Tag Archives: nahbs

The North American Handmade Bicycle Show | Mar 2-4 2012

NAHBS 2010, Richmond, Viginia. Credit: Dave LaMay

Since 2005, the The North American Handmade Bicycle Show has been held in Houston, Tx; San Jose, Ca (twice); Portland, Or; Indianapolis, In; Richmond, Va (pictured above courtesy Dave LaMay); and Austin, Tx. I have been lucky enough to attend in Indy, RVA & ATX, and now Sacramento!  By the way, the U.S. Bicycle Hall of Fame is located nearby. And ArtBike is adding an entirely new dimension to the weekend’s events.

Super excited! I mean look at the Exhibitor List!

For past NAHBS posts I’ve penned go here and my most ‘interesting’ photos from my three years attending are here.

Event Details:

Location
Sacramento Convention Center
1400 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Tradeshow Schedule (Hall B & C)

Friday Mar 2, 2012:
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Industry Only*
11:00 AM – 6:00 PM Show Hours

Saturday Mar 3, 2012:
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM Show Hours

Sunday Mar 4, 2012:
10.00 AM – 5.00 PM Show Hours

Speed Hound

Eight Days Later: The Eight Best Things About NAHBS 2011

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Leading up the this year’s NAHBS I asked John if I could borrow a bike.

Without blinking he said sure, ride my KHS. “By the way, would you like to contribute to the blog?”

Of course I did. But the days in Austin proved to be shorter than expected and I ran out of time.

Now eight days later and the photo above still depicts the scenario rather well.

I was focused on daddy duty with my son Otto, pictured above, and though I compiled some great shots,

any effort I could offer would have been a mere drop in the Prolly bucket of exhaustive NAHBS coverage.

Below is local Texas builder and former Keirin racer, Koh Annoura‘s track bike on motorized rollers.

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What I can do is say that this NAHBS, my third, was the best yet.

and here’s the eight reasons why:

Eight – the bashguards

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Geekhouse above and Gallus below built some bikes ready for extraordinary abuse.

Geekhouse had a great booth too and Jeremy of Gallus once won an alleycat to win a taxidermed calf.

WTF?

Their custom bashguards were awesome.

Gallus

Seven ~ the details

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The level of detail really does get better each year.

In fact, feel free to comment linking to your favorite detail from this year.

Signal Cycles above stepped it up with intricate features and ever more in depth craftsmanship.

The stem and bar combo below from Vendetta Cycles was the pinstriped capstone to a stellar build.

so nice.

Six ~ the Rapha Premiere & Gentleman’s Ride

Cole, human bike stand

Rapha has become a staple at NAHBS.

Their support of  US framebuilders is something I applaud them for.

Both the early AM exploration of west Austin’s hills with the Gentleman’s Ride

and the premiere of their Continental film made this year’s event even better.

Above is Continental rider Cole acting as his own bike stand and a still from the film below.

The Rapha Continental Premiere

Five ~ the food

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The food in Austin is great.

I had the chance to try out some cool spots: Juan in a Million, Torchy’s and Frank’s.

Frank’s was so damn good.  I went on the suggestion of a local messenger and am so glad I did.

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Four ~ the bike valet

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I sequestered myself in the bike valet aisles for nearly 30 minutes slowly sauntering around

leaning in and finding gems like the Somec above and Bishop below.

Every year some of the most customized bikes can be found both in here and locked up outside.

Again, 2011 took the cake for eye candy on the showroom floor and the valet corridors.

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Three ~ the booths

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Sure last year had some EPIC booths.  I’m looking at you Bilenky & Vanilla.

But this year was about minimalism.

Clever ways of conveying the emotion beyond the frames is a challenge.

Black Cat Bicycles and Vertigo Cycles both had some neat booths.

Aaron of 611 salvaged nearly all of his.

Vertigo Mosaic

Two ~ the people

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NAHBS is great to meet and greet not only legendary framebuilders

but also friends you haven’t seen in ages or ever before.

Above is Simon of Hipster Nascar.  We only met in person for the first time this year

and sadly he took a brutal spill on his bike that same night.  Get better man!

And below is Jordan Hufnagel of Hufnagel Cycles.

I race a frame he built on the track here in Atlanta and am always stoked to see him.

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One ~ the Hortons

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Above, Bob from Bilenky studies Bishop‘s counterpart to their contribution to the pair of Horton bikes.

These bikes were insane and the idea was totally unique.

I have heard of builders teaming up and collaborating in one shop or the other but this was one of a kind.

Ultimately this concept, the bikes, their detailed implementation and final results took the cake for me!

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Well there you have it, my take on the eight best things about this year’s NAHBS.

For more photos check out my flickr and feel free to comment with other best of’s from this year.

Austin, NAHBS Pre-Game Festivities

Austin

Despite the ominous weather.

I knew today, the day before NAHBS would be awesome. I even got my stickers on time!

Prolly's new glass

After a quick coffee at Jo’s, Stacey, Otto & I headed over to John’s to pick up my loaner.

Man. Riding the KHS will be a sweet way to get around this weekend. Thanks once again John!

Race Proven

Afterwards we all headed over to Jaun in a Million.

Talk about setting a solid foundation for your day. So tasty. So filling!

Don Juan

After spending the afternoon in Zilker Park with Otto & Stacey,

I headed over to the convention center to sign in.

This contraption below caught my eye.

Goes to show you that “necessity is the mother of…” well, really only that not everything at NAHBS is pretty.

fork support

After a quick peek in the exhibition hall, I ran into John doing some recon.

I headed over to the Blogger Meetup organized by Darryl of Loving The Bike.

There were some really nice people hanging out and local Austin entrepreneurs as well:

Chameleon Coffee offered some samples of their cold brewed coffee. so damn good.

And below is the jersey from the Thunderbird Energetica kit.

Their energy bars were absurdly delicisous. Imagine a bar that tastes as good at this jersey looks.

Maybe even better.

Also there were the ever useful Grease Monkey Wipes & scrumptious Bearded Brothers organic snacks.

Thunderbird

Tucked in the corner were two Bromptons. They are the new modes of traveling paths less pedaled.

Great to meet you Russ & Laura!

Bromptons

Some other bikes that stuck out were the bamboo cyclist‘s rig below

Bamboo, heavy duty

and Scott’s bike of Dropout, a local bike zine.

Scott Cannon

The final stop for the day was the Rapha film event at Mellow Johnny’s.

Mellow Johnny's

More sweet non-NAHBS bikes were seen…

Ira Ryan

always classic, an Ira Ryan above, Alan of Cycling WMD‘s travel bike below

Cycling WMD!!

and one of last year’s non-NAHBS show builds! Amrando Quiros‘s own ride:

Quiros

But back to films, the premier of Rapha Continental and screening of D’Acciaio (Of Steel) by Ben Ingham

were certainly a sublime first step into the weekend.  D’Acciaio was a special treat to see again.

Dario is a true living legend and witnessing such a craftsman in honest non-rehearsed scenes is amazing.

No one can discount Rapha for their non-discount approach to cycling.

Beyond their luxury apparel, these guys truly do live and love bikes. More so than most cyclists even.

Every ride they did was indeed EPIC and pushed to the very limit of the riders’ ability.

The Continental portrayed these past several years of riding perfectly.

Passion, as Dario says, can’t be manufactured, but you see it here in this film.

From painful suffering as riders dragged themselves up and across vast American expanses to

the simple elegant beauty of the made in USA frames they road.  I cannot convey how picturesque it was.

The Rapha Continental Premiere

For more photos form my first day here in Austin can be found here.

Stay tuned on twitter for updates throughout Day 1 of NAHBS.

Matching pink in background.

The Freiburg Collective

On the eve of NAHBS it seems fitting to give a shout out to an overseas event inspired by the now legendary annual event.

The Freiburg Collective will take place in Freiburg, Germany May 7th & 8th 2011.

Philipp of European Touches will there providing full coverage of the rides and events.

Stay tuned for more developments on this unique concept for a bike show hosted by Crema Cycles.

See everyone at NAHBS tomorrow!