NAHBS 2009 Saturday Part 1
After the drive home and some much needed rest we’re back with more images to share from the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. In this update there are more of the finest bicycles from across North America, along with a couple of builders from Italy to round things out. Track, road, mountain, ‘cross and even cargo bikes sit in this update of 60+ images, with more to share just waiting to get uploaded. Due to the overwhelming demand for these pictures the site has been experiencing some capacity issues – thanks for viewing, and please be patient!
Broakland is the bicycle brand of Montano Velo, all created by at the hand of El Camino cycles. The dual drive blue bike’s color scheme was inspired by the saddle first; using non-bike industry painters ensures paint like no one else for their project bikes.
Form Cycles had these two off-road bikes on display; the ‘cross bike is clearcoated with a bit of an extra flair around the welds to accentuate the natural colors of the tubes while the mountain bike features the new BB30 “standard” of press-in bearings for increased stiffness and a narrow q-factor.
Zullo was one of a few builders that traveled all the way from Italy to Indianapolis to show off their bicycles. Note the double top tube on the fixed gear city bike and the classic build on the all-Italian lugged road bicycle.
Courage cycles made a repeat appearance at the Handmade Show, this time with these two beautiful machines. One for racing, the other for more leisurely rides, both have a exhibit a nice blend of form and function.
Curtis Inglis of Inglis and Retrotec is a previous award winner at NAHBS. Look at how clean the road bike is with no cable routing along the top tube at all thanks to the chainstay mounted brake. And the snow bike is something else with a Rohloff hub and custom extra-wide fenders.
DeRosa is another builder from Italy, located just outside of Milan. The long heritage of traditional Italian road bikes can be seen here with nothing flashy, just total class.
Rick Hunter makes some interesting bikes, branching significantly into cargo bikes in recent years. This one with the integrated stand is built for one of his local coffee roasters to haul supplies with. Check out the seat clamp integrated into the lug of his own all-day road bike with big 32c tires.
Vanilla never disappoints. Their Speedvagen brand is going well, with this being the track bike for the upcoming season. Check out the laser cut logo in the headtube with a carbon insert behind. The Vanilla mystique continues with this commuter and it’s stunning attention to detail in the chainguard and paint.
Big wheels get even bigger at Black Sheep. Those are 29″ and 36″ wheels respectively, with each frame having far more labor in the tube bending than the actual welding. The 36″ bike has nearly 6″ of bottom bracket drop and reportedly rides pretty well once up to speed. Unicycles rims and tires make the wheels go round.
Naked from British Columbia, Canada is another builder that is always topping himself. This mountain bike is something else with headset bearings for the rear suspension pivots, an eccentric rear dropout, wood seatpost and rims and even an old Campy downtube shifter repurposed as a shock lockout lever. Wow.
Look for more images to come… There are still more to share.
andyMarch 2, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Thanks for the great coverage!
TerryMarch 3, 2009 at 6:58 am
I second that sentiment!
JorgeMarch 3, 2009 at 7:29 am
There’s often been a few carbon-only framebuilders, such as Parlee, at the Show. But the Show has been primarily a ‘no-carbon’ show, up until now. With Independent Fabrication winning “best carbon bike”, the question is: has the carbon frame taboo been finally broken among steel-only or ti-only framebuilders? That, to me, is the big bombshell of this year’s show, much more so than Cielo’s launch (who, by the way, will find it very hard to sell admittedly beautiful, but production frames at near custom prices, judging by the pricing on their website, and especially so in this economy).
bradMarch 3, 2009 at 9:21 amAuthor
The show has not been a “no-carbon” show by any stretch of the imagination. This was my fourth year there, and there has always been roughly the same presence of custom carbon at the show.
martiniMarch 3, 2009 at 10:09 am
That Hunter all day road bike just gets me. And I get it. Yummy!
StefanMarch 3, 2009 at 11:56 am
I love my Broakland.
It’s Just A Ride » Blog Archive » Technical NotesMarch 3, 2009 at 1:50 pm
[...] Urban Velo comes through with some glossy, classy, high-production-value seduction from this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show: day one, day one again, day two, even more day two, and day three. [...]
KyleMarch 3, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Please give me more. My work day is so horrible…more more more more.
S.K.March 4, 2009 at 7:43 am
Rick Hunter’s work gives me such incredible bike wood that my soul gets strained.
JorgeMarch 4, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Brad, the issue isn’t whether there has ever been carbon present at the Show or not. I’ve known there has been, and I know there’s a handful of carbon-only framebuilders that have exhibited in the past.
The issue is that a well-known, custom and until very recently steel/ti-only framebuilder like IF has won a prize for a ‘best carbon bike’. That, I believe, has never happened before. For instance, one might expect someone like Vanilla to win ‘best lugged steel bike’, but not Parlee. One might also expect someone like Calfee to win ‘best bamboo bike’ (if there were such a prize), but not Lynskey.
In other words, someone like IF winning ‘best carbon bike’ is not something one would expect to happen at the Show (and may indeed be unprecedented), and I think it’s very interesting IF has now apparently jumped onto the full-carbon bandwagon (they’ve used some carbon on their frames in the past, but never, to my knowledge, gone full-carbon).
This, I think, is sure to ‘rock the bike’ in the still mainly steel and ti dominated custom framebuilding world.
alpesh.yadavJanuary 9, 2010 at 7:43 am
Hi,
I am from india and i have a bike store and i like your bikes the streets and the road also the mtb’s so im interested to get them in india!