Yep. Our boy Trystans been representing for a few extra days in Portland, ever since the van developed a bad tie rod and ball joint. Here’s a quick update from his trip:
“There are definitely worse places to be held up in for a few extra days. Fortunately, Chrome has quite a few friends in this area and some with couches to crash on. Not to mention the coffee in Portland is pretty amazing…
There has to be close to a dozen independent coffee roasters here, some a lot more famous than the guys at Extracto Coffee House on Killingsworth. It's a bit out of the way, but if you happen to be near the Alberta Street Arts District, it’s a great spot to grab a cup. Extractro has it's own roasting room on site. We got to watch the process when we stopped in this week and snapped a photo of the art.
Portland probably has the most diverse collection of bike shops anywhere in America- from hole in the wall pick-apart shops to multi-level museums with indoor test tracks. It also has the largest collection of independent frame builders in one city. Cog Magazine did a great story on Jordan Hufnagel a while back. We stopped by his shop for a quick visit. Huf is the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He took a few minutes out of his day to hang with us, so we brought him a sixer and stoked him out with one of the new Chrome Hip Pouches. He even helped us out with a bottom bracket issue between finishing a customer's new fork.
The only thing Portland has in greater quantity than bikes and coffee is beer- so it's clear they've got their priorities worked out. When we were in South East PDX we had to check out the Hopworks Brewery. The owner, Christian, is a major bike geek- note the recycled frames as art- don't worry, no functional frame was harmed, these were all salvage. Briana, behind the bar, was awesome and stayed late to hang with us for a few.
Overall, the trip was rad and the van got major props wherever we went
(when it was running). Considering we put some major miles on the old girl, she's doing pretty well! Let's just hope the van survives the drive back- looks like it's gonna be an all nighter..."
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