October 10–12, 2008, Portland, Oregon
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Bikes! Builders! Portland!
BUILDER PROFILE: Jordan Hufnagel
“Last night, I baked the best batch of cookies in my entire life.”
This is Jordan Hufnagel–a guy who has lived in many places and collected a wealth of experiences, yet still finds joy in a batch of well executed cookies. The first thing that strikes you about Jordan is how nice the guy really is. Despite spending hours in the shop hovering over metal work, he’s always completely approachable and disarmingly funny.
Jordan spent most of his life in Indianapolis, IN, but yearning for more art and a place where he could live without a car, he moved to Austin, TX. For a while, Austin satisfied; it had good music, good folks, art, and cute girls. From his new home base Jordan started a clothing company and spent most of his time designing, riding BMX, and traveling. One of his trips took him to Portland. It was a love match. He visited, returned home to Austin, and immediately bought a one way ticket back to PDX.
Jordan has been vegan for 11 years saying simply “We live in a society where you don’t have to rely on animals to survive, so I don’t.” Typically it takes a little digging to discover this fact, as Jordan considers it a personal choice, not something that he wants to publicize. Yet it’s clearly part of the larger Hufnagel manifest: live happy, live healthy, and have fun while building something beautiful.
Jordan is best known for his track bikes, but notes that all the bikes in his queue now are either cross or touring. He says that working within the constraints of track design has helped his work in other areas–he works hard to make braze-ons as subtle as he can and likes to keep his lines as clean as possible. Jordan finds that now most of his customers trust both his design sense and aesthetics.
Jordan learned to build at UBI two years ago after taking welding courses at Mt. Hood Community College. And while people usually take a two week class at UBI, Jordan signed up for a four week tour in both TIG welding and Brazing. And while the team at UBI gave him his start, Jordan notes that he also finds inspiration in the larger builder community noting the work of Ahearne, Periera, JP Wiegle, and Dan Polito.
Come meet Jordan and see his work at OREGON MANIFEST and in the meantime, here is his Secret Hufnagel Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe:
1C margarine
3/4C white sugar
3/4C brown sugar
2 egg substitutes
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 C oats
1C chocolate chipsPre heat oven to 375.
Mix the first five ingredients in a bowl together till creamy.
Mix the next four in another bowl.
Then combine, add oats, and turn in the chips.
Take a large spoon full of dough and form them into balls, placing each on a cookie sheet with a nice amount of space around them. Then–and this is important–flatten each ball out a bit so they are about 1/2 an inch thick. Place in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. They may seem too soft when you pull them out but they will solidify upon cooling. Once they’ve cooled a bit pour a glass of soy milk and enjoy!
