North American Handmade Bicycles Show (NAHBS)2013

thought i'd do a thread about the Nahbs visit, wasn't sure where to put it so i figured it was best to stick it in G+OT as it's modern but retro, sort of a 'meet'.

so after leaving home at 6.30am, drove to Heathrow, flight left at 12.30pm, landed 9 1/2 hours later at 3pm! time change is always weird. shouldn't be an issue though as working weird shifts at work means i'm sort of used to being out of sync time wise, besides being out of place and time is retro isn't it?

anyway, got a transfer from the airport to the Crowne Plaza in downtown Denver which is the shows recommended hotel, haven't seen any bikers yet (you can usually spot them even in normal clothes). the driver was happy squinting through a snowed up misty and dirty windscreen (windshield for the Americans!) i think he was using the Force to guide the bus!

checked facebook and have seen a post by Rody:-


Well folks, after battling our way through the "storm of the decade", as it's being called on the news, for more than 25 hours of driving, we have landed safely in Downtown Denver. Passed more than 12 cars on their roofs, countless vehicles spun out and mashed off the road, drove at 15 mph in whiteout conditions for more than an hour, and had more than our share of exclaiming "holy crap, where is the road???" Once here, the downtown capital area was closed by police for a standoff with shooter from a balcony. All this as I walk around in my Birkenstocks, maybe shoulda brought some footwear that covers my toes. A bike show in the middle of February in Colorado? Don, next year, I vote for Hawaii.

---

that made me laugh, i missed the stand off though, while i'm here i fully expect to see a police chase (like the one at the end of Blues Brothers in Chicago would be cool, aswel as a proper cowboy style bar fight (to watch though, not take part as i'm too pretty to risk being scarred by a right hook to the mug!)

the hotel kindly left me some reading material but i prefer to read about Wiggo than some imaginary geezer from 2000 years ago.

P1090857 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

and here's the view from the hotel window on the 18th floor, the weird yellow bit is a reflection of the lamp in the window by the way

P1090856 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

just occurred to me, any of the US members gonna be here?

Just chatting in the bar with a few people, the I70 has been closed due to major weather storm and the guy I was talking to (no idea who but must be a builder ) says his bikes are still stuck in Kansas City!

Also just met one of the organisers and he's seen my Demon, how cool is that?!

I'll be watching this thread with interest, to see if any exhibitors actually manage to make it.

I'm going to wait for Bespoke Bristol, as it should be just a little bit easier to get to.

BTW, I like the idea of a balcony shoot out in freezing conditions. If the Police could have locked the guy out on the balcony, they wouldn't have had to wait long for him to give up.

just saw the story on the news, suicidal nutcase pissed off working for the IRS just started randomly shooting off his balcony! and then nearly every other story was about shootings or murders with the exception of a helicopter crash in Oklahoma that killed 2 people, other than that it was snow related news, quite depressing really but some how they tell the news in a positive way, must be the accent!

anyway, just going down for breakfast (it's 8am) the show starts at 11am today, the first 2 hours is for the builders/media only.

i've got my gopro so i'm gonna try and film some stuff so i may do a video at somepoint.

Lucky man!
Keep us updated for sure, will be interesting to see how much impact the weather has.
I have seen a few updates from Rody on his journey
Take care

Jamie

sweet, take lots of pics, snips i have seen on fb already look good.

so while i'm waiting for the pics to upload to Flikr i thought i'd give you my view of the show.

first word that comes to mind is AWESOME! :shock:

the bikes on display are truly epic. by comparison with the UK shows it's just amazing really. when i go to a UK show i get a bored and a bit pissed off with seeing only the basic or generic stuff so out of 200 stands i may only be interested in 20, here there are 200 stands and i'm interested in 190, and that is the difference.

there were loads of small niche brands that i had never heard of as well as the established guys like Indy Fab etc.

things that stood out to me (generally) were that fat bikes and 650c bikes were prominant, they were everywhere, internal cable routing was on many designs aswel, i think this is because of electronic gears, people hide the wires so why not hide normal cables aswel? makes sense really.

one specific thing that stood out to me more than anything was the quality of the paint finishes, i commented on this to Tom Warmerdam of Demon Frameworks and he agreed saying he thinks they are 8-10 years further along than we are in the UK, i think it's because it's common place in the US to customise stuff where as in the UK it's just not normal to do so in the same way. hopefully the pictures will show what i mean.

today i spent a good while wandering around the show, 7 hours i think! i'd find it hard to pic out something that i thought individually was the show stopper as such but the one bike i can't get out of my head was the 'Ogre', a titanium road bike monstrosity! it was so ugly but at the same time i couldn't stop looking at it! part monocoque titanium and part lattice work, weird and cool but ugly aswel.

Demon Frameworks, as you'd expect i went to see Tom, i knew he was behind building a bike for Nahbs when i went to see him 2 weeks ago and when i saw him he said he was still polishing the frame (unbuilt into a bike at that point) last night! so he really cut that fine! his bike was a 953 tubed frame with a hermes lug (like on my Demon) running campagnolo super record with Royce hubs, this is Tom's bike kit of choice.

i also met Rody from Groovy, what a cool guy! he told me a story about a certain member on here who nearly killed himself in Moab (where i'm off to on sunday!). his bikes are really cool, one thing i specifically like is he doesn't just stick to one design, there are several choices, not to mention he is one of the very few builders who builds and paints his frames, not many people do that at all. his Zombie bike was epic, and i love the details, again you'll see in the pictures.

what i'll do now is upload a couple of pictures but if you click on one it should take you to my flikr photostream, that way you can see the pics there, there are around 160 i think!

P1090992 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

anyone recognise this guy?

P1090930 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

Groovy Zombie attack!

P1090924 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

Moots carrying beer and a chainsaw? that can't be a good combo!

P1090919 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

had to find retro somewhere! this was spectrum, can't remember their full name

P1090914 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

thought this guy was interesting, japanese, campagnolo specific B/B designed to take the campag bearings directly so no cups to go in the frame just the bearings so gives a very neat look, also behind the B/B mounted brake aswel as a very cool looking heaset/stem arrangement. Cherubim cycles.

P1090905 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

forgot the ogre!! ugliest bike ever? or mad max futuristic weapon?

P1090997 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

P1090996 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

P1090995 by Dr. Branom, on Flickr

one other thing has just occurred to me is about titanium. bloody hell it's dull!

every builder who is using it seems to me to have built something the same as each other, they all look the same, primarily because the finish is the same or similar, but also if it's a full suspension they all seem to be using the flex plate instead of a pivot design, i must have seen atleast 4 brands doing this. i understand that it is a benefit of titanium that you can do this but at the same time it seems like these builders that use this as part of their design just aren't trying anything new.

i will try and get some more pics tomorrow aswel as a little video, pretty knackered to be honest, also tomorrow night there is a 'swag give-away' between 6-7pm so i'm gonna try and blag some stuff, already got a few t shirts for good measure!!