I’ve been on bikes from a very young age but my passion exploded in 2004 when I got swept away in Portland’s burgeoning cycling scene and cyclocross racing. I raced for a few years, went on several long tours, and built an independent business around my passion: Little Package Cycling Caps. In my opinion, bikes are freedom and bikes are fun. I hope you ride one!
I got this great letter from a customer of mine who loved his Little Package cap. I got many letters like this over the years, and wanted to share this one to share the love! I love getting letters like this. Getting them now that I’m done making caps is a little sad, but that’s OK. It’s nice to be reminded I made lots of great little things. More about Spencer’s great bike tour here.
I was really comfortable with my gear along the Pacific Crest Trail, so I thought I would share it with you, and explain why it worked. Please note beforehand that I purchased all these items with my own money after carefully researching them, and was not given anything for review. The following are my opinions. If you look at this photograph with me, I will talk about the items shown, left to right, one row at a time. Click a link to skip forward to that gear item.
It’s getting busy in my studio but I had to take a minute aside to let everyone know Little Package will be at the Bike Craft fair this year. This will be the 5th or 6th time I’ve tabled at this wonderful, homegrown Portland event, and as always, I’m looking forward to it. It’s so fun to be in a room with dozens of other local crafters who have worked hard to bring their bike style to life. Please put it on your calendar! BIKE CRAFT 2012 December 1 and 2, 11am-6pm Sandbox Studios, 420 NE 9th Portland, Oregon USA This month I am trying to catch up on the wait list that formed when I was out of action… continue reading
So this is my new right collarbone. I’m pretty happy — as happy as one can be, I guess — with the new shape. And I’m proud that I healed it myself, trusting nature to do its job (though that was tough sometimes). There are some fairly good resources online for people with broken collarbones wanting to know what to do. I really had no idea, and never went to the doctor, so I did a lot of Googling. I got the most (but not necessarily the best) information from these two websites: – Pinkbike broken collarbone recovery time Of course that’s the first thing people want to know. How long will I endure this hell? – John’s Clavicle Page… continue reading
Exactly 4 weeks ago I crashed a dirt jumper on a wooden ramp & broke my right collarbone. Looking back a month has gone by quickly, but trust me: individually, those 28 days each took an eternity to pass. I thought at week three my bone would be fused and by week four I would be sewing, but last week I had a setback. A massive spasm in the middle of the night re-broke my collarbone. No joke. It was a nightmare. But real. I thought I’d have to start over… But this morning I woke and realized my bone had finally fused! Seems like broken bones learn from their mistakes. Now that it’s fused I can move around much… continue reading
This week I pulled an insane maneuver: I sold the sewing machine I use to make cycling caps — before getting a replacement. I sold it right out from under my business, without warning or much planning. It had been listed on Craigslist for several weeks as part of my plan to buy a new machine to improve my tax situation, and suddenly one evening someone wanted it badly. Off it went to a happy new home, perfectly good but massively depreciated. Off it went, leaving me high and dry. A replacement won’t be here until mid-next week. I do own these two vintage “backup” sewing machines, though. They sit pretty, high up on a shelf above my desk, collecting… continue reading
This is a rant-y opinion piece. If you disagree, or wear any of these jerseys, that’s your style and you’re certainly entitled to it. I am opinionated and can sometimes come off as bitchy, but those things go hand-in-hand and for the most part I’m a very smart and nice person. So hear me out. There’s a comment form at the bottom of the post if you would like to rant, too. So yeah, I’ve been shopping for cycling jerseys for several years and still only own two. Two of the same jersey. Black, short sleeve, three quarter zip, wool. Why only two? Because shopping for women’s jerseys is awful. I normally have to stop after a few moments of… continue reading
On Saturday I called up Boone and asked if he wanted to go mountain biking. Of course he did. I printed off a map to a pretty out-of-the-way and lesser-traveled trail and picked him up, and off we went. I got a new fork for my bike, switching out the old 80mm SID Race for a burlier 100mm Reba RL, so I was pretty excited to try it out. Improved bike, new trail, lots of excitement… right? Well, it doesn’t work like that. We were on strange trails with no idea where we were going. Strange trails that twisted and turned more than a pissed off snake. And my fork just proved too much for me. I couldn’t get in… continue reading
The first few times I was invited mountain biking I laughed it off. Mountain biking wasn’t something I wanted to do or ever thought I would do. But then I did it. And now I am a mountain biker. This weekend Boone & I drove out to McKenzie River east of Eugene and camped for a couple days on the trail. The McKenzie River Trail was the very first trail I ever mountain biked (in 2005), and it’s still one of my favorites. I’d only ever ridden the bottom half, though. This weekend I finally got the chance to ride the top section of the trail. It is notoriously technical (“technical, technical, technical bla bla bla” is most of what… continue reading
It’s quite rare that you end up on a completely shoulder-less road with so much traffic anywhere near Portland, but the second the weather turns warm you can bet the roads of Sauvie Island are going to be swimming with young people desperate for the beach. And most of them will be in cars. In cars full of coolers. Full of beer. This afternoon, I swung by on my bike to pick up my man. It’s Earth Day and it’s our one year anniversary. Since I hadn’t been riding much I told him to “take it easy on me,” and he assumed it’d be a short ride. When I got there I found he’d even put platform pedals on his… continue reading