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Note: Mundo framesets are not available from Yuba at the moment (May 2012). We’ll post on it when more arrive.

Are you really that vain? Or do you just have company colors to show the world? Many people are, and many people do. If you’re one of them, then have your next Mundo powdercoated or liquid painted in any color(s) you like, in flat, matte, or some sort of glossy.
How does it work?

1. Take a look at this picture of a Mundo frameset:

2. Focus on your tongue. Are you drooling? If yes, you can get this flat black frameset for $575 and we can custom build your Mundo for you using components and accessories that highlight your smile and hide the foul mood you occasionally find yourself in. Think of it as a bouquet of flowers that can haul 400 lbs. If no, proceed to step 3.

3. Imagine yourself riding this frame in your environs while wearing the clothes you’ve always dreamed of wearing while riding a bike. What color would that bike be? Also, imagine wheels on this imaginary frame; they will significantly (though not completely) reduce friction.

4. Now take a look at this handy RAL color chart.

5. Which color or colors will make you feel like a million bucks? Unicorn white, you say?

6. Go completely insane. Imagine what component and accessory colors would make this bike literally POP OFF THE STREET AND LEAP INTO EVERYONE’S LONG-TERM MEMORY.

7. Call us at 503 232 1107.

Pricing:

Powdercoating: single color, $250; two colors, $425 in addition to the $575 frameset price.

Liquid paint: $300-600, depending on what designs you have in mind.

Shipping: Shipping of custom-painted framesets and of customized Mundos is available. Expect shipping costs to be under $200 within the lower 48 states.

Joe Bike is the world’s largest Mundo dealer, so we’ve got you covered. Please see our Mundo page.

This Sunday, August 28, some 20,000 cyclists doing SE Sunday Parkways will ride through a throng of 15,000 pedestrians attending the Hawthorne Street Fair. This year the two events intesect at 45th and Hawthorne. In what can only be described as a series of aneurysms of genius on our part, we’ve got a booth precisely where these two flows of humanity will intersect: in the 7-11 parking lot (right?). There, Joe Bike is offering free light-mechanical support and diagnoses as well as cargobike family test rides, fender-blender human-powered smoothies that you make yourself by riding a bicycle that doesn’t go anywhere, bikes on display, Joe Bike t-shirts for sale, free shade thanks to our fabulous pop-up tent, and various trinkets and baubles that we might barter for other trinkets and baubles whose brilliant colors catch our eye. Stop by and say hi to our mechanics and maybe try to stump them. Meanwhile, our shop, .25 miles to the west, will be open as usual.

Bikes we’ll have on hand at either or both locations:

–Our own handmade ShuttleBug, widely rated the best bike of its kind in the world

–The Boxbike

–The Yuba Mundo, the best bike in its class (longtails) from the world’s largest Yuba dealer (that’s us!)

–The new Sun Atlas Cargo

–Pushbikes from Strider and others. You know, for kids!

–A large bowl of water for dogs.

–A selection of our supercool weatherproof commuter bikes featuring internally geared hubs, Gates Carbon Drive instead of a chain, disc brakes, and other commuter-friendly features. Joe Bike is one of the world’s largest and most respected specialists in this kind of ultra-low-maintenance, high-performance drivetrain. Our staff will be on hand at both the booth and the shop to show you what makes these bikes ideal for Portland.

 –Clowns. Wait. Clowns? No clowns. Clowns are creepy even when (or especially when) they blow up balloons and twist them into poodles. We will have no clowns.

Many thanks to 7-11 for hosting a Sunday Parkways rest stop and for letting us set up our booth there. We’re buying our ice, water, and other things from them.

SE Sunday Parkways map and other info here.

Hawthorne Street Fair guide here.

This looks like just another basket, but it’s oh so much better. To find out why, read on.

After waiting through repeated delays in the production of Yuba’s frame-mounted front rack (which we still look forward to getting), we decided to just make our own. That is to say, we designed a way to adapt a big Wald basket to the Mundo’s frame mounts.

Frame mounts? Most baskets mount to the fork and/or handlebars, so the load turns with the steering. That’s inherently unstable during riding and inherently unsteady during loading/unloading and parking. Yuba, which has hands down the best longtail cargobike we’ve ridden (Joe Bike is the world’s largest Yuba dealer) wisely designed mounts into the frame itself. This means the load stays in line with the frame, not with the front wheel, giving you a steadier, more stable, safer ride that’s easier on your arms and on your nerves, especially at low speeds and/or when turning. This design is perhaps just as useful when the bike is not in motion, because loading and unloading the basket, not to mention parking the bike, is much easier and more stable with a frame-mounted basket. Compare this to, say, the platform that comes with the Trek Transport, which bolts to the fork, and you’ll see what we mean.

Details: 21 x 15 x 9 Wald Giant Delivery Basket, steel, black or silver, made in USA; steel rack made in Portland. Compatible only with v4 Mundo equipped with disc brakes. Use with standard brakes is not recommended because of cable interference. $139.

Armed with a can of spraypaint, a stencil shaped playfully like the state of Oregon, and the surge of adrenaline that happens when passion meets DIY gumption, somebody in our Southeast Portland neighborhood has decided to revise the Oregon statutes about bike riding in the street. That’s right. Lately we’ve been rolling our 23s, 28s, 35s, Big Apples, and Nobby Nics over dozens of iterations of the same exact, by-now mind-numbing message, which appears on both quiet residential streets and commercial strips such as Hawthorne, and even on designated bike routes. Even on leafy designated bike routes! The message, always placed just where cyclists tend to ride (you know, on the edge of the door zone): “Vehicle’s Only!”

Of course, legally a bicycle is a vehicle, although we industry veterans prefer to call a bicycle a veehickle, while child-carrying cargo bikes are weehickles, a little change-up we do just because it’s enjoyable to confuse the Germans. Of whom we are several. So really we’re all in agreement with whoever drove around the neighborhood on many a fine summer night to spraypaint proof of their lack of grammatical skills all over they’re streets. To those lovelies we say, “Remain in your hickle’s, please. If the Portland Police don’t get you, the grammar police surely will.”

The new 8-speed Ajax and 11-speed Acme from Spot Bikes are the lightest, quickest internally geared/Carbon Drive bikes we’ve seen. The riding position with the stock stem and handlebars is refreshingly upright, reflecting Spot’s intent to distinguish itself in the city-bike market. But for those who prefer drop bars to make the most of the Ajax’s and Acme’s cyclocross geometry and potential as fast, weatherproof commuters, we introduce our own version of the Ajax with drop bars, J-Tek bar-end shifter, and Tektro levers.

Ajax and Acme share the same aluminum frame and carbon fork; Acme comes with hydraulic disc brakes, while Ajax has mechanical. Both are equipped with the new CenterTrack system from Gates. Both are ready for fenders, front and rear racks, and bottle cages. Both are flat-fix-friendly and as low-maintenance as a geared bike can get. The drop-bar Ajax 8-speed is $1699 with mechanical disc brakes.. 11-speed with drop bars and new J-Tek 11-speed shifter coming soon. See our Ajax page.