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Chris Bishop‘s 2012 raw track bike returned for 2013 with a fresh coat of paint and a new, Italian component group. The razor sharp blue wet paint was supplied by Fresh Frame. The vintage Cinelli and Campagnolo components were drilled, shaped and milled by Drillium Revival. Bottom line is, this bike has sass and class (you either love or hate that tag line, don’t you?).
Little details like the etched Bishop logo on the fork crown and chainstays make this build for me…
This year, like before, I’ll be working hard and partying harder at the 2013 NAHBS. I’ll do my best to bring you the bikes with the most class and sass as well as something a little different. I’ll have Flag Hatchet stickers on me, as well as passes to the Outside is Free party, so come track me down. Bourbon sips are appreciated!
If you want some eye candy from last year, check out the 2012 NAHBS archives!
Nao from Tomii Cycles won’t be at NAHBS this year but that doesn’t mean his work isn’t worthy of the show. His Flickr has been exploding with great photos of even the simplest things like fork ends. Check out more photos at the Tomii Flickr.
Custom, bent titanium chain guard for a titanium singlespeed porteur? That sounds like a show bike if you ask me. Surely, Firefly will be there, right? Nope. Not going to NAHBS. But that’s because they deliver everything from the elegant, modern road to quirky customer requests and document each one like it is a show bike. While the gang won’t be at NAHBS this year, they are moving into new digs in March. Best of luck guys!
If you carve it, they will come (for orders). JP Weigle is a master at what he does. His 650B randonneur conversions and his own frames rival even the top vintage French framebuilders. If he can carve something, he will. It doesn’t matter if it’s his own con denti pedals, or drillium dropout faces, the man will find some way to leave his mark on metal. Like many builders today, JP Weigle documents his work on his Flickr.
I don’t know what sparked this post, I guess I just wanted to make a point that not every framebuilder can make it out to NAHBS but that doesn’t mean they’re not capable of producing show-quality work.
Here’s the official NAHBS Framebuilder Party flier for this year’s event. Like I said, there are a bunch of parties happening Saturday but this one’s for the exhibitors, VIPs and media, at the Colorado Convention Center.
Another related note is the radness that’s been going on in the Velocipede Salon’s Thursday Night Lights thread. Definitely check that out. I wish I had more free time to poke around that forum more often…
Here come the parties!
“Are you going to be in Denver for NAHBS this coming weekend? If not you should book your tickets, hop a train, rent a car, hire a mule, ride a bike, or just start running because we going to have great booth with all of our newest Chris King and Cielo offerings on display at the convention center. As if that wasn’t enough we would like to invite you to an amazing party that we are throwing Friday evening at Salvagetti’s Annex where chef extraodinaire Chris DiMinno from Portland’s renowned restaurant Clyde Common will be serving a delectable array of sliders, New Belgium will be providing an array of intoxicating suds, and all of our pals will be talking shop, telling stories, and having a good laugh.”
I wonder where you’ll be able to scoop these up? I’m pretty sure I can fit a mini bottle of bourbon in that or at least a T4…
There’s going to be a lot of parties going on Saturday night during NAHBS weekend in Denver but this is the one I’ll be attending. Brian Vernor, Jeremy Dunn, Chris McNally, Dustin Klein and I compiled some photographs and art to display under the theme “Outside is Free”. The show will be at Pearl Velo & Avery County Cycles. We’ll be selling prints, zines and there will be bourbon to be consumed. I’ll try to bring some Texas warmth with me!
The only catch is, there’s a pesky fire permit involved, so at most, 300 people are allowed. If you’re interested in attending, find one of the exhibitors, Tyler from Pearl Velo, or Josh from Avery County Cycles at NAHBS for a free invite.
Get there early, because I’ll probably be wasted at 7:15. Serioulsy.
Look, I had ambitions of stealing this bike, holding it for randsom and riding the shit out of it when I first saw it at NAHBS. Tony Pereira makes amazing frames and this award-winning NAHBS singlespeed 29’r MTB had everyone drooling. Check out more at the Pereira Flickr.
Tracko paid me thousands of dollars to shoot photos of the Tanner Goods “bike line” at the Ira Ryan booth during the 2012 NAHBS. When he texted me my contract to submit photos, I didn’t think it was that Tanner. I’ve got a belt and a wallet from them, both are top-notch. We’ve already seen the Ned Ludd cargo bike, sporting a few of these products, but Tracko’s got the EXCLUSIVE on the rest of the line. Head over to check the rest out.
I just wanted to add that I think cycling-related overlap with solid companies is a good thing, especially from Portland. If these bike accessories are anything like their wallets, they’ll be a worthy investment. Stay tuned.
Where do I even begin with this bike? At the 2011 NAHBS, I spent the afternoon with Chris Bishop, after all the madness of the show had subsided. We rode around Austin, soaked up the sun, got lunch and chatted bikes. That’s when he asked if I would want to have a road bike in the 2012 NAHBS. Of course I wanted a Bishop road bike but I was torn. Since Chris was mostly known for lugged frames, would he want to make a modern, light, fillet frame? Hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted to be honest.
But first thing’s first. I had to get fit by Chris. After the Philly Bike Expo, I headed to Baltimore with him and Tommy, where I stayed the night and got fit in the morning. We began with what I knew, my Merckx road bike and some standard body dimensions. These became our starting point. From there, we tweaked the fit based on what kind of riding I do. Everything was dialed in on the fit bike: head tube angle, fork rake, seat tube angle, etc. Chris asked what I liked and what I didn’t like.
After some back and forth, we had a geometry and finally, a tubing selection: the downtube and chain stays are Columbus Spirit. The head tube is True Temper OX Platinum, Seat tube NOS Columbus MAX, seat stays, top tube are Dedacciai Zero. I wanted the bike as light as possible but not getting into weight weenie status so we went with an ENVE cockpit and a ENVE 1.0 fork, along with an ENVE post, which was made in the States a week before the show! Other tidbits include a Chris King No-Threadset headset and a Fizik Kurve saddle.
Since I love SRAM, a mix of Force and Red was used (not showing the Red Cassette) but I’m most stoked on the wheels. I went with Pewter Chris King R45s laced with Sapim spokes to HED Belgium Rims. Tommy built the wheels with CX Rays up front and Race spokes on the rear. But the frame is what makes the bike. Chris went to town on every single detail here. The cable stops were machined, the replacable, 7075 Paragon drop outs were machined, the pressfit 30 BB shell was hand filed and the fillet construction is pristine. So pristine that it won best fillet construction at the 2012 NAHBS. To top it off, Bryan at Fresh Frame and Tommy concocted one killer paint job, using my logo colors and my love for chevrons as a precedent.
There, enough talking, check out the Gallery by clicking the above photo or click here to open a new tab.
I hate hearing myself talk and seeing myself on video but I’m sure that’s the case with everyone. While at the 2012 NAHBS, I met up with the Flwrider TV crew and they just posted up the video. There’s a few shots of my Bishop road in there and I talk about my plans for 2012. I haven’t seen Brian since 2009 and it was nice to catch up.
Thanks guys!
I don’t usually shoot bicycles in direct sunlight for a few reasons. One of which is chromatic aberrations, or the silvers blowing out with a magenta outline. This is a real pain, especially on spokes and chrome parts, resulting in having to considerably stop down a nice, fast piece of glass. Shooting in direct sunlight also means you have to plan out the shadow placement and deal with the resulting high-contrast. Diffused light brings out colors and small nuances in the frames and components in an even, predictable way.
While I was shooting the Bishop NAHBS track bike, I tested out some shots in direct light and these are the only two that I ended up liking. The first one is nice because the radial spokes are light and dark, depending on which side they’re laced and the blue nipples really pop out. Something about the curvature of the track drops in the second screamed “don’t trash me!”. Some people prefer direct light, I like to keep it in the shade…
I am beat and tired of NAHBS coverage, as I’m sure you are. This year’s event was lot of fun but still, I need to find a better way of cataloging it. Already, I’ve got new ideas for Denver. While I recover from this coverage, here’s the last group of builders, beginning with Ventus and their polished and engraved modern Campy group. DeSalvo‘s nice road bike, Peacock‘s booth and a few shots from Ellis. I wanted to get more from Ellis but every time I went by, his bikes were being photographed or the booth was swamped!
Nate Meschke and Matt Cardinal are Signal Cycles, a framebuilding company, nestled in Portland. Their booth was filled with all kinds of brightly-colored eye candy, right down to their incredible bike stand, holding a shiny red Di2 road bike. Others included a step-through city bike with racks, a fendered road bike and probably my favorite, a commuter with a Edelux lamp and robin’s egg blue paint.
Chatting with and hanging out with Nate and Matt just solidifies their company for me. It’s easy to support a company when it’s backed by two talented, humble people. Check out more from the 2012 NAHBS Signal Cycles booth below.
This year, more than any other year at NAHBS, I got to talk face to face with the builders and their assistants. I took more time listening to their process and their pains. It’s not easy building bicycles in the States and sometimes, things get a little rough financially.
Earlier this year, Bruce Gordon put out an SOS (shop on stress) and the framebuilding world responded. Now, I’m not saying their shop is slammed, but business picked up and Bruce has some new products on the way. Cantis, toe clips and even a nice, 700c gum wall touring tire, made by Panaracer in Japan. It looks like Bruce Gordon is doing a lot better. His booth’s pride was a carbon road bike with details for days.
The townie and commuting bike contingency was rather large this year. More and more people are ditching their cars for handlebars and Ahearne Cycles showed off a few recent builds. My favorite was the blue townie, complete with bamboo lock box and rotating child seat. It even has foot pegs. Other goodies included his Sheldon Brown flasks and shirts.
DiNucci Cycles‘ bikes included a raw road frame and a classic road bike with Curtis Odom tri-arm sport cranks. Sharing the same booth was Vendetta Cycles, who returned with their ever-so-popular Columbus MAX track bike. This bright green beast had everyone drooling. I always love seeing how people use MAX on track bikes and this bike’s custom pinstriping just takes it over the top!
See all this in the Gallery.
I had the chance to finally meet Matt Cardinal and Nate Meschke, co-owners of the Portland-based Signal Cycles. In their carefully-curated booth, they were selling these handmade posters. Each sheet was stained with Stumptown coffee before they were printed. How Portland is that? Even if you can’t own a Signal Cycles, you can probably afford one of these nice prints. Head to Signal Cycles for more information.
Now, when you look at this Moth Attack track bike, I’m sure the first thing you noticed was the incredibly large head tube. That or the bright-ass paint. Whatever it was that first caught your eye, it’s working. There weren’t a whole lot of performance track machines at the 2012 NAHBS but this bike had enough beef for the whole show. Now all it needs is a BB30 Dura Ace pista spindle. Someone needs to get on that, ASAP. Looking at you Shimano! Check out more in the Gallery below.
Ever since last year’s NAHBS, I’ve been watching Eric at Winter‘s brand grow. I’m not exagerrating when I say that his bi-lam head tubes were some of my favorite details at this year’s show. His Jack Taylor-inspired, Keith Anderson-painted and box-lined touring frame was completely stunning. Other bikes in his booth included a simple, yet elegant road frame, a charcoal and mint track machine with a seat tube cleave and a killer commuter, ready for night rides through the Portland streets. All of which you can see in the below Gallery.
