Last week I finally made a long overdue trip from my house in the “burbs” to the downtown areas of Portland. It has to be something really important to drag me out of the more rural setting that I am accustom to, and it was. I was going to meet a relatively new friend named Rodney Lucas of “The Barrage”.
He had contacted me on the wonderful social networking site, Twitter, because I was a motorcycle person and lived in the area. Again, a fabulous reason to be on these social networking sites. We have been going back and forth for nearly a year. I was so intrigued with his ideas and his passion for them and it kept me coming back to him for more information. He was in the very early stages of putting together his social gathering place/wrenching arena called “The Barrage” and I delighted in sharing ideas with him and watching him spread the word around about what was to come. I finally had to make the trip down to talk to him in person and so, on the last day of August I climbed into my car….the treat of rain and the fact that I don’t know his neck of the woods real well made me do it!!…and off I went.
Rodney lives in a fantastic “old” area of North Portland off Killingsworth, a well-known street for we Oregonians. I found that his residence off N. Moore Ave was a super cute bungalow with a detached garage down an alleyway in back of the house. Perfect for the first stage of this endeavor!
When I arrived I was greeted with a huge smile and a hug. I was so impressed with the his kind demeanor, gracious hosting, and absolute zeal for the future of “The Barrage” that I had to remind myself that it was time to go home! I predict that the future of this wonderful place will be quite bright and I will want to be a part of it. Here are some pictures and an interview to give you a better idea about what this young man, along with his brothers, have in mind…..
First I have to mention Rodney’s younger brother, Chad. What a doll he was! Just as cute and sweet as his older brother. It’s so much fun being the “old lady” in the crowd because I can say things like that and its ok. 😉
Q..So, Chad is your partner and your brother?
A..Yes, Chad is my bro. 1 year younger. I have 4 brothers in all. Zach, who is currently in the Marine Corps is acting as my CFO. He’s the true financial mind.
Q..When did you first start The Barrage?
A.. I first started the.barrage in August of 2008. So we’ve been “operating” for about 2 years now. It started with my brother-in-law, a close friend, and slowly went from there.
Q..What did you do initially to get the garage set up?
A..The garage. Well, it’s in its 3rd revision and about to embark on our fourth in 2 years. It grows and changes based on the activities: sharing a brew vs. wrenching vs. playing darts, vs. hanging out. The name was derived from our two biggest passions: Wrenching and Good Brew. And being from Portland there are a lot of cool bikes around, and we were the Brew Pub capital of north america for a while. We just got beat out by someone on the east coast. That is where our name came from the.”bar” “age”. Bar in a garage.
…Tell me about the participants.
A..The participants are an eclectic bunch. A lot of friends and friends of friends. And many more girls (women) than one would expect for this sort of thing. Most of our “attendees” are proud motorcycle owners. But one thing that became really clear, and what really sparked my interest in taking this “live”, was that people started showing up that originally had no interest in bikes and just wanted to hang out. We started making mini pizza’s and selling them for $3 and calzones for $5. That with the Bring beer to Drink beer campaign we really started having a good time and it was becoming popular.
Q..How is it going today?
A..We started with 2 bikes. My CB650 and a Rokon, so we didn’t need much space to wrench, so a lot of it was seats. As we’ve grown in members and bikes we’ had to conform to the needs of the masses. Now we have a few seats, more work space, and are even expanding into the basement where we can really roll out all the parts of an engine and do some dirty work.
For the record, I am now an “honorary member” of The Barrage! I even got the tshirt to prove it…
More about The Barrage and the great bikes I saw coming in my next posting. So, stay tuned….the best is yet to come. The motorcycles in Rodneys garage! Oh, my.
Lady Godiva on wheels, lovin my new friends from The Barrage!!
Motorcycle Everything..and everything else. 
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