NAHBS

I've spent the last few days at the North American Handmade Bike show. Singletrack magazine's website has put up a bunch of pictures i have taken. Needless to say, it is way better in the flesh. Pictures, especially when taken under the harsh lights of the Austin Convention Center, do not do the level of craftsmanship justice.



Things that impressed me? Needless to say the Vertigo cycles booth! Sean's internal hydro routing and precision welding garnered well deserved attention. The Cherubin pursuit concept bike was phenomenal. Outlandish but so beautiful. Kent Eriksen's personal tandem also looked like mischief. I could easily see myself and a co-rider blasting down the trails at 40mph on that beast!. Signal had beautiful town bikes and of all the paint jobs i liked Ira Ryans best. Curtis Inglis had yet more of his exquisite curvy bikes and of course heavy hitters like Vanilla and Cielo had some really cool work.



Components? Enve had tubeless ready mtb rims i believe waiting for UST accreditation. Rody from Groovy Cycles had his reworking of the original polygonal interface 'hot rods'/Grove Innovations crank. Paragon Machine Works had stem parts available as well as 44mm head tubes, that i think will really take off soon (at least in the hand built world) and King have brought out a 44mm external headset to allow tapered steerers in more normal looking and considerably lighter ti or steal frames.



Want to see more? i'll put my picturs up on flickr at some point, but go to STW for a looksee now. Meanwhile...it's time to go grab a cold beer and stay out of the mid day sun...