NAHBS Day 1

NAHBS is ON. I tell ya, these days, I get more excited for NAHBS than I do Interbike. The trouble is, it’s gotten so big that it really is hard to make it around to everyone. Above is a fillet-brazed BB on a bike by Dave Kirk. This is going to be a short post because my allegedly fast Internet connection is not. And it’s making me crazy. Also, show organizer Don Walker tapped me to join his crew of judges for the awards panel. It’s taking more time than I expected but it has made reviewing the bikes a bit easier because we stand in one spot and the bikes under consideration come to us.

This seat lug is from a randonnee bike by Steve Rex. I’m really not into the randonnee thing, but the craftsmanship on this bike, as exemplified by this half-lug was outstanding.

This Cherubim was one of the more amazing bikes I’ve seen so far. But now I have to get to the judging.Trust me, once I’m back home with a better Interweb connection, there will be a much longer post.

NAHBS Highlights

By now you’ve seen plenty of images from this past weekend’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show. There were some very deserving award winners. In the interest of not contributing to overkill we wanted to include a few shots from bikes that really caught our eye and maybe didn’t get much airtime.

This lugged carbon and steel (correction: titanium) creation from Alchemy featured rounded points on the lugs to prevent stress risers from occurring at the ends of the points that could damage the carbon tubes.

Hetchins lug work, even after all these years, is still a marvel to look at. 

Herbie Helm is relatively unknown, but this wishbone seatstay cluster with rack mount, cable guide and hand cut lugs was one of our faves.

While many builders are going minimal with downtube cable guides, Helm’s were unusual for their prominence and beauty.

One of Sacha White’s great talents as a builder is his vision of bikes the have both a beautiful aesthetic and unsurpassed functionality.

Bikes aimed at the randonneur crowd continue to increase in both popularity and prominence. This gorgeous rack, fender and fork design is by Tom Kellogg at Spectrum.

Richie Moore is an alum of Litespeed and he shares the Tennessee company’s penchant for tubing with interesting shapes. His new venture is called Cysco, after his home town of Cisco, Georgia.

Special thanks to special correspondent Touriste-Routier for the images.