Trip to Portland — ULTRA DYNAMICO RIDE—
Hi, it’s Cent from Yoyogi Park store.
We went for a business trip in San Francisco and Portland late August. It was a tremendous experience… I kinda lost some brain memories from the past to store more for this trip haha.
The purpose of the trip was to see our clients (8 brands!) and to go to a handmade bike show called “MADE” at the end of the trip.
This time I’d like to write about one of the most impressive events of the trip, which was the ride with Ronnie and Pat of ULTRA DYNAMICO and Sean from TEAM DREAM (check out his bike brand BEACH CLUB !) .
MADE was a 2-day event and the ride was in the morning on the second day. I think we met up around 8am.
Even though apparently it was warm-ish there while we were there, the temperature was best for a hot cafe latte (isn’t that great in August?).
The small figs Ronnie and Pat prepared for us were yummy.
(It really doesn’t matter but Team Blue Lug was really into Greek yogurt during the trip so we had quite a few types of them including this SKYR haha)
Here Ronnie and Tani-san are chatting about the bike. Since we didn’t bring bikes they scraped enough bikes up for us. Not only breakfast but also bikes… Yes, they are incredibly good people.
Let’s go for a ride! It took around 20 minutes cycling from the nice suburban residential area to the trail. (it’s so close from city central to the trails, I’m jealous)
We cycled on a wide gravel road like this (nice pic).
Took a little break before going uphill. It was funny yet impressive to see Ronnie sitting on a log. I’ve seen this scene through photos of him before haha.
There were a lot of fern plants in “Forest Park”. I was enjoying how the forest looks similar but actually different from forests in Japan.
(Shell-Ridge, where we went for the Rivendell ride, was actually a sea in ancient times. The terrain was more like very dry, Mars-ish, and it was fun to ride too)
We went from the jeep road to the single track. Issue cycling between Ronnie and Sean!
Sub got along with Sean during the ride. He rented an ALUMALITH and liked the bike a lot.
(I’m jealous that he could ride Ronnie and Pat’s regular trail with the frame and tires designed by them!)
This particular scene is one of the most impressive moments of this trip. Right next to me, Ronnie was sliding down a mountain in Oregon. Just unbelievable!
Many of you probably want to know about Ronnie’s bike.
This is called Alumax which you must have been seen for the first time at MADE.
It’s an aluminum bike handmade in the US, same as the sensational ALUMALITH.
It’s set up with 700×42c tires with wide drop handlebars and U-type rim brake.
(There mustn’t have been such a bike before…) You are right, I think so too.
It is a gravel road bike based on “neo-retro perspective”, I assume?
Here’s Patrick with a smile. He was fast and the ride seemed easy-peasy for him. Meanwhile I was struggling with a cruiser style Sam Hillborne haha.
By the way, when I was chatting with Patrick on the next day from the ride he said,
“Malocchio is fantastic!”
Actually this chat started with the question Tani-san asked “I got a spare road groupset. Which bike would you choose to build?”
Patrick passionately answered that “Malocchio is a fantastic bike with a great stiffness, you should try it, seriously” . (He has been riding the prototype of Malocchio for around 2 years)
What Patrick said really convinced me, especially with the fact that he got experience in road racing.
(We might still have a complete bike size 51 at our Yoyogi Park store when this blog is posted, if you are around Tokyo, please try it out if you would like to do so!)
Our sweaty T-shirts quickly dried after going down the paved road. That made me feel that I’m in America.
It was around 10 am when we came back from the mountain and we still haven’t “made” to MADE! What an eventful morning.
I hope this blog tells you how tremendous this trip was…
That’s a wrap for today! Please look forward to further reports coming.
Finally, a group shot for the ride.
See you later!
