If you’ve got a handmade bicycle you want to show off, the 2023 MADE bike show is now accepting applications.

The new trade show for handmade bikes debuts in Portland, Oregon this August, and offers 40 “subsidized spaces” for framebuilders. They’re reserved for new builders and “those traveling from a distance that would make exhibiting cost prohibitive,” organizers said in a news release. These spaces support a single handmade bike with signage and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Registration opens today, Jan. 25 — but only for framebuilders. The full floor plan will open up to exhibiting brands on Tuesday, Jan. 31.

Application instructions are on the MADE website.

With pricey venue, no free spaces for builders

Last summer, MADE said spaces for framebuilders would come free of charge. However, that was before organizers booked The Rose Quarter in Portland. It’s an expensive venue, especially because of the increased cost of security spurred by the city’s rising homeless population, Billy Sinkford, co-founder of MADE, said in an interview.

“Free spaces was initially the intention, but we now have to ask small builders to offset the cost by paying $200,” Sinkford said. “For builders that are capable of paying for these spaces, they’re purchasing at a lower rate than most trade shows. The subsidized spaces are meant for framebuilders who need some help.”

Organizers suggest that interested framebuilders register quickly before spaces run out. While spaces aren’t free, MADE sponsor BikeFlights will still help offset the cost of shipping for builders.

MADE was announced last summer after three years without the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, which returns to Denver in December. The latter show canceled its 2022 event after organizer Don Walker cited “an unexpectedly low number of commitments.”

With many vendors already signed on, MADE doesn’t seem to have that problem.

“There is clearly an appetite for a new handmade show, and we are humbled and excited about the 170+ builders and 80+ brands that have expressed a desire to exhibit, and as of today we have more interest than space,” Sinkford said in the news release.

Ver esta publicación en Instagram

Una publicación compartida por MADE (@made.bike)

MADE taps veteran of North American Handmade Bicycle Show as director

MADE also announced the appointment of Steven Elmes as the event’s Show Director. A longtime manager in the bike industry, Elmes is the co-founder of brand Independent Fabrication. He also served as Director of Sponsorships and Partnerships for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show from 2016 to 2020. His event experience includes work with Adidas, Ford, Nissan, The NBA, Clif Bar, Progressive Insurance, and many others.

“I am thrilled to be part of MADE and to continue supporting the handmade community, which will always hold a special place in my heart,” said Elmes. “I am confident that this event will set a new standard, highlighting the builders and brands that collectively create a force of creativity, community and craftsmanship. In year one we are focused on creating stability in this space and earning the trust of the industry as a new home for showcasing the art that is handmade bicycles.”

The inaugural MADE event will run from August 24-27 at the iconic Rose Quarter in Portland. The first two days will offer exclusive entry to industry and media. The latter two days, August 26-27, MADE opens to the public, allowing anyone to meet the builders and companies making handmade bikes.

made.bike

The post Take Note, Indie Bike-Makers: MADE Show Opens Registration appeared first on Bikerumor.

Lovers of handmade bikes rejoice: A new trade show featuring artisan bicycles will debut in Portland next year.

After three years without the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, a new event planned for 2023 will offer bike makers another avenue for showing off their wares.

Show organizers announced the MADE Global Bike Show, an industry and consumer bike event with “a mission to bring framebuilders, media and makers together to elevate and inspire,” the group said.

Supported by both industry sponsors and PR firm ECHOS Communications, the new show will come to Portland, Ore., in September of next year. ECHOS confirmed that the MADE show is entirely separate from NAHBS. Given the recent merger of The Pro’s Closet and The Radavist, we’re also not that surprised to hear that Nick Martin from The Pro’s Closet “will likely be a contributing voice in the direction of the show.”

It will include events at iconic local shops Chris King, Speedvagen and Breadwinner Cycles. It will also be outdoors, which could mean more consumer demonstrations and actual bike riding.

The event will offer several significant perks for framebuilders. For starters, they will receive free booth space to help offset the cost of exhibiting. And MADE sponsor BikeFlights, is helping to offset the cost of bike boxes and shipping for builders.

New Competition for NAHBS

MADE represents some new competition to the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS). Organizers of NAHBS just canceled its 2022 show, rescheduling for September 2023 in Denver. Primary organizer Don Walker cited “an unexpectedly low number of commitments” for the event’s cancelation.

Judging by the early roster for MADE, that doesn’t seem to be an issue it will face.

Registration for MADE opens in September, but the show already has many confirmed exhibitions. They include: Moots, The Pro’s Closet Museum, Paul Component Engineering, Mosaic, BikeFlights, Schon Studio, Stinner, Abbey Bike Tools, Argonaut Cycles, WZRD Bikes, Retrotec, Btchn Bikes, Falconer Cycles, Tomii Cycle, Frontier Bikes, Bender Bikes, and Monē Bikes among others.

“MADE is the next evolution of handmade consumer and trade events, creating a format that is inclusive, exciting and supportive,” said Billy Sinkford, Vice President of ECHOS. “The event will celebrate and support framebuilders and the culture that surrounds them, and our collective goal is to bring awareness to this segment of the industry. To that end, we will be offering free booth space to all builders for the inaugural 2023 year.”

made.bike

The post New MADE Bike Show to debut in 2023, offers handmade builders free booth space appeared first on Bikerumor.

Our readers love the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, and so do we. That’s why we were all saddened to learn of its postponement due to the COVID-19 virus.

What to do? The show has been rescheduled to August, but we still have plenty of great NAHBS content to share with you. We’re going to have our usual series of pre-NAHBS interviews to put the spotlight on a handful of our favorite builders – and will start sharing these stories NOW, when the original show was scheduled to begin. Economic times will be tough for us all, but perhaps even more so for small independent businesses. Thus, we feel it is our duty to help promote these builders, and keep the excitement going all the way to the forthcoming August NAHBS.

Please enjoy this interview with Aaron Barcheck of Mosaic Cycles.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your name, your bike brand, and where are you based?

Aaron Barcheck: Mosaic Cycles is based in Boulder Colorado. My name is Aaron Barcheck, founder and lead frame builder.

Bikerumor.com: How long have you been making bikes? How’d you get into it?

Aaron: Mosaic has been producing titanium and steel frames since 2009 with the intent to build the highest quality handmade bicycles for each individual we work with. We focus on true Bespoke customer experience by meeting rider fit, frame performance and personal aesthetic requirements unique to each of our customers we build a frame for. We work through and with our extended base of bike shop partners around the world to provide Mosaic through their truly exceptional fit, build advice and customer service.

Bikerumor.com: How many frames have you built, and what’s your material of choice? Why that material?

Aaron: Many, many. Mostly Titanium frames with some steel, in categories such as road, disc road, all road, gravel, cyclocross and mountain.

Bikerumor.com: What’s going to be the highlight in your NAHBS booth this year?

Aaron: For NAHBS 2020 we are launching our second uniquely created Artist Series Paint Design within our updated paint program. As a follow up to our Prismatica design fall 2019 our latest creation, named Kaleidosaic, is a unique combination of layered pattern, pearl transparency and eye popping sparkle effect. It will be offered in three colorways starting April 2020. We have a bike built up in each colorway with a few of our brand partners: Blacksmith Cycles (Toronto), The Bike Tailor (UK), Bicycle Speed Shop (Houston TX) and Black Oak Velo (Greenwich CT).

Bikerumor.com: What’s your inspiration lately?

Aaron: Our creative team has been working on new paint layering techniques along with our sister brand, Spectrum Paint & Powderworks, to create visually stunning effects that can be paired with our current frame layouts. We want to create a finish program that really adds personalization to each Mosaic Rider’s bike, something that not everyone on the road or trail has and when you see it you can’t look away. Since colors, design and effects can be endless, we really get excited to get creative, ideate and get lost in the endlessness for a while, and then come back with a more focused piece that gets honed into the next Mosaic offering. Look for more of the Artist Series from us this year, but we’re super pleased with how this one came out.

Bikerumor.com: What’s the oddest request you’ve gotten for a custom build?

Aaron: Recently we got a request to make a gravel frame built ready to accept bike packing bags with our hidden bag bolts. The unique request was to have the custom bags made by JPaks, out of Denver, sewn in a camping themed wool Pendleton Camping Blanket to complement the frame. The frame is themed after a red speckled ceramic camping mug. This bike will no doubt be one of the classiest themed bikes we’ve ever done, plus it’ll have a SRAM Mullet group to go with! (Photos on this still to come!)

Bikerumor.com: Someone calls you up and says “Can you make me a race bike?” – Describe the first kind of bike that pops in your head?

Aaron: I actually asked myself that very question recently. I have been making gravel bikes for myself with larger tires for a few years now, but produced nothing that really got me excited. Too many of them ended up being noodly, not quite the snappy feel I was looking for. I wanted something faster to race Lost and Found with our Builders for Builders challenge again this year. In reaction to this I built up a larger, double butted version of our GT-1 45. The massive tubes really did the trick for me, and paired well with the Shimano GRX group and Enve G23 wheelset with Chris King ceramic bearings. Its fast, snappy and playful for a bike the accommodated 700×45 tires and built for someone (me) at 6′ 2″. I’m seriously loving this bike/tubing/parts combo.

Bikerumor.com: Sum your brand up in one word:

Aaron: Experience.

Bikerumor.com: What is your website and Instagram handle?

Aaron: www.mosaiccycles.com IG: Mosaiccycles

The post (Long) Road to NAHBS 2020 – Teaser interview w/ Aaron Barcheck of Mosaic Cycles appeared first on Bikerumor.

Our readers love the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, and so do we. That’s why we were all saddened to learn of its postponement due to the COVID-19 virus.

What to do? The show has been rescheduled to August, but we still have plenty of great NAHBS content to share with you. We’re going to have our usual series of pre-NAHBS interviews to put the spotlight on a handful of our favorite builders – and will start sharing these stories NOW, when the original show was scheduled to begin. Economic times will be tough for us all, but perhaps even more so for small independent businesses. Thus, we feel it is our duty to help promote these builders, and keep the excitement going all the way to the forthcoming August NAHBS.

Please enjoy this interview with TJ McArthur of tubing supplier, Titanium Joe.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your name, your bike brand, and where are you based?

TJ McArthur: Titanium Joe, Inc. We are a Titanium Supplier – We have one location in NY/ON and a second location in California.

Bikerumor.com: How long have you been making bikes? How’d you get into it?

TJ: We have been supplying Titanium to the bicycle industry since 2001.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your material of choice? Why that material?

TJ: We have supplied many many frame builders with the titanium for their projects. Our material of choice is titanium as it has a very high strength to weight ratio making it ideal for light weight and strong frames.

Bikerumor.com: What’s going to be the highlight in your NAHBS booth this year?

TJ: One of the highlights will be our welding learning kits. We have built welding kits to help people to learn the art of welding titanium. As well as our bargain bin. Our bargain bin contains many grades and sizes of titanium at discounted prices.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your inspiration lately?

TJ: We have been in contact with many builders and people trying to learn. As titanium is a specialty metal it can be difficult to obtain material to practice with. For this reason we have created an affordable option to obtain various grades and forms of Titanium. For example, 3al-2.5v and CP2 tubes, as well as 6al-4v and CP2 bars, sheets and weld wire. These start at only $25.00 USD.

Bikerumor.com: Any unique questions you use to help customers get a product that’s really dialed for them?

TJ: We do ask our builders many questions to help them find the ideal grade and condition of titanium for their builds. Great builds need great material.

Bikerumor.com: What’s the oddest request you’ve gotten?

TJ: We do not get many odd questions. But one question we do get often is requests for custom sizes. We are able to offer custom mill runs with a low minimum order of 152ft.

Bikerumor.com: Sum your brand up in one word:

TJ: Service.

Bikerumor.com: What is your website and Instagram handle?

TJ: TitaniumJoe.com and @titanium_joe_inc

The post (Long) Road to NAHBS 2020 – Teaser interview w/ TJ McArthur of Titanium Joe appeared first on Bikerumor.

Our readers love the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, and so do we. That’s why we were all saddened to learn of its postponement due to the COVID-19 virus.

What to do? The show has been rescheduled to August, but we still have plenty of great NAHBS content to share with you. We’re going to have our usual series of pre-NAHBS interviews to put the spotlight on a handful of our favorite builders – and will start sharing these stories NOW, when the original show was scheduled to begin. Economic times will be tough for us all, but perhaps even more so for small independent businesses. Thus, we feel it is our duty to help promote these builders, and keep the excitement going all the way to the forthcoming August NAHBS.

Please enjoy this interview with Mike Smith of No. 22 Bicycle Company.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your name, your bike brand, and where are you based?

Mike Smith: Mike Smith, one of the co-founders of No. 22 Bicycle Company. Bryce Gracey and I founded No. 22 in Canada, and we build all of our bikes in our factory in upstate NY, USA.

Bikerumor.com: How long have you been making bikes? How’d you get into it?

Mike: We launched No. 22 in 2012. Bryce and I had been riding together for a few years in Toronto, and I was getting ready for a coast-to-coast ride across Canada and needed a bike to do it on. Bryce and I began brainstorming about a titanium bike for that trip, as Bryce had recently built up a titanium commuter and had become evangelical about the ride quality. After the bike was built we both had the desire to do more with titanium: its performance envelope was so huge, and the ride quality is so unique to the material.

Our first year saw us doing a test of concept, designing some basic frames made by a contract fabricator to see if there was enough interest to build a business. That went well enough for us to take the next step, designing the bikes that would become the key early models of the brand, the Great Divide road frame and Little Wing track frame. These were contracted to Lynskey in Tennessee with pretty solid results. When it came time to step up the quality again in late 2013, Saratoga Frameworks, the latest iteration of the former Serotta factory, had just made an announcement that they were open to contract frame building. At that point some of the key artisans from the Serotta team were still involved: Scott Hock, head frame designer who’d been working in the bike industry since age 16, Frank Cenchitz, head welder who had seen thousands of bikes pass through his hands, and Bryar Sesselman, who excels at extremely skillful machine and metal working, as well as finishing work. They agreed to build us two prototypes which Bryce and I drove down to inspect in person and meet the team. The bikes blew us away and we really hit it off with the guys.

Our next step almost buried us: we put down a deposit on a full run of bikes, and then about a week later the factory shut down for good. For an agonizing window, we were out all of our money, and the guys were out of jobs. In a huge stroke of luck we were able to get most of the deposit money back given the method we used to pay it, but the bigger issue remained: how are we going to get bikes of this quality from this team? The answer staring us in the face was to open our own production facility and hire the crew, with no previous plan to do so. We purchased a small amount of equipment that was still of use to us from the Serotta collection and started hunting for the rest of it and a space to house it all. We ended up in an old knitting mill in Johnstown, NY, about 45 minutes away from the former Serotta space in Saratoga Springs. We found a bunch of Bridgeport mills in NJ and scooped those up, with the smaller pieces coming together in the next weeks/months. By the end of summer, 2014, we were starting to ship bikes from our own factory.

Today we’re still in the same space, having taken over the neighboring unit with an expanded amount of equipment, over one thousand bikes out the door, a nice amount of hardware from the NAHBS exhibitions we’ve participated in, and most importantly, a larger team: Sam Dries, our second welder, Josh Mock, another former Serotta employee in finishing, Patrick Gillham from Serotta, Parlee and Speedvagen (among others) and a handful of other key fabricators are working for us now.

Bikerumor.com: How many frames have you built, and what’s your material of choice? Why that material?

Mike: We turned over the milestone of over 1,000 No. 22 frames relatively recently, though some of our team members have decades of previous experience. Franz Cenchitz alone has guesstimated that he’s welded over 5,000 frames. We build all of our frames primarily from titanium: it’s a material that has a huge bandwidth of performance: depending on how it’s used, it can be very light, very stiff, comfortable, durable, and in all cases beautiful.

Bikerumor.com: What’s going to be the highlight in your NAHBS booth this year?

Mike: We have two key bikes that we’re really excited about. The first is a “Save the Rim Brake” Reactor with an aggressive build to show off how darned good a rim brake bike can still be. As we often do for NAHBS, we’re going to be showing off some new finishing approaches on that bike with a hope that they will land on our production models down the road.

The other bike is a travel-focused version of our Drifter gravel bike. We are really excited about this one, as I think it’s going to be a gamechanger for people that do a lot of traveling with their bike. We’re showing off an extremely slick new coupler system that is super clean, simple, and really vanishes once the bike is together. More importantly though, we’ve developed a system for disconnecting hydraulic disc brakes without tools or bleeding required, which means that finally you can build a great travel bike with hydraulic brakes.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your inspiration lately?

Mike: It comes from so many directions, and everyone on our team will have a different answer. I think one of my favourite things about NAHBS and the handmade bike space in general is that there are so many people doing really clever things. When you walk the show and look at bikes from other brands, without fail on every single bike you can point to a detail that makes you say “wow”, and that’s really inspiring. Where it becomes exponentially more challenging is growing that from one detail to a cohesive, well detailed and most importantly great riding package. The drive to do that is what keeps all of our fires lit.

Bikerumor.com: Any unique questions you use to help customers get a bike that’s really dialed for them?

Mike: It all starts with a phone or email conversation with the customer. We have developed a collection of eight models which each represent our philosophy of how a bike built for each discipline should ride, and the door is then open for customization for fit, finish options and the final build. The particular questions really depend on each customer and each conversation: I wish there was a clever secret question I had in my back pocket!

Bikerumor.com: What’s the oddest request you’ve gotten for a custom build?

Mike: We get a lot of requests for things we really have no background in. We get asked to build titanium unicycles every now and again, and we have to respectfully decline: I don’t even know if anyone on our team knows how to ride one.

Bikerumor.com: Someone calls you up and says “Can you make me a race bike?” – Describe the first kind of bike that pops in your head?

Mike: What kind of racing! All of our bikes have a performance bent, and we design each model with the intent that they could be raced in their respective disciplines. The first that jumps to mind is our Reactor road race model, but also our Broken Arrow CX race bike. Those two are probably the bikes we make that on average spend the most time actually being raced.

Bikerumor.com: Sum your brand up in one word:

Mike: Dialed.

Bikerumor.com: What is your website and Instagram handle?

Mike: Website: 22bicycles.com
Instagram: @22bikes

The post (Long) Road to NAHBS 2020 – Teaser interview w/ Mike Smith of No. 22 Bicycles appeared first on Bikerumor.

Our readers love the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, and so do we. That’s why we were all saddened to learn of its postponement due to the COVID-19 virus.

What to do? The show has been rescheduled to August, but we still have plenty of great NAHBS content to share with you. We’re going to have our usual series of pre-NAHBS interviews to put the spotlight on a handful of our favorite builders – and will start sharing these stories NOW, when the original show was scheduled to begin. Economic times will be tough for us all, but perhaps even more so for small independent businesses. Thus, we feel it is our duty to help promote these builders, and keep the excitement going all the way to the forthcoming August NAHBS.

Please enjoy this interview with Steve Potts of Steve Potts Bicycles.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your name, your bike brand, and where are you based?

Steve Potts: Steve Potts Bicycles, Etna, California.

Bikerumor.com: How long have you been making bikes? How’d you get into it?

Steve: Professionally, 40 years. I got into bikes as a young kid. I lived at the base of Mount Tamalpais and it became a great place for me as a kid for adventure, a place where my imagination was stimulated about the stories of the past, the native Indians, the pioneers, the railroad, the old buildings and camps on the mountain and the freedom of being able to travel as a little kid to discover new things, I was totally into finding new creeks, waterfalls, a new place to fish or camp out. The bicycle pretty much gave me the freedom to do that . Not many people had that much freedom as I was a latch key kid, my Mom passed when I was 8 years old, so I had more freedom than most and the bicycle adventures was really the most constructive outlet I could have had. I never got into the more typical type of trouble, but I did get into some adventure type of trouble, getting lost, or hurt was the type of trouble I got into, but I survived and I maintained my love of cycling through those experiences.

Bikerumor.com: How many frames have you built, and what’s your material of choice? Why that material?

Steve: Approximately 5500 frames. My first bikes were steel ( approximately 3500). I still build some steel,  (great material) but now build mostly in titanium (approximately 2000 plus frames). I like titanium’s strength and corrosion resistance, basically a lifetime bike if built properly! Great ride too!

Bikerumor.com: What’s going to be the highlight in your NAHBS booth this year?

Steve: Showing some new bikes and some new components ! A few surprises for the show too!

Bikerumor.com: What’s your inspiration lately?

Steve: Always trying to make the most functional bike possible, unknown to most I have been making gravel-type bikes for years… and I called them DIA’s (Do It All) bikes. It is great that a lot of people see the versatility in this type of bike… right up my alley!

Bikerumor.com: Any unique questions you use to help customers get a bike that’s really dialed for them?

Steve: I do have an order form and questionnaire that helps people relate to what they are riding, what they like and dislike about their riding position, that has been very helpful in getting people fit properly. Type of riding, level of fitness, what is going on with their body at different times and riding conditions… very helpful info in determining proper fit!

Bikerumor.com: What’s the oddest request you’ve gotten for a custom build?

Steve: I have had a lot of requests over the years, but I do try to forget them asap… too much to think about!

Bikerumor.com: Someone calls you up and says “Can you make me a race bike?” – Describe the first kind of bike that pops in your head?

Steve: What pops into my head is that I will need to have a good conversation with the customer and pay attention to what kind of riding they are really going to be doing. It is important to get a complete picture (as best you can) of what kind of riding or racing they will be doing.

Bikerumor.com: Sum your brand up in one word:

Steve: Clean, well built, functional, no bells and whistles, reliable…

Bikerumor.com: What is your website and Instagram handle?

Steve: Instagram: stevepottsbicycles
Web site: www.stevepottsbicycles.com

The post (Long) Road to NAHBS 2020 – Teaser interview w/ Steve of Steve Potts Bicycles appeared first on Bikerumor.

Our readers love the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, and so do we. That’s why we were all saddened to learn of its postponement due to the COVID-19 virus.

What to do? The show has been rescheduled to August, but we still have plenty of great NAHBS content to share with you. We’re going to have our usual series of pre-NAHBS interviews to put the spotlight on a handful of our favorite builders – and will start sharing these stories NOW, when the original show was scheduled to begin. Economic times will be tough for us all, but perhaps even more so for small independent businesses. Thus, we feel it is our duty to help promote these builders, and keep the excitement going all the way to the forthcoming August NAHBS.

Please enjoy this interview with Nao Tomii of Tomii Cycles.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your name, your bike brand, and where are you based?

Nao Tomii: My name is Nao Tomii and I’m the owner / builder of Tomii Cycles in Austin TX.

Bikerumor.com: How long have you been making bikes? How’d you get into it?

Tomii: I have been making bikes since 2012. I was born in Yokohama and grew up in Niigata, Japan. I came to the United States in 1998 for art school in Boston MA. Since I was a child I’ve always liked cars, motorcycles, and bicycles (everything with wheels) especially American hotrod culture. It was a good opportunity to study art and explore American culture.

I found a sculpting job after I graduated from art school. I worked for sculpting company for 12 years making sculptures, mold making, casting and restorations for old sculptures and architectures. I was also making my own sculptures and did some shows in Boston area. In 2006, I got a cheap bike and started to ride and met many cyclists and bicycle builders. I was impressed by the beauty of handmade bicycles and really wanted to make my own.

Bikerumor.com: How many frames have you built, and what’s your material of choice? Why that material?

Tomii: Around 100 frames and currently making steel frames. With steel, there are few different methods to make bike frames. I like both Tig-weld and brazing. I’d like to try other materials in the future.

Bikerumor.com: What’s going to be the highlight in your NAHBS booth this year?

Tomii: Two gravel bikes and one classic style sportif. I like all kinds of bikes!

Bikerumor.com: What’s your inspiration lately?

Tomii: My inspiration is my usual ride in Austin, to the city and to have a great coffee. I am still new here and I have to check out more gravel roads around Austin. When I ride, I always check new and old buildings, rusty cars/motorcycles, signs, murals, plants, colors and everything inspires me. I think Austin is a great city for this. Austin summer can be really hot, so night rides are my favorite. Cold coconut water tastes great!

Bikerumor.com: Any unique questions you use to help customers get a bike that’s really dialed for them?

Tomii: For the steel frames, paint is one of the fun part of the build. I usually ask customers about their favorite colors then start drawing paint ideas.

Bikerumor.com: What’s the oddest request you’ve gotten for a custom build?

Tomii: I don’t think I’ve ever had an odd request. Very big or small frames are always challenging.

Bikerumor.com: Someone calls you up and says “Can you make me a race bike?” – Describe the first kind of bike that pops in your head?

Tomii: Light weight CX and Road.

Bikerumor.com: Sum your brand up in one word:

Tomii: Wayosetchu (Japanese and Western eclectic / Style)

Bikerumor.com: What is your website and Instagram handle?

Tomii: www.tomiicycles.com
https://www.instagram.com/tomii_cycles/

The post (Long) Road to NAHBS 2020 – Teaser interview w/ Nao Tomii of Tomii Cycles appeared first on Bikerumor.

Our readers love the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, and so do we. That’s why we were all saddened to learn of its postponement due to the COVID-19 virus.

What to do? The show has been rescheduled to August, but we still have plenty of great NAHBS content to share with you. We’re going to have our usual series of pre-NAHBS interviews to put the spotlight on a handful of our favorite builders – and will start sharing these stories NOW, when the original show was scheduled to begin. Economic times will be tough for us all, but perhaps even more so for small independent businesses. Thus, we feel it is our duty to help promote these builders, and keep the excitement going all the way to the forthcoming August NAHBS.

Please enjoy the words and images from our first interview, with Brad Bingham of Bingham Built. Based in Steamboat, CO, they’re known for beautiful rides, perfect stack-of-dimes welding, and some truly unique designs.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your name, your bike brand, and where are you based?

Brad: Brad Bingham, Bingham Built, Steamboat Springs, CO.

Bikerumor.com: How long have you been making bikes? How’d you get into it?

Brad: 20+ years. Had an inherent interest in bikes & frame design, built first bike on my own and then went to UBI and then was recruited to work at Moots. The rest is history.

Bikerumor.com: How many frames have you built, and what’s your material of choice? Why that material?

Brad: I have been involved in construction of thousands of bikes. Titanium for it’s superior ride quality, durability, and wonderful aesthetic.

Bikerumor.com: What’s going to be the highlight in your NAHBS booth this year?

Brad: We’ll be highlighting an all-road disc bike built up with a Campy super record groupset & Campy wheelset. Also a hardtail MTB, a couple gravel rigs, and possibly a touring bike.

Bikerumor.com: What’s your inspiration lately?

Brad: Our customers are an inspiration because everyone wants something slightly different and unique. Also bikepacking has been an inspiration for me since I’ve gotten into it more in the past few years.

Bikerumor.com: Any unique questions you use to help customers get a bike that’s really dialed for them?

Brad: Where are you from & what kind of riding do you do, what are your riding goals, what are you hoping to achieve with this bike?

Bikerumor.com: What’s the oddest request you’ve gotten for a custom build?

Brad: A full suspension road bike with a dropper seatpost. It was showcased in our NAHBS booth last year.

Bikerumor.com: Someone calls you up and says “Can you make me a race bike?” – Describe the first kind of bike that pops in your head?

Brad: A few – because I don’t know what kind of racing they do – is it a road race, gravel race, or mountain bike race bike?

Bikerumor.com: Sum your brand up in one word:

Brad: Handbuilt.

Bikerumor.com: What is your website and Instagram handle?

Brad: @binghambuilt

BinghamBuiltBikes.com

The post (Long) Road to NAHBS 2020 – Teaser interview w/ Brad Bingham of Bingham Built appeared first on Bikerumor.

Dynaplug announced a pair of bikes built in partnership with Dear Susan Bicycles “to make a bike honoring their red-wine swilling intergalactic meerkat spirit animal.” Meant to pay homage the roots of mountain biking in both the US and UK, the bikes feature special parts from PAUL, Hope, S&M, and Industry Nine.

Dynaplug is best known for their tire repair and inflation tools, but they opted to step out into something a little (lot?) different for the Sea Otter Classic this year. Dubbed the Meerkat Hooptie, this rig is colorful to say the least.

In their own words…

“The Dynaplug Meerkat Hooptie is the party animal to the more reserved Dear Susan Hooptie, though both pay homage to the classic UK and US klunkers that birthed the MTB movement, subsequently giving rise to tubeless tires and thus Dynaplug.”

“The Meerkat is encrusted in multi-colored anodized bling from boutique US makers including Paul Components, White Industries and Industry Nine, while the Dear Susan Hooptie arrives dressed mostly in Hope Tech. The frames are built from a mix of Columbus tubing, painted with a subtle sparkly fade and topped off with jeweler-made head tube badges.”

“Topping off the builds are magnetic frame bags to hold Dynaplugs and party supplies, and (of course) tubeless tires. Because, after all, without tubeless tires and Dynaplugs to keep them rolling, none of this meerkat magic would have ever happened.

Keep an eye out for the Dynaplug Meerkat Hooptie at the Sea Otter Classic, and if you’re lucky the little guy may show up with a bottle of red wine and an extra glass for a toast to his ride.”

Details are slim on the second bike, but we know it sports a Lauf fork, oval chainring, and MUCH more subtle styling.

Both bikes will be featured at the Sea Otter Classic in April 2020 – so stay tuned for more information and photos.

Dynaplug.com

DearSusan.co.uk

The post Dynaplug partners w/ Dear Susan Bicycles for Sea Otter-special Meerkat Hooptie appeared first on Bikerumor.

Spray.Bike colored our opinion of self painted bikes with their amazingly advanced spray paint, which is formulated to dry almost instantly as it turns into powder just inches from the nozzle. But what if you wanted to go metallic? Paint your bike gold, bronze or silver? Those proved awfully elusive for Spray.Bike founder Gareth Jones, so he went back to the lab…

Their standard colors are an acrylic base plus propellant and color. The metallic ones share the acrylic base and propellant, but use finely ground zinc powder that’s then anodized to one of four hues. Choose from Pewter Silver, Brass Gold, Bronze Gold and Copper. In the U.S., they’re available through Squid Bikes for about $17.99 per can. Gareth says you can probably coat one frame per can.

Squid Bikes makes the most of Spray.Bike’s paint, selling bare frames so you can paint them yourself. Sometimes, they get a little carried away…

Between the spray paint and paint pens, they get pretty creative.

Spray.Bike

The post Spray.Bike goes metallic, paints your bike with anodized gold, silver or copper! appeared first on Bikerumor.

Italian small-batch bike brand TRed took home a second-in-a-row award for best track bike this year, and it was quite the looker, but it was two other bikes that really caught our eye at NAHBS earlier this year. The Hedera XC hardtail turned “beach racer”, and a new disc brake, drop bar version of their Levriero TT bike both stood out. We’ll start with the Levriere…

The Levriero RR model started life (and is still sold) as a 1x TT bike, typically shown with bullhorn bars and aero extensions. But, anything’s possible with custom builders, so they wanted to show off what else could be done with this frame.

Low set seatstays keep the rear end laterally stiff, but this design typically results in a more comfortable ride, too.

The TT version has rim brakes, but they can make it with flat mount disc brakes, too. This build was using carbon fiber rotors inside a Rotor 1×13 hydraulic shifting group.

Six Days track bike

An homage to the Six Days Racing events that are essentially a weeklong party at a track with some racing thrown in for good measure, their hand-polished (there’s no chrome treatment, the shine comes strictly from polishing) AlScaZir alloy track bike took home an award. This gives TRed back-to-back “Best Track Bike” awards, and it’s easy to see why when you look at the frame close up.

Ultra smooth welds with deeply shaped metal fairings leading into the back wheel, plus a filled in section leading from the top tube to the seat tube are not just beautiful…they likely also add a ton of stiffness.

The shaping continues down to the BB shell and through the chainstays.

Hedera tries something new…again

Their Hedera XC hardtail mountain bike frame was showing off its versatility by swapping to drop bars and balloon tires. Reminiscent of beach racer bikes from The Netherlands, this would would make an extremely fast cruiser for rough roads.

Smooth welds and a headtube sized to match the carbon fork keep the lines on point.

TRed uses a particular blend of metals, low set seatstays and shaped tubes to provide a bit of rear axle micro-suspension.

They showed off another interesting all-road/monstercross version of this bike with a wilder build at Eurobike last year, too.

TRedBikes.com

The post TRed seemingly melts metal for latest road, track and drop-bar mountain bikes appeared first on Bikerumor.

Retrotec Cycles is one half of builder Curtis Inglis’ efforts, the other being Inglis Cycles. It’s aesthetics that differentiates them, with the Retrotec bikes getting the beach cruiser look. Don’t let the curved, twin top tube designs fool you, they’re full modern, and several of Curtis’ new builds proved that at NAHBS this year. But first…

This custom cruiser for Sierra Nevada would be a great way to deliver beer, even if it’s only to your own picnic. It’s using the limited edition green Paul Component parts wherever possible, with a custom front basket perfectly sized for a couple cases.

This blue beauty gets a rare truss fork to take a bit of the edge off…

…paired with fatter 650B tires and a dropper post, it’s one of those show bikes we wished we could have taken home with us.

Their first e-bike takes advantage of a motor-friendly BB structure from Paragon Machine Works, and with the twin tubes and frame bag drawing the eye upwards, it’s not immediately obvious it’s an e-bike. Even the battery kinda fits in visually.

Last up was this fat bike, which was just cool looking. Check out more at InglisCycles.com.

Sycip Cycles

Sycip built this front-loading trike to bring the food to join the Sierra Nevada from above. However, for the show, it was pouring ice brewed coffee from the big cooler box up front. In the back, though, was what made it special…

A custom fabricated shelf held a Japanese hibachi-style grill with small cutting board/table to prep the food.

He also had this travel gravel bike, using a folding frame to help you tackle all roads in all the places.

Many builders use S&S style twist-to-lock couplers, but this one used Ritchey-style swing links on the seat tube to fold the bike in half. The coins on the tops of the seatstays are a signature Sycip features, but he actually had several bikes on display without them this year.. Check out more at Sycip.com.

The post Sycip builds a grill onto a trike; Retrotec modernizes with slick bike packer, e-bike & more appeared first on Bikerumor.

Officially called the T-LAB R3 – Co-Lab Edition, this new bike started out as a custom mashup of the bike brand’s titanium road and cyclocross bikes. At the request of Bryan Davis, Senior Director of Design Innovation at Burton Snowboards and avid cyclist, and inspired by the ‘terroir’ in Vermont, the bike will fit 700×32 or 650×42 wheel-tire combinations. So, not quite an aggressive gravel bike, but certainly not a mild-mannered roadie, either. While the silver Burton-themed model will only be available to that brand’s employees, the good news is this revised endurance/rough road geometry has become an official option in the T-Lab catalog called Omni-Road.

Pictured here is the special Burton collab finish showing it with the 700×32 set up. At the top of post and further below is an olive green that you can get, but it’s on the X3 model, which has even more tire clearance.

Of course, all of their bikes are available custom, but having platforms for different types of riding gives them (and you) a starting point.

There’s tons of tire clearance at the fork, so tire size is mostly limited by the back of the frame.

All bikes are made at their plant in Montreal, Canada, out of cold-worked 3/2.5 titanium. It’s a process they say makes bikes that are 30% stronger than other bending and shaping methods, which is impressive when you look at how much they shape the top and down tubes on their bikes.

The X3 can be had with up to 700×42 or 650×50 tires, and gets frame mounts for racks, bags, and the option for a fork with multiple accessory mounts on the legs. Complete bikes start around $4,400.

T-Lab-Bikes.com

The post NAHBS 2019: T-Lab x Burton all-road bike collaboration leads to new R3 gravel bike appeared first on Bikerumor.

Welcome to our fourth installment of NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019, our analysis of the North America Handmade Bicycle Show. One of the ways NAHBS keeps the show fresh each year is through changing location. Because we don’t have a set of data from past years to compare against, I thought it could be cool to dig into regional themes of bikes at the show. But that’s not all – for my friends of ferrous metal, I also take a look at steel forks and frames.

Read on!

One of the things that makes NAHBS unique is its movement. Rather than pick a city and/or venue and invite folks to come to it, the show travels to different cities, making the show and the independent segment accessible to folks in those cities.

Because the mobile nature of the show is so central to what NAHBS is, I felt it was extra important to look at regional themes and to examine how location influences a show’s make-up. With this data captured, we can examine future years in relation and paint a picture of NAHBS by region.

For this, I examined locations of brands, pulled data from the three states who brought the highest number of bikes, and grouped all international bikes together.

First observations. The biggest states from a bike perspective all happen to be about a day’s drive from the venue – not surprising because it’s pretty easy to load up a van or trailer and drive up to the show with a lot of bikes. It could be that because flying in requires more money, planning, and careful packing than transport via driving, so folks coming in from further away tend to show with fewer bikes.

For builders traveling in from outside the US, different locations come with a unique set of challenges. A show in California was going to be relatively simple attend for folks overseas (thanks to the international focus of both LAX and SFO airports). As a result, there was a good international showing. Italy and the UK were particularly well represented.

But Anna! Why have you grouped Canada with international builders rather than with the North American builder data? Why?

Well, reader friend, two reasons. First, while the name of the show is “The North American Handmade Bicycle Show,” the show has never left the US. Second, the US has specific infrastructure and product and riding trends that aren’t necessarily shared with Canada.

Analysis by Brand Location

With this all laid out, you see some pretty interesting things at play. Here are a few things that really jumped out at me.

Roadie Trends in Non-US Bikes

Bikes coming from outside the US where very different on the whole than their domestic counterparts. They skew road, with heavy traditional road themes such as traditional rim caliper brakes (mechanical of course) and quick release skewers. There is also a notable preference for Campagnolo brake and drivetrain product overall – something I’ve observed in bikes and offerings at handmade shows outside the US.

Materials by Location

The first thing that jumped out at me about this data set was how location seemed to influence material usage.

Colorado, seen above second from the right, brought mostly titanium bikes to the show. While initially a little startling, this high number of titanium bikes makes total sense given the infrastructure and expertise in that region for advanced alloys. With heavy hitters such as Black Sheep, Mosaic, DEAN, Bingham, and Merlin in the region, and many builders coming out of those establishments, you can get the sense for how this pattern in material will continue to perpetuate itself.

With that noted, you’ll see that carbon bikes counted were more common than titanium in the count in places like California and outside the US. Oregon, in contrast, is nearly the opposite of Colorado, with steel beating out titanium in almost equal proportions.

Steel Frame and Fork Construction

This is a good measure to take year to year – steel frame and fork construction is an interesting trend to track. Fans of NAHBS can reflect back to the intricate custom lugged bikes that used to dominate at shows such as NAHBS 2011 in Austin (at that time, fillet brazed frames were super rare).

This year, I took a quick read on the primary construction approach of frame and fork. This was tricky to do because often steel frames are made by a variety of processes in combination. I looked at the main triangle and made a call. In cases of blended construction (several builders did partial bilaminate joints with fillets – in those cases, I prioritized fillet brazing because that theme pulled through on each joint and bottom bracket joint).

Lastly, I took a temperature on steel fork production, mostly because I feel that fork construction is a trend that changes with bike fashion.

I also took data around steel forks. With Anvil Bikeworks rolling out a new double fork blade bender in 2017, I’ve been interested to see if adoption of that fixture by independent builders has increased the number of steel forks on product. With this baseline, we can now understand how this changes through time, if it does.

And with that, look forward to our final installment of NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019 – there is a big, fabulous finish to this project. I hope you enjoy it.

If you want to read or re-read pieces in NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019, you can find them here:

Part 1   NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: The Overalls

Part 2   NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Summaries by Discipline

Part 3   NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Fashion and Style 

The post NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Regional Themes, Steel Construction appeared first on Bikerumor.

Part of the fun of NAHBS is the paint and wicked finishes the builders come up with, many of which are for actual customers who’ve been patient enough to let the builders bring their bikes to the show before delivering them. For this roundup, we’ve picked some of the best from four builders and brands.

FiftyOne Bikes

FiftyOne Bikes is named after the special number plate that’s earned a bit of mystique over the years for riders starting with a low ranking number and going on to win the Tour de France. For this year’s collection, they started with that bolted white bike shown at the top, then moved onto a smooth white-to-green-to-black paint scheme to celebrate their home country of Ireland.

Notice the little three-leaf clovers in the paint?

The FiftyOne Mad Bastard is a celebration of fast bikes that don’t play by the UCI’s rules for shapes and sizes. Built as a showcase for what they can do, it (along with the rest of their carbon bikes) uses a special process that removes the surface layer of resin so they can bond the tubes together better, resulting in a stronger frame. Check them out at FiftyOneBikes.com.

Enigma Bicycle Works

England’s Enigma Bicycle Works might be close to FiftyOne’s part of the world, but their bikes tend toward the classic (and metal tubes), but are fully modern and use incredible finishes. In year’s past we’ve seen an ultra-deep candy apple red. This year, they brought this shade-shifting gravel bike.

Depending on where the light is hitting it, the green or purple becomes more dominant.

Careful masking lets the metal show through.

This was their Campy bike contest entry, which they tweaked by polishing all the other parts to match…shiny silver Rolf Prima rims and hubs, White Industries cranks and chainrings, headset, stem, seatpost and more all matched the polished Campy derailleur, levers and brakes.

Enigma makes a range of drop bar bikes, from pure road racing models all the way to off-road gravel bikes. More info at EnigmaBikes.com.

Cerreta Cycles

Cerreta makes lugged and fillet-brazed steel bikes, and this one’s paint scheme reminded us of the stealth schemes used on fighter jets and prototype cars to hide their angles. Which is fitting, because the builder is ex-Air Force and has traveled the world fabricating parts for various types of planes. Now retired, he’s switched to making bicycles.

The notched chainstay bridge was a nice little hidden feature, too. More at CerretaCycles.com.

Panasonic Bicycles

The new Panasonic ORCD05 “gravel” bike is a steel frame, disc brake option that joins a new disc brake ti road bike (not shown) offered on their website. Want an adventure? Try finding their website…but this link will take you to a Google Translated page for this model.

Not a stock paint scheme, this stained glass finish with color-chromed lugs was gorgeous.

The back of the bike had it’s own unique finish, blending a couple shades of green into a matte ano. Dropouts are custom lost-wax cast, as are the head tube lugs.

So, how big of a deal is the paint and color at NAHBS? Check out Anna’s NAHBS by the NUMBERS post on style and color to see what all goes into it!

The post NAHBS 2019: Impressive paint and finish by FiftyOne, Enigma, Cerreta & Panasonic appeared first on Bikerumor.

It’s one thing getting the chain timing right on a tandem. It’s a whole ‘nother challenge when you’re putting the shifting in the middle of it, rather than running a traditional cassette and derailleur. But Co-Motion figured it out for this stellar NAHBS show bike, which combines Gates Belt Drive with a Pinion gear box. And while Co-Motion didn’t use it, Cinq was showing off a better way to control internal gear box and hubs from multiple brands…

One would imagine there are enough things going on when off-road touring in tandem, so reducing drivetrain worries seems like a good idea. But to pull off the gear box with belt drive, Co-Motion had to rework the order in which things transfer to one another.

On the (rider’s) left side of the bike is the timing belt, keeping both riders pedaling in sync.

On the right is where the magic happens. Both riders’ output is sent to the gear box on the outer belt, which replaces the crank arm in a traditional setup. The inner cog is where it would be normally and is the one that sends power to the back wheel. It’s all controlled up front with a customized twist shifter on the bar.

Co-Motion Steelhead tandem gravel bike

They were also showing off this new Steelhead tandem all-road/gravel bike, which made room for larger WTB tires.

The frame is made with butted Reynolds still tubing and can be ordered in custom geometry and sizing, with your choice of a traditional welded construction or this fillet brazed version for a slight upcharge. The carbon fork is new, too, offering wider clearance and boost axle spacing. Check them out a Co-Motion.com.

CINQ drops new shifters for internal geared boxes, hubs

One of the issues with Pinion’s internal gear boxes is the shifters…they need to have dual cable routing to work well (with many models, but not all). One cable pulls in each direction, moving things where they need to be. Which means you end up with oversized single-unit shifters like what’s shown on the Co-Motion bikes.

Cinq has been working on a solution to make the shifters more ergonomic and familiar, and now they’re ready to launch with both drop bar and flat bar versions. The kits are on Kickstarter now, here’s the video:

Two models will be available, the Shift:R Road uses drop bar levers with integrated hydraulic brake master cylinders and lines from TRP, and the Shift:R Tour with individual thumb shifter paddles. Both will replace part of the mechanism on the Pinion gear box with a Cinq attachment to make it all work.

The Pinion flat bar shifters will look like these, which are their version for Rohloff internally geared hubs. So, even if you don’t run the gear box, you’ve got options for better shifters. Check them out at cinq.de.

The post NAHBS 2019: Co-Motion makes first-ever belted gearbox tandem; Cinq improves the shifting appeared first on Bikerumor.

Welcome to our third installment of NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019, our analysis of the North America Handmade Bicycle Show. In this episode, we look at fashion, be that the brands everyone was wearing, anodized bits, and trends in color.

Let’s jump on in!

What everyone wearing this year at NAHBS?

We kick off our coverage with a showing of popular brands with builders. I will mention here that with Paragon Machine Works, I focused on dropouts and brake mounts – not cable guides or little parts. The Silca category is for painted or styled-to-match pumps. I included Raketa because they are a new-comer brand showing promise in the track segment. I did not include ENVE or Cane Creek, though I really should have. This was a lapse on my part.

“Custom cockpit” refers to custom stem/handlebar combinations. “Custom Stem” refers to, well, custom stems, etc.

For those folks about to ask: a handful of those dropper posts were on gravel category bikes, the others were on mountain bikes.

I took a shot at pulling color samples from each frameset examined and created this graphic showing primary and secondary colors. I did not include bikes with primarily raw finishes in this depiction because, well, I did not come in with a good plan for describing these bikes (I have one now moving forward).

How? I tested a series of apps that gather hex codes based off of your phone screen, found one that worked reliably with a white reference, and I used that to take samples from several areas on the bike – trying to stay as consistent as possible. Is this an ideal way of doing this? Nah. Does it give a picture of relative colors for the event? Sure.

To my color friends (Brad, I feel you crinkling again) I apologize in advance. NAHBS venues are often lit like after-hours big box stores.

For my raw bike friends, a few stats: I counted thirteen bikes utilizing colored anodization on titanium surfaces. I also counted five titanium bikes using polished details or panels.

I also took some notes regarding color effects. I came in with a list of effects I thought I would run into… and it wasn’t nearly sufficient to describe the fabulous paint jobs I saw. I should also mention here that I missed the whole Squid booth (one of the few builder booths I missed) which skews this a little bit.

The vast majority of bikes observed had a black paint or ano component build. Silver, of course, was in second place. Here is the spread for other colors observed.

Last but not least: touch points. The vast majority of bikes featured black tape or grips and saddles… while I have no data on this, ten years ago we were swimming in white and color. Tan and brown touch points came in third.

Stay tuned! We will be discussing how bikes from different regions are different. And steel nerds will get some fun stats on construction in the coming days.

This will all culminate in a special BikeRumor NAHBS Exclusive piece inspired by builder and data nerd, Eric Baar of Ground Up Speed Shop: Awards for Averages.

If you want to read or re-read pieces in NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019 so far:

Part 1: NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: The Overalls

Part 2: NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Summaries by Discipline

Part 4: NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Regional Themes, Steel Construction

The post NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Fashion and Style appeared first on Bikerumor.

In the first installment of NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019, we took a high level look at a set of data gathered from bicycles at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show this year. Today, we break down that data by discipline to take a closer look at the three most popular types of bikes at the event and paint an informationally descriptive picture of what these bikes were.

Buckle your seatbelts, nerds, it’s about to get informational. 

You may remember this little fella from the first installment. Gravel/All-Road bikes were the most commonly documented in this analysis at 96 bikes, with Road and Mountain trailing behind at 73 and 52 bikes each, respectively. For the sake of this piece, I chose to focus on these three popular categories.

For full effect, I created a summary of the overall data here for individual category comparison.

Remember when I talked about personal biases yesterday? No? Okay. So.

Everyone has their personal area of high-fidelity in bikes – a focus area where they have great personal interest, awareness, and understanding. Sometimes that’s within a genre of bike, a material, a form of racing, a tire size, styling, or a point in time where your favorite flavor of bike existed and thrived (I see you out there, “Golden Era” roadies).

The easy trap to fall into is to live within that focus area and compare and/or dismiss categories beyond your personal scope. This bias can become harmful or detrimental to a product category when those sentiments are held by folks making product decisions on larger scales. I’ve worked with product managers who, for example, didn’t understand road, who were coming at road product from a heavily biased off-road personal focus area, and who then tried to bend road product designed for road riders to their personal preference and will. The result? A product and spec that resonated with the product manager but one that didn’t resonate with the customer they served.

But at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, there are no product managers – only individual customers. Each bicycle represents a set of personal preferences, rather than the preferences or assumptions of someone making bikes for the masses. These are the road, gravel/all-road, and mountain bikes that customers specifically wanted.

So check into those biases you have for a moment… long enough to be aware of them so you can to tune them way out. Peruse the data with a fresh mind and appreciate each discipline as a snapshot.

In the world of road (from the 73 bikes documented), quick releases and center hole-mount, cable actuated brakes were alive. Campagnolo was prominent in drivetrains and dominant in brakes.

Also fun to note, carbon was a more popular frame material than titanium in this category thanks to brands like FiftyOne, Montenegro, Exept, and Pursuit kicking out the skinny carbon jams.

It’s when you compare road and gravel that you really start to see how profoundly different these two disciplines are from one another.

To reiterate, I drew the distinction between road and gravel/all-road at mixed surface use intent. While it seemed like a difficult line to draw at the outset of the event, after attending the show and looking at this data – it’s clear that that these two categories of bikes are very different animals.

Disc brakes are overwhelmingly popular in this segment, with flat mount brake interfaces being the frame builder’s weapon of choice. Hydraulic brakes and thru axles are also dominant in this arena.

Last but not least, we have the mountain bike data (from 52 bikes). Hydraulic disc brakes, thru axles, and cable actuated drivetrains were dominant… and I.S. tabs were the most popular standard for fitting brakes up (with post mount interfaces coming in second).

No, that isn’t an error, there were several mountain bikes with flat mount interfaces on the frame – that fit to post mount adapters. Brands who did this, like Seven Cycles, had a great flat mount solution (and probably a solid process around building with that solution) they were using in other product categories.

Titanium was a close second to steel in this discipline – though we will explore more of the potential reasons why in an upcoming installment.

Stay tuned, kids.

Like what you’re reading? Check out other pieces in NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019:

Part 1: NAHBS by the NUMBER 2019: The Overalls

Part 3: NAHBS by the Numbers 2019: Fashion and Style

Part 4: NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Regional Themes, Steel Construction

The post NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Summaries by Discipline appeared first on Bikerumor.

This year, Toronto-based specialty shop Blacksmith Cycle upped their presence at NAHBS by bringing three of their clients along to their booth. Not only are they one of the few shops in North America that actually stock a wide range of extremely high end brands, but they crank out the custom jobs for customers throughout the U.S. and Canada. If you’re ever passing through Toronto, look ’em up. While they represent quite a few other builders present at NAHBS, too, their booth featured recent works from Cherubim, Deanima and Low Cycles.

Cherubim has always brought showstoppers, and this year’s concept build is called Airline.

The idea is simple: Showcase what they can do to turn steel into something much more than a round tube, double triangle frame. The shaping is simply incredible, and it’s designed around modern components like the new ENVE aero carbon stem, Zipp aero handlebars…

…and the new 1×12 SRAM Red AXS group.

The flat mount brakes get their own little shelf – a much more elegant solution than using a spacer to make up the gap created by a dropped chainstay.

Their entry into the Campagnolo build contest was a stainless steel road bike with much more traditional shapes…which is the bread and butter of what they build for customers.

Lugged and brazed frames make up the bulk of their work, and despite what their concept bikes might suggest, they do start at fairly reasonable prices.

A full custom steel disc brake road frameset starts around $2,450, plus paint. Like everything at NAHBS, it can go way, way up from there. Head over to Cherubim.jp for more.

Deanima modernizes the classic steel road bike

Last year we saw the new carbon gravel bike from Deanima, the brand from the other Pegoretti brother, Gianni. This year, they brought out two new steel bikes: The all-new O.Q.O.C. shown above, and a disc brake version of the DeFer. The O.Q.O.C. is a 1,350g steel frame that’s all about going forward fast. It’s classic in every sense, from tube sizes and selection, to the standards it’s using. If you’ve been wanting to keep it classic but update your frame, pay attention.

Built with TIG welded Deda Zero steel tubes, it gets a standard BSA bottom bracket with external routing for everything.

Dropouts are stainless steel, and the only real nod toward modernity is the full carbon fork. Well, that and compatibility with all modern 11- and 12-speed road groups…just not the disc brake versions.

The claimed weight is for a size 56, unpainted, which puts it among the lightest steel frames on the market…and close to titanium in many cases.

The DeFer is now offered in a disc brake version, check out last year’s coverage to see what makes this steel frame so special.

Another highlight of Deanima’s output is their paint, all done in house by Gianni. Each one is unique when you go custom, and here are just a few examples…

See more and get pricing and delivery times at Deanima.it.

Low Cycles finally finishes their gravel bike

The Low MKiii Gravel Road is a project he’s been working on for almost 3 years, and it’s morphed from a sort-of cyclocross geometry into a more modern, open road gravel bike. The category has settled on lower, more road bike like bottom bracket heights, and more tire clearance, so that’s where this one landed.

It’s designed around 700×42 or 650Bx48 tires.

The frame can run 1x or 2x, and this model gets a normal oval chainstay to maximize tire clearance, as opposed to the flattened stays of the MKii disc road bike. But he made the seatstays a little thinner and flatter to add back some compliance.

His welding skills keep getting better…he says the finished weld is about 90% as smooth as what you see on the finished product, requiring only a little filing to make them just about disappear.

Frame weights are around 1350g, and the powder coat adds about 25-30 grams. They offer even sizes, plus “odd” sizes that keep the same reach but with a slightly taller head tube. They can do custom, but mostly do set sizing.

All of his models are constantly evolving. Downtubes on all the bikes are getting more shaped, with a bit of ovalization at the head tube.

These bikes would be about $9,200, completes start at $5,000 with Ultegra. Disc brake frames start at $2,599. Check ’em out at LowBicycles.com.

The post NAHBS 2019: Modern steel & aluminum by Deanima, Cherubim & Low Cycles appeared first on Bikerumor.

Every year, coverage of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is dominated by beautiful photography of show-stoppers and observational commentary. While that’s great for folks who love flipping through galleries, for me it’s an opportunity to go deeper.

So this year, rather than walk the show with the purpose of telling individual customer and builder stories as I typically love to do, I set out to answer a question:

What is the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in 2019?

To answer this question I designed a meaningful and attainable data set given the show environment, a system with which to capture the data, and then I hit the show floor with the goal of documenting every complete bike at the show.

Why?!

Why would one elect to spend all of NAHBS moving bike to bike like a frowny hummingbird, isolated from the world with headphones and a killer playlist, taking furious notes rather than engaging with the many fascinating personalities at the event? The builders are the best part!

A few reasons.

While a data profile on a single bike isn’t as romantic as, say, a good origin story or a knock out photo (Tyler’s ongoing coverage handled that), a collection of data profiles from a show can tell all sorts of interesting stories. Series of collections can show you trends through time and space, because once you’ve created a data set, you can compare it against others (in this case, we’ll be able track NAHBS from year to year, or compare NAHBS to other handmade bicycle shows internationally).

But this information isn’t just interesting for enthusiasts within the independent segment of the cycling industry – it is incredibly helpful for anticipating future trends in mainstream industry.

The independent frame builder community is able to exist and thrive because it meets needs of consumers that aren’t being met by the mainstream cycling industry, whether those needs are around styling, technology, fit, purpose, materiality, etc. Folks will pay more, wait longer, and be happily inconvenienced for product from independent frame builders because they address these unmet needs. The North American Handmade Bicycle Show is the biggest exhibition of this unique needs-meeting product in the world.

As a result, NAHBS is a popular event for members of product departments of the mainstream cycling industry, who walk the show and openly take pictures and notes – and themes in product solutions from a given NAHBS are often echoed in more mainstream product a year or so down the line. You can also watch as new segments seem to hatch within the independent builder community, are refined and developed there, and then, when proven viable, are adopted and pulled through to mainstream industry product lines. Fat bikes and gravel bikes are notable recent segments to have developed in this way.

But outside of wanting to observe trends over time and to see into the future, I wanted to test my own preconceived notions of what the event actually is. Because there are so many exceptional machines and gifted marketing and public relations consultancies vying for attention at the event, it is very easy to miss most of the show for a few exciting bicycles.

Process

If you’re not into this stuff, I won’t be offended if you skip ahead. I just want to make sure folks know where I’m coming from before we dig in.

As I wanted to cover as much of the show as possible, and because no one could give me a real number as far as how many bikes were actually at the show (I was quoted 220 complete bicycles, tops… I estimate that that number was closer to 330 this year), I kept the data set pretty modest in scale and prioritized complete bicycles by established builders displayed in those builders’ booths (rather than in component company booths). Sorry, new builders, I’ll catch you next time.

While there was a temptation to gather all the data so that I could swim around in a pool of it after the event like Scrooge McDuck, I had to make some tough decisions. What’s interesting to me isn’t necessarily interesting to anyone else (example: I talk about steel chainstay evolution at parties – ask my very bored friends). I prioritized data that is meaningful for a wide range of readers, that comprehensively translates across genres and materiality.

Also, knowing that I could move quickest if I could keep questions to the builder to a minimum (because builders are usually busy talking to show attendees at these events), I designed the data to be able to be captured by “expert” observation alone. Though I managed to get my data entry time for a single bike under two minutes, I ended up spending more time both out of interest of the bikes and because taking data at a sprint is mentally taxing and unsustainable, as it turns out.

In all, I was able to document a total of 265 bicycles. I can say without question that I saw more of the show this year than anyone else – and it was the hardest NAHBS I’ve ever had. But boy howdy, did I learn a lot… and I am so stoked to show you all what I see.

“The Overalls”

For best results, pause a moment to meditate on your pre-conceived notions of this event, either from your personal experience or from what you’ve gleaned from existing coverage. What standards are prominent? What types of bikes are dominant? What materials are most common? What is a typical NAHBS bike in your mind?

Do you have the idea in your head? Good.

In this first installment of NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019, I’ll introduce the high-level data and its context so you can have an understanding of what it is for when we dig deeper into trends on use case, technology, styling, etc. in future days.

Primary frame material refers to the main material of each frame. In cases of multi-materiality, the main material of the front triangle was documented.

Primary discipline relies on NAHBS event terminology for classification. The line between Road and Gravel/All-Road was determined by whether or not a road bike was designed with intent for mixed surface usage.

Interesting notes on this graph: since the Gravel/All-Road-specific segment has grown in prominence, cyclocross-specific bikes at the event have dropped. This could be partially due to the technological advances within gravel-specific tires and components that addressed the use case of gravel more effectively than cyclocross bikes (which were common at gravel events five to ten year ago)… and partially due to the fact that builders often bring recently built bikes. Gravel season is just about to jump off and bikes for cyclocross season won’t start for months.

Tire standards are all over the place. If I were doing this the way I wanted to, I’d be measuring tires and rims, documenting both specifications, and talking about tire/rim system trends. But this wasn’t a tire and rim project and time was limited. Again, compromises were made.

To expedite record-taking of tire widths on the show floor, data such as tires sizes were divided among size ranges aligned with riding use case. I used ‘C’ designations rather than millimeter on the road tires (sorry, Brad, I can actually feeling you crinkling up like a can reading this); when tire tags are all consistent, I will be as well.

Also, yes, I am aware that there is overlap between 48C-60C and the 2.0in-2.35in tires. This was done intentionally, after several days of debate among expert friends, to reflect how the tire was labeled by the tire company as well as the purpose of the tire.

The big surprise for me was that there were more 23mm and under tire bikes than there were 4.5in+ fat bikes. Just saying. Fat bikes were pretty rare on the show floor.

As far as wheel sizes, the surprises were in the small end. There were two mini-fat bikes in attendance in 20in, at Hunter Cycles and Dear Susan.

For this portion, I wanted to focus on the standards of frame-brake interfaces themselves, rather than the standard of the brake installed. It’s from this chunk of data that you can determine that disc brakes appeared on 76% of bikes examined from the event.

Thru axles appeared on 64% of the frames examined – and felt like an invasive species if your terminal axle technology is the quick release, which made up a measly 28% of documented bikes.

A delightful surprise both at the event and in the data is the strong presence of proper, no brake, competition track bikes thanks to a recent surge in popularity in both velodrome track and high-profile fixie crits.

Because who doesn’t love seeing a brand split? It should be said that The Other category of Brand, Braking Mechanism consists primarily of Magura calipers, and one set of Promax brakes.

Hydraulic brakes surpassed mechanical brakes, 58% to 36% – this is definitely a case where I would have loved to see the numbers from the last five or so shows and how this particular technology has evolved.

Last but not least: changing gear. As in brakes, Shimano is dominant in this arena making up nearly 39% of shifting mechanisms counted.

Electric wireless or by wire systems came in at 34% of bikes examined, with cable actuated systems making up 54% of bikes counted.

Having Said All This – A Disclaimer

It’s important to say at this point that the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is a very different show from year to year due to location and trends. A show in California, for example, is more physically and financially accessible to west coast builders than it is to, say, builders in the upper midwest or east coast (and we’ll get into regional trends more later). As a result, data acquired this show is heavily influenced by geography, local infrastructure and frame building lineage, and use case emphasis.

Also, NAHBS features very different bikes and trends than shows such as the Philadelphia Bike Expo or Bespoked on any given year.

So while this is the largest exhibition of independent frame builders on the planet, it is far from representative of the whole of this segment. Be conscious of that as you read forward.

With that out of the way: I can’t wait to show you how this all breaks down in the coming posts. This is the kind of thing I’d love to read and see, so I really hope you enjoy it.

Part 2: NAHBS by the NUMBERS: Summaries by Discipline

Part 3: NAHBS by the NUMBERS: Fashion and Style

Part 4: NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Regional Themes, Steel Construction

The post NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: The Overalls appeared first on Bikerumor.