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For the first time since it started in 2007, the annual Oregon Handmade Bike Show has been canceled due to a lack of vendors. Bike Portland first reported the news.
The show, which hosts local and international custom manufacturers, was scheduled for August 18-19. But eight weeks before the show, the organization that runs it, Oregon Bicycle Constructors Association, had only secured 15 vendors. Last year, the show booked 32, and this year, were aiming to book 40.
"It was a hard decision for the board to make," Dave Levy, OBCA's president and Ti Cycles owner, tells WW. "I think in a lot of ways, the local cycling community has changed from when this started in 2007."
Levy says that the organization is currently deciding how to move forward, and that the future of the Oregon Handmade Bike Show is uncertain.
"The question we had is, it this actually the best way to represent Oregon frame builders? The answer is, I don't know," he says. "The plan right now is to listen to what vendors and the public have to say and figure out how it is we can satisfy everyone's wants."
For now, OBCA is holding a mini festival that doubles as a goodbye to Velo Cult, which is transitioning to online only retail after six years in the Hollywood District. The showcase will host over a dozen national and international frame builders, and will be held from noon until 6pm in Velo Cult on August 18, which would have been the first day of Handmade Bike Show's eleventh year.
"We're just taking the opportunity to celebrate the great things that Velo Cult has done for the cycling community," says Levy. "And also have a chance for people to have a more intimate setting to be able to chat with some of the local frame builders and folks that are heading out here anyway for the show."
