All Humans Are Welcome Here!

Category : Bikes

My passion for bikes and bicycling exploded in 2004 when I got swept away in Portland Oregon’s burgeoning cycling scene. That community was so much fun. I raced and cheered cyclocross for a few years, enjoyed a lot of Oregon XC MTB, and went on several long tours such as Portland to San Francisco along 101, Crater Lake to Portland, and Charleston, South Carolina to Boone, North Carolina. During my spare time, I built an independent business around my passion: Little Package Cycling Caps. Bikes are super fun. Bicycling is freedom!

Lighthouse Surrounded by Trail Trash

The Best Ultra Lightweight Sleeping Bags

Ultra lightweight sleeping bags are purpose-built for long-haul treks where space is at a premium and weight is counted in grams, but they can also be used on your ordinary family camping trips. I call that win-win! The sleeping bag is part of “The Big Three:” your backpack, your tent, and your sleeping bag. These three items comprise the most weight, and take up the most space of all your gear. Also, they are items (aside from food and shoes) that can make–or break–your hike or tour. Be prepared to shell out good money up front (and not have to re-purchase something better later). This is an investment you’ll be putting to very good use. A sleeping bag is a… continue reading

tropical wool cycling cap

This Cap Was Perfect

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.

PCT Gear Review

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.

orange wool knit cycling cap

Bike Craft 2012

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

Collarbone – 6 weeks, 5 days out

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

Collarbone Update

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

My Collarbone 8/18/2012

Regression Success!

It’s been a week since some mean gravity stole me from the air and threw me down on Lumberyard wood, breaking my clavicle. Mean, mean gravity. That choice little moment cut in half everything that preceded it, and what followed, into two separate worlds. Here I am in bed strapped together with braces and slings, in awful pain. This time last week I was just figuring out how to clear all the tables in the beginner flow sequence, looking a little more like this: You can see exactly where I fell 11 seconds into this video (the first 15 seconds of the video shows what I’ve been working on). There is a little jump I was experimenting with, trying to… continue reading

White 970 human whisperer

Human Whisperer

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

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