking system. But a 2018 Bicycling Magazine ranking had Seattle #1 in the country! I wonder what Minneapolis has to say about that. But i guess should feel lucky to live here.

Hey did I become Instagram connected to you, mystery owner with the cool 1 of 1 Vanilla cargo bike? If someone knows him, tag him. My memory isn’t good with names sometimes. Pretty unique bike heading into the Made valet.

I’m lucky enough to have this bike. Im lucky enough to have this dog (or should I say he has me). Me, riding a regular bike (I’m not much to look at)….life is ordinary. Add the Omnium and it becomes “ there goes a weird looking guy on a strange looking bike”. Add Kiba and every ride is extraordinary. The smiles. Hell people even smile at me! Everywhere you see people pointing and saying “look at that!” . The joy it brings to children, especially when they are on their own bike. It’s not about being the center of attention. It’s about genuine joy the combo of a strange looking guy, on a strange looking bike, with an extremely handsome dog can deliver that I didn’t expect. Us, careening around town, bringing some smiles on a bicycle. Not from everyone mind you, but from the real ones. 😉. It’s hard to get one of these bikes in the US right now because of the orange turd, which is too bad. So I’m lucky. An extraordinary ride every time I leave the house.