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NAHBS: Art on wheels
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I came away from my first five hours at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show with more than 350 photos. OK, so only 15 percent of them are usable, but even so, the volume of eye-catching hardware on display is second to none.
Most of the products on display are bicycles from small builders that show unique details, exquisite handwork, and timeless paint schemes. Yet even a multi-million dollar company like SRAM has a clever product to offer this market, which is oriented more toward singlespeeds, retro-styled road bikes and urban fixies.
SRAM
The SRAM booth is uncrowded and shares space with ZIPP Speed Weaponry. The focal points of the display are Richard Sachs’s personal cyclocross bike, still muddied from a ride last week, and a bike on a trainer with the single-chainring HammerSchmidt crankset installed.
However, perhaps most relevant to the crowd on hand is the company’s new hub Torpedo hub. Torpedo is a single-cog, bolt-on rear hub that converts from fixed to freewheeling with eight turns of a small flathead screw. The tiny screw is located on the end of the drive side axle, and permits mid-ride conversion without having to remove the wheel. The drive side axle fixing nut has a hole to allow access to the screw. Four colors are available.
Moots
Everything on display at the Moots space has been previously released to the public, so there are no “hot from the torch” new products. But this in no way detracts from the quietly dignified, understated artisan’s titanium craftwork on offer. Jon Cariveau was on site from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to show the Comooter town bike, a Gristle 96er mountain bike, and a Mootour touring bike with SS couplers.
Gristle has a 29-inch front wheel, and a 26-inch rear wheel. Brought to prominence by Travis Brown and his singlespeed, which Trek later developed into a line of three models, the big front wheel concept has been slow to catch on. However welders and riders at Moots believe that it’s a legitimate platform and have a hardtail, YBB softtail, and will eventually offer a 4-inch travel full suspension.
The Comooter took center stage at the Moots booth. It’s a relatively simple frameset that is loaded to the gills with the best products available for the committed cyclo-commuter. A Campy Chorus carbon crankset turns a single 38-tooth chainring and single cog. That one cog however is mated to a huge Rohloff 14-speed internally geared, disc-braked hub. The disc-compatible front hub is also oversized, because it houses a Schmidt generator, which powers a Schmidt EG front light, with its own custom perch on the stem face plate, and a rack mounted Busch and Muller Droplight XS in the rear. Honjo polished aluminum fenders from Japan keep road spray off the rider. This otherwise high-tech commuter gives a passing nod to the old school with a Brooks saddle.
Shamrock Cycles
Located just five miles from Indianapolis, and in business for the last five years, is Shamrock Cycles. Shamrock showed a range that spanned retro road and single speed cyclo-cross to 650-B rigid mountain bike. A common theme was built to order custom craftsmanship. Each bike had its own placard explaining the genesis and execution of the concept.
Most notable to passers by was the “Belle Fast,” a town bike built by owner Tim O’Donnell for his wife. In a classic pink paint scheme, painted by the builder, it featured a single cog, wood-slat front basket, custom bar/stem combination with brazed-on bell perch, and a leather saddle with antique-look saddlebag.
My favorite in the booth was a rigid, 3x9 geared 650-B mountain bike painted in the colors of a Breckenridge Brewing small batch IPA 6-pack. The drive side chainstay was internally ribbed by hand to protect it from damage by chainsuck. A short head tube and low stack height from a new Chris King InSet helped offset the added rise from the 650-B front wheel and taller fork.
Look for continuing coverage from the NAHBS in Indianapolis, Indiana, throughout the weekend.
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