printed and tucked into my bag!
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Will be visiting booths and trading stickers! I have a bunch!
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I think you missed at least 5 different Made.Bike bingo cards. So far I’ve seen 3. 
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Please post them! I was inspired by Velo Orange’s but wanted to make something a bit spicier 
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Both on Insta, having problems copying. It was the VO one and a hilarious one from Bicyclepubes.
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I would add:
Handmade: somewhere
Designed in USA
I could buy a nice car for that
Full carbon with cantilever brakes
Custom made hubs because I can
Lefty like it’s cheap
Built to die young
YAGEDT - Yet Another German Engineered Drivetrain
And the white whale:
Pinion + IGH
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Just saw it online, you should also add: “new wheel size!!” 
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Sooooo, how was it? Looked dark and noisy but seemed like lots of feet through the doors which is good to see.
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I thought is was a great show. Cooler vibe than the NAHBS I’ve attended, much more of a cooperative spirit. Great to connect with some of the folks here in person and Portland was a blast to bike around.
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I had a total blast meeting all the builders! Everyone was super nice and open about their process and/or challenges. With all the encouragement from the community, I hope to show a booth at the next one. Also, I heard some fantastically heroic ‘last minute’ stories, but the truth is that everyone has one.
Having never been to a NAHBS, I can’t speak to a comparison, but the show felt busy! The crowds all seemed stoked to see everyone’s work. It’s fun to wander around and pick up on bits of the conversations and listen to everyone’s impressions.
For some kinks in the show:
- The lighting in the venue was pretty difficult to show in - between the media day and the first public day, lots of booths found light fixtures. Depending where a builder was in the space, the conditions changed drastically. Neuhaus probably had the prime location - good natural light and a breeze.
- Also, the water situation (total lack of water) was brutal. Again, after wandering the show for three days straight, it was pretty enlightening to see how everyone adapted! Water coolers, beers, gas-station runs, etc.
Overall I think it was a huge success! For the first incarnation of MADE, the organizers did pretty well. The public seemed stoked and all the builders I talked to seemed excited to be there.
I bet things will be a little dim for a few days while everyone travels back home/recoups, but I’m super curious how any of the builders that had a booth felt about the weekend!
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It was so good! Yes, there were some drawbacks to the industrial setting (no running water, dim lighting) but overall it was a fantastic backdrop for all our work - as intended. It was reported that over 5,000 attended, which seems like a real success to me. In my opinion, the organizers put on a fantastic first show and will undoubtedly be taking feedback seriously for next time. I asked John Watson how other shows he’s covered compare and he said MADE is the best. That says a lot, I think.
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We were very pleased to feel like we were outside but still be inside.
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The setting was charming and unique in a way that far surpassed the fluorescent-lit conference halls of NAHBS. The lack of water seemed like a minor misstep, but that can be easily fixed for the next round. I really enjoyed ACTUALLY RIDING BIKES with everyone on day 1. Overall I think Echos did a good job for the first year, and I’m looking forward to attending in the future as they continue to refine.
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Overall, it was a good show, with the minor headaches listed by others. I’d add that the PA announcements came out as very loud un-intelligble gobbledy-gook. This has been the same at every bike show I’ve ever attended, even at new convention halls. As exhibitors, we are there to conduct business; the PA announcements are conversation killers (even when they are intelligible). I would suggest that there’s no need for them. Perhaps the acoustics were better in other areas. A group text message may be a better way.
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Aside from the handful of logistical things already mentioned I’d say it was a great show. It felt consistently busy even on the industry-only days and the weekend days didn’t have any lull of traffic at all. In fact each day they had to do a hard sweep to get attendees to leave and be able to close the show. Portland crowd showed up in droves and I was surprised that quite a lot of attendees flew/drove in even from as far as the east coast.
Amongst builders/industry the stoke was high, I had great conversations, got to meet a bunch of folks I haven’t met before and catch up with a lot of friends. It seems people feel excited about the community and growth and showcase of builders. Everyone brought great weird fun amazing stuff and it didn’t feel pretentious or competitive or gatekeepy. Media was bumpin. I saw so much stuff and also missed so much stuff.
From the show organizers the messaging felt clear that this is for us by us type of event. There was some conversation about should there be awards/no awards moving forward, what does community growth/inclusion/support look like, etc - and it sounds like they will be relying on feedback to guide these types of decisions. I am curious on how and what that feedback will look like so I guess we shall see in the coming months.
With some refinements next year I think it’ll be on track to be the next big thing as long as they want to run it. It’s an easy drive for me so I’ll go again for sure. It looked like overall they used about 2/3 of the available building space and I’ll bet they could pack it out with almost double the spots if they wanted to go that hard. That might be chaos though considering it felt hard to see everything already in 3/4 days.
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The show was great!
Meeting many of you on the forum and catching up with friends was super fun. Since I came solo, I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked ogling all the bikes. It would have been easy to spend a full two days checking out all the little details that made each bike special.
I hope they don’t make it an awards show next year, or if they do, they should follow the Concours de Machines format with a specific theme that builders can choose to participate in. It could be a show within a show.
With that being said I can’t help but give out some of my own awards:
Best Deep Custom: Goodday Bikes
The team at Goodday starts with the bike’s name and creates a bike and custom bags based on the what that name conjures up. Their purple dirt touring machine featured a custom frame, custom handlebars, custom stem, custom handlebar rack, custom bikepacking bags, all integrated for racing the Colorado Trail. Talking with the two of them was a treat.
Best “Holy heck, that must have taken forever to build”: Black Cat Cycles
Todd at Black Cat told me it took about 5 years to make his full suspension bike. I appreciate that the bike had very little 3d-printed or other “made in a lab” parts. The swing arm is a study in perserverence and patient craftsmanship.
Best booth: Amigo Frameworks
Zach told me he used to build stage sets and do a lot of other carpentry projects and it showed. The alien doomsday theme was rad.
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I hope they don’t make it an awards show next year, or if they do, they should follow the Concours de Machines format with a specific theme that builders can choose to participate in. It could be a show within a show.
Couldn’t agree more! I feel like show awards often favor those who are friends of the judges, spend the most money, or have the best connections. A Concours de Machines approach would level the playing field significantly.
Show highs:
- The power of friendship! It was so dang sweet to see those of you who I managed to meet in person. Putting faces to the screen name was a real treat and everyone managed to be even friendlier IRL despite being burnt to a crisp from chatting all day.
- Everyone SHOWED UP! The bikes were all of such high caliber and the level of cohesiveness/thoughtfulness was evident in everyone’s work. I loved seeing all the builders who built bikes that are obviously meant to get ridden and not just sit on a show floor. Lots of folks had custom bags, racks, and components that were icing on the cake.
- Media access/attention was great. I was stoked to get facetime with the Josh & John at the Radavist and Miles at Bikepacking - not something that is guaranteed at every trade show, especially as a new builder. I was kinda bummed to miss chatting with the Bike Rumor and Escape Collective reps, but c’est la vie.
- Customer attention has paid off. My only real comparison is attending PBE this past year as part of the SRAM inclusivity scholarship, but I was really surprised to receive several inquiries before my flight back home landed. I think this show managed to connect with potential customers in a way that PBE didn’t.
- The group ride to Chris King was so much fun! It was pretty sick to be out riding bikes with other builders. I’d love if there was more builder-camaraderie-building events in the future!
- Location was great! I loved being able to easily ride in to the expo every day from across town. PDX is such a great city for bike travel.
Show lows:
- Lighting was a big bummer for me. My booth was directly under four burned-out bulbs that weren’t able to be fixed. It turned a low-budget booth into a pretty dingy space. I didn’t pay for electricity so I had to scrounge up some small battery-powered lights that made a small difference. Next year I’ll probably pony up for an electrical hook-up and BYO lights just in case.
- I got a stomach bug friday night and spent the rest of the show trying not to vomit on any would-be customers. Would not recommend.
- The weather situation was not ideal, but that’s pretty hard to control for. As PNW summers get hotter and smokier, it feels like finding somewhere with A/C would be smart. Maybe pushing the date up to July would be better? But like others have said, the outdoor-ish venue felt a lot better than most convention centers.
- This is a hard one to quantify, but there was a lot of dude energy at the show. Definitely not from everyone, but it was enough for me to feel slightly out of place at times. The inclusivity conversation that happened left me a bit disheartened, but I do believe the organizers have their hearts in the right place and I’m optimistic for next year. I do feel like PBE shined in this regard - Bina has put a ton of work into making it feel like an inclusive and welcoming space.
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I had a great time at the show. Having not been at a show before I didn’t have any expectations so I had an open mind. I felt many of the issues that the rest of you had; poor lighting, no water, etc. The stoke was very good though and there were a ton of people. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get to visit everyone and check out their booths. Maybe next time. All in all, I’d say it was a pretty solid event.
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Every year I come away from our show here feeling like I’d only seen a third of the bikes properly. It’s something you learn to accept you just can’t cover it all off and man your own booth adequately. We have a couple hours before doors open the first day but it’s nowhere near enough time and we would be half the size of what MADE was this year.
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I just saw @Coco_PMW bday party pics.
Happy birthday Coco
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