The seventh annual Chris King Open House event took place in Portland, Oregon, this past weekend and we were on site to see the goods.
This was the first IRL gathering since the Covid pandemic started, and some builders went all out in showcasing their crafts — all of which were made specifically for this show featuring the latest color release by Chris King, simply called "Midnight."
From unique builds to adventure-ready racks and gorgeous paint jobs and matching car wraps, 15 of America's top fabricators and one from Spain were present to show off their custom creations.
In addition to the bike builders, other exhibitors included Simworks, Cervelo, Santa Cruz Bicycles, SRAM, Robert Axle Project/Old Man MTN, Super-Pacific and Biciclista Clothing.
Nearing their 50th anniversary, Chris King Precision Components is a domestic performance bicycle component manufacturer based in Portland, OR. They're well-respected around the globe for their high quality, bombproof and blingy headsets, hubs and bottom brackets.
Matte Midnight
(Image credit: Billy "Souphorse" Sinkford)
Each year, Chris King uses the bike builder showcase to release components in a new, limited-run color. This year's color, a dark blueish grey is simply called "Matte Midnight" and was defined by the component maker as "a study in subtle sophistication." As part of the color release, Dynaplug makes a limited edition Racer Pro tool in that year's limited color, available exclusively through King.
Benson Polytechnic High School is a technical public high school in Portland, Oregon, where, in addition to a standard high school curriculum, students are given a special emphasis in a technical area.
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Students self-select into an area of specialization for the final two years, which include everything from communications technology to various medical fields, automative technology and manufacturing.
Those specializing in manufacturing and fabrication make a steel bicycle frame as their senior project. From dimensions and geometry to welding and painting, the student will make their very own, completely custom bicycle before graduation.
The bike shown here was inspired by an All-City Mr. Pink and featured some pretty impressively smooth welding.
This is a prototype of the yet-to-be-released All Road bike from Breadwinner.
Breadwinner is the collab of award-winning bicycle builders Ira Ryan and Tony Pereira, who meld their styles and approaches in every Breadwinner bicycle. Each bike is custom made using Columbus steel, time-honored construction techniques and finely tuned geometry.
The All Road will sit in their line-up between the Lolo road bike and current B-Road.
Austin-based bike manufacturer Chumba has roots in downhill mountain biking but today makes Made in the USA titanium steeds for mountain biking, gravel grinding, bikepacking, cyclocross, touring and everything in between.
Beautifully hand crafted, built to last and race-proven, their frames have set numerous ultra-race records on the Tour Divide (among others).
Custom stainless steel bikes with English flair. Bob English is a Brit with a Masters in mechanical engineering from Cambridge University who somehow ended up in Eugene, Oregon.
At the show, English showcased a 'forever bike' made for a customer who needed a bike to withstand wet weather and the rough British roads. As such, this road frame has room to fit wider tires and fenders.
Coming from Brooklyn, New York, it may seem surprising that Horse Cycles would showcase a mountain bike, but with the Catskill Mountains just a three-hour drive away, this is exactly the kind of bike one would want to have in their stable for a weekend away.
The steel Hell Cat hardtail is an All Mountain ripper with 27.5 x 2.8 tires, a 66º head tube angle compatible with suspension forks as big as 150mm.
The Drifter is No.22's most versatile bike, and comes with the tagline: "Pavement optional. Adventure mandatory". It features a tire clearance of up to 700 x 45mm or 650B x 50mm, disc brakes with standard thru-axles and any-road capable geometry.
The New York Ti manufacturer used the Chris King show to debut its fully integrated front end featuring an internally routed Ti cockpit, a bespoke headset and headtube and a 3D printed sintered titanium stem. Paired with a new finishing schemes and Chris King's midnight tone bottom bracket and hubs, this bike was among the most goggled at.
By far the loudest colorway on display, this handcrafted carbon steed sure turns heads. Carl Strong and his Pursuit Cycles team set out to make the antithesis of a generic, assembly-line carbon bike, including the paint job, which are bright and loud.
The bright green colorway on the Pure Road machine was accented with the midnight tone of the new CHris King components including a Chris King wheelset, bottom bracket and headset.
Making the longest trek of all to showcase his craft, Rubén Durán is a self-taught Madrid-based bike builder. Durán builds only one bike at a time with comlpetely custom sizing, specs and colors, helping your dream bike become a reality.
With clearance for a 29×2.3 tire, his gravel machine is one made for the roughest of roads. Continuing the adventure theme, the bike features plenty of eyelets for mounting gear and a bombproof INGRID mechanical drivetrain and Chris King components.
Sage gave their Storm King an intergalactic paintjob to match the Midnight toned components. A small Chris King bee even made it onto the top tube.
This titanium drop-bar adventure bike is designed for exploration, with plenty of bosses, a dropper ppost and hefty tire clearance to fit a 700x50mm or 650×2.4 tire.
With a more comfortable geometry, the Storm King is suitable for multi-day bikepacking yet nimble enough to be a contender at Grinduro or the Unbound 200.
Each year Portland-based Speedvagen produces a one-off mystery paint scheme for one lucky customer. The Surprise Me scheme was debuted at the Chris King show complete with a matching vintage bike and team car.
The inspiration for this year's paint scheme came from the 1988 Cannondale Team Crest edition. They even found a 1988 Volvo and gave it a matching wrap to serve as team car.
The mystery continues, however, as the paint scheme was shown on a new prototype Speedvagen model, which will be released soon.
Jeremey Sycip is known for his rear end. That's a weird sentence to write but when it comes to his handmade titanium frames, it sure is true.
Taking inspiration of the old mountain bikes, the Sycip signature is a five-piece seatstay. And if you ask Sycip about it, he'll make the same joke over and over: "it adds 12 percent stiffness." This is a completely made up number and in fact, Sycip simply lakes the look of the five-piece bridge and the added clearance it provides.
The Do-It-All titanium gravel grinder was handmade in Santa Rosa, California and features a pattern of S logos anodized across the seat tube, down tube and stem by Gary Land.
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Cycling Weekly'sNorth American Editor, Anne-Marije Rook is old school. She holds a degree in journalism and started out as a newspaper reporter — in print! She can even be seen bringing a pen and notepad to the press conference.
Originally from The Netherlands, she grew up a bike commuter and didn't find bike racing until her early twenties when living in Seattle, Washington. Strengthened by the many miles spent darting around Seattle's hilly streets on a steel single speed, Rook's progression in the sport was a quick one. As she competed at the elite level, her journalism career followed, and soon she became a full-time cycling journalist. She's now been a cycling journalist for 11 years.
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