CCA Holds Its Own at the
Oregon Manifest
Constructor’s Design Challenge BY ALLISON BYERS
There’s no denying it: Bicycles are super cool. They offer cheap and sustainable transportation while looking great. But when was the last time you tried to ride your bike and carry your portfolio? A box? Your groceries? It’s a fact: Your sleek street bike doesn’t really measure up when it comes to transporting anything besides you. Enter the Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge. Begun as a search for the ultimate utility bike for modern living, Oregon Manifest has become a one-of-a-kind design-build competition for some of the country’s best custom bike craftspeople. As bicycle culture swells, there is a growing need for a utility bike that can truly integrate seamlessly into everyday life.
Student Teams Compete with the Big Dogs Until this past year, the competitors have been almost exclusively professional bike designers and builders. But on September 23 and 24, 2011, four CCA students and a studio manager stood proudly—with five other student teams—alongside 28 teams of professionals. “Our bike fit in really well amid all of that incredible craftsmanship and talent,” said CCA team member Ch arl i e Weber . Brandon Walker, CCA’s Rapid Prototyping Studio manager and one of the team advisors, reflected, “It was incredibly rewarding, just getting there, knowing our entry had been built from scratch and realizing all the little things that had coalesced into this finished product. Everyone looked really proud.” It had been a long journey of many months leading up to this moment under the bright lights in Portland, and the team had burned some serious midnight oil at the eleventh hour. “It was so nerve wracking!” recalls Walker, “but the students did an amazing job of presenting
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“The two-wheeled revolution won’t come on the saddle of a race bike or a specialty bike,” declares Oregon Manifest’s organizers. “The utility bike is the transportation mode of the future for millions of Americans who want to live healthier, more sustainable lives, but don’t think of themselves as ‘cyclists.’ The key to realizing this future is thoughtful, innovative bike design that fills multiple needs and fits into their lives.”