Portland turned into a pressure cooker this weekend: triple-digit heat, shimmering pavement, and a riverfront warehouse filled with the wildest expressions of bicycle craft you can imagine. Inside Zidell Yards, nearly 200 exhibitors from around the globe showed up to showcase their creations and geek out on all things bikes.
In just three short years, MADE has become the anchor of the frame-building calendar, attracting crowds who treat weld beads and bottom-bracket junctions with the reverence others reserve for fine art. This year’s edition was the biggest yet, with more than 6,500 people flowing through the gates, joining city jaunts, touring local workshops, and celebrating the joy of our two-wheeled community.
It’s easy to forget that when MADE launched in 2022, the handmade scene in the U.S. was in retreat, with long-running shows shuttering one by one. Now, after sold-out debuts, an Australian expansion, and year-over-year growth, the event feels less like a revival and more like a movement. The vibe in Portland wasn’t just about craftsmanship, it was about resilience and community.
Hot Salad’s Raw Steel Beauty
(Image credit: Anne-Marije Rook)
As a proud Hot Salad custom bike owner myself, I am biased. But I was very much drawn to this B Visit creation at the show. I mean, who doesn’t love a frame in its raw, naked form?
Sure, bare steel can’t stay like this forever (it’ll oxidise quickly without paint or clear coat), but for the show it shimmered.
Vivit matched the raw tubes and colourful brazed joints with a splash of jade Chris King components, creating a bike that feels equal parts industrial and jewel-like.
A former UBI instructor and commercial titanium welder, Vivit is known for her love of Klunker bikes, her speed-hole accents and her wizardry with anodization.
Learn more at: https://hotsaladbicycles.com/
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BTCHN’ Bikes’ Lonesome Dove
(Image credit: Anne-Marije Rook)
Part geometric challenge, part build-it-just-because, BTCHN’ Bikes builder Tyler Reiswig teamed up with Wren Components to design a gravel rig around a pair of massive 32-inch carbon wheels. Reiswig isn’t especially tall, so making the bike fit required some clever problem-solving, resulting in a dramatic bend in the downtube and a minimal, 16mm-effective, stem.
How it rides? That’s still a mystery. Reiswig finished the build just in time for MADE and hasn’t yet taken it on a proper adventure. I couldn’t resist sneaking in a few pedal strokes while photographing it, and it felt a lot like a fat bike: stable, planted, yet surprisingly manageable thanks to smart geometry and that tiny stem.
Those giant wheels may steal the show, but what stuck with me were the thoughtful details: tidy cable guides, stacked bottle mounts, a beautifully executed fork, and the sheer puzzle of fitting such oversized hoops into a relatively small frame.
Based in Chico, California, Reiswig is a racer-turned-machinist who now produces custom steel and titanium frames, along with small-batch blingy bars and posts that I’ve been lusting over for some time.
Find out more at: https://www.btchnbikes.com/
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Fiddlehead Commuter
(Image credit: Anne-Marije Rook)
I’ve long believed custom commuter bikes make a lot of sense. If not the farthest, it’s probably the bike you ride most often. And I’m a sucker for a well-executed one: paint-matched fenders and racks, hidden dynamo wiring, and those little thoughtful touches that make a daily ride feel special. This Fiddlehead build nails it.
Justin Foote, the one-man builder behind Portland’s Fiddlehead Cycles, crafted this as his wife’s commuter, complete with full fenders, a custom rack, dynamo lighting, and even a custom stem mount for a bell.
The finishing kit keeps it local too: HiFi wheels wrapped in Ultradynamico tyres, a PDW bell, and (not local) a reliable SRAM Apex drivetrain. The result is clean, utilitarian, and joyful. A bike that would turn any commute into the best part of your day.
Learn more at: https://www.fiddleheadcycles.com/
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Schön Studio’s e-bike
(Image credit: MADE Bike Show)
Leave it to Danielle Schön to make a utility e-bike look this good. Her pastel-lavender build pairs round, purposeful tubing with a playful colour palette that screams fun while hiding plenty of function. Up front, a stout rack flows seamlessly from the fork crown, while out back a custom cargo platform hides the battery inside a crate of Schön-branded seltzers.
The build is powered by Shimano‘s EP8 drive unit and rolls on some chunky Ultradynamico knobbies, giving it and go-anywhere vibe.
Details like integrated cable routing, twin bottle mounts, and the Schön-branded saddle and grips tie the whole package together. Equal parts art object and daily driver, it’s a reminder that practicality doesn’t have to come at the expense of personality.
Based in Squamish, British Columbia, Schön Studio is Danielle’s creative realm. A welder by trade with nearly two decades of fabrication experience, she’s been building bikes for more than ten years while also teaching frame-building classes to bring new makers into the craft. Learn more at https://www.schonstudio.com/
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Chris McGovern’s Seeker
(Image credit: MADE Bike Show)
Chris McGovern’s Seeker all-round bike was one of those frames you had to stop and stare at twice. The closer you get the more unusual, and brilliant, the construction gets. The chassis is titanium, offering that trademark durability and road-softening comfort, while the cockpit and key junctions are carbon, meant to give the bike a snappy, responsive feel when you’re on the pedals.
While McGovern certainly isn’t the first to blend these materials, I’ve never seen it executed quite like this: a carbon cluster joins the seat tube and top tube, while a titanium sleeve connects the seatstays to the seatpost midway up.
The bike is outfitted with Hunt wheels, a SRAM’s Force wireless drivetrain, Enve cockpit, and Appleman cranks. The Seeker appears both experimental and refined. A purpose-built ride that shows how modern mixed-material bikes can be more than the sum of their parts.
Chris McGovern is a former professional cyclocross racer turned framebuilder and coach, working out of Olympia, Washington. HIs work can be seen in various brands including Seeker and McGovern Cycles. Learn more at: https://www.seekeradventuregear.com/
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Scarab Santa Rosa
(Image credit: Anne-Marije Rook)
The Cadex booth had a multitude of drool-worthy bikes on display and I will limit myself to featuring just two of them in this article.
Up first is this stunningly painted Scarab Santa Rosa road bike with fully integrated cable routing.
In 2023, I had the incredible pleasure of visiting the Scarab Cycles workshop in Retiro, Colombia in person, and I’ve been a fan of Santiago Toro and his team ever since. This small operation produces an impressive six steel framesets per week, which are sold direct-to-consumer and in boutique shops worldwide.
What sets Scarab apart from other small handmade steel bike brands is their phenomenal in-house paint jobs. It’s the reason Scarab has become such a favourite at handmade bike shows and builder spotlights. Led by designer Alejandro Bustamante, no two Scarab framesets are the same. Each Scarab is designed and painted by hand, one at a time.
This Santa Rosa is a prime example of their work: clean, modern and absolutely head-turning. The frameset is the brand’s newest version of the Santa Rosa model, merging clean aesthetics thanks to CADEX’s integrated handlebar, a generous tyre clearance, a T47 bottom bracket and timeless steel tubing.
Learn more about Scarab at: https://scarabcycles.com/
Learn or about CADEX handlebar and wheelset offerings at: https://www.cadex-cycling.com/
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Mosaic x Cadex R-series road bike
(Image credit: Anne-Marije Rook)
If there was one bike that pulled people into the Cadex booth at MADE, it was this: a kaleidoscope of colour draped over titanium tubing, capped with deep-section carbon hoops, and finished so cleanly it looked more like modern art than a machine. Pairing WorldTour pedigree with the timelessness of titanium, this Mosaic Cycles and Cadex collaboration was impossible to ignore.
Founded in Boulder, Colorado by Aaron Barcheck, Mosaic has built its reputation on hand-crafted titanium frames that balance custom geometry with race-ready performance. Cadex, Giant’s premium component arm, is known for cutting-edge carbon wheels, cockpits and saddles developed with pro-tour feedback. Together, the two brands produced something both bold and refined.
The bike frame shows Mosaic’s hallmark craft: perfect welds, seamless junctions, and the legendary ride quality of titanium overlaid with a stunning, multi-layer paint scheme.
Rounding out the build are Cadex’s deep carbon wheels, some sneaky button shifters in the handlebars, Chris King accents and Shimano’s flagship Dura-Ace drivetrain.
Learn more about Mosaic Cycles at: https://mosaiccycles.com/our-bikes/road/
Learn more about Cadex at: https://www.cadex-cycling.com/
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Swedish Meatball
(Image credit: Anne-Marije Rook)
I’ll admit, the first thing that caught my eye wasn’t the bike, but the car. A souped-up VW Bug that, I was told, had been Mike DeSalvo’s high school ride. He was reunited with it decades later after finding it for sale on Facebook Marketplace—his window stickers and glass etchings still intact.
At MADE, the Bug served as a perfect display stand for his collaboration project with Land Shark’s John Slawta: Swedish Meatball.
An odd name, born of an inside joke between two Oregon-based framebuilding legends, and a reminder not to take bikes too seriously. And just look at it: it screams bright fun. The logos don’t even match in style or font. The paint is unmistakably Slawta’s wild signature, while the frame itself carries the serious performance pedigree of a titanium DeSalvo. Rounding out the build are custom-painted Astral Cycling hoops, Shimano’s GRX Di2 drivetrain, and a Thomson finishing kit.
Learn more about DeSalvo at: https://www.desalvocycles.com/
Learn more about John Slawta and his Land Shark bikes at: https://landsharkbicycles.com/
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Afterhours Framebuilding’s The Dirt Bike
(Image credit: MADE Bike Show)
Afterhours Framebuilding may be a new brand, but founder Bradford Smith is no stranger to the craft. After years of making bikes for other brands, Smith set out on his own in 2025. The name Afterhours comes from the many late nights he spent welding bikes for himself and friends once he’d clocked out from his day job. Now it’s his full-time outlet.
This teal Dirt Bike not only captured a People’s Choice award at MADE, but also announced Afterhours as a builder to watch.
Born from countless local rides chasing singletrack and forest roads, the Dirt Bike is built for comfort and capability. It clears big tyres, carries plenty of bottles and snacks, mounts lights for dawn patrols and late finishes, and happily takes fenders, which are a must-have in the Pacific Northwest. Simply put: it’s made for dirt, wherever you find it.
The build features a TIG-welded steel frame with a carbon adventure fork, HiFi Session25 ASYM wheels wrapped in 27.5 x 2.0 Continental Terra Hardpacks, and SRAM’s new Apex AXS paired with a GX Transmission derailleur. A Chris King headset anchors the front end, while a custom-fabricated mount for a Busch & Müller light highlights Smith’s thoughtful detailing.
Learn more at: https://www.afterhoursframebuilding.com/
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Eyewater Woodland Disc
(Image credit: Anne-Marije Rook)
Cyclocross is not dead. This stunning Eyewater Woodland Disc is proof.
This model is named after Seattle’s iconic Woodland Park, the venue of one of North America’s biggest one-day CX races and a place where I’ve personally spent countless hours practicing my dismounts and remounts.
What drew me in immediately were the raw carbon lugs, boldly left unpainted to show off the craftsmanship at each junction. Instead of hiding the structure, Eyewater made it the star of the show, pairing tube-to-lug transitions that look both purposeful and elegant.
Spec highlights include an ENVE fork, Cadex wheels wrapped in Continental Terra Trail 35mm rubber, a Shimano Dura-Ace drivetrain, and Chris King accents for durability and sparkle. The aesthetic, though, is all business: matte black carbon, sharp white branding, and a look that says race-ready weapon.
Led by framebuilder Corey Lowe and supported by industry veterans Zac Daab and Damian Handisides, Eyewater is a Seattle-based workshop blending cutting-edge carbon construction with an old-school racer’s spirit. Learn more at: https://eyewaterbikes.com/meetourteam
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