Darth Lefty 

Today I attended the National Handbuilt Bike Show in the Sac convention center. I'm not a connoisseur but rather an engineer, probably more interested in how stuff works than aesthetics, so if you want a complete set of photos of all the customs, this is probably not your thread! This is just what caught my eye to get me to take a photo.

The first thing you see walking into the entrance is a small Shimano display of an M9000 crankset and a mid-drive electric assist. The crank was sectioned to show its hollowness, I told the rep it was half the weight of any crankset I'd seen before... I guess I knew it wasn't that funny. The next thing that catches your eye is the Steve Rex display. This frame has a little something for everyone:

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

California brands were well represented. I got to meet BF member @LelandJT at the Santana booth, where they were showing off this prototype fatbike:

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

Paragon components. Clearly they make dropouts. They also wear pink Chucks. The guy who was about to talk to me was suddenly distracted by the cute girl in the next booth, though.

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

Calfee had two booths, one for their main business and this one for their DIY bamboo kit

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A couple of neato cargo rigs from Frances bikes, a Tourist/Cross with a Farfahrer trailer in matching color, and a Smallhaul with cable steering:

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

I was keeping an eye out for kid bikes, there weren't a lot. This guy (Sycip) made customs for his own kids, and it was fun to see lived-in bikes at the show:

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

This custom balance bike had premium dropouts and hubs and other stuff, but once again I failed to get the name of the company into the photo:

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

This is not a custom balance bike but it might be the only one I've ever seen with a rack on it:

Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

Darth Lefty 

Component companies were well represented. Shimano and Campy are both event sponsors. SRAM was there, TRP, the Paul/King/Phil trifecta.


Two photos from the Campy booth, which was large but mostly consisted of cool old bikes, not components.


Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr


They had one with the earlier type of RD with the lever on the seat stay, which was said to be the ride of a teammate of Coppi, and a cool 80's bike with Super Record bits and Euclid? cantis; and this Lemond bike


Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr


Blingy Honjo fenders


Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr


And finally, this Sarto custom stood out to my eye:


Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

Some decals and brochures and business cards:
Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

JonathanGennick 

Fun photos! So fun to see what's going on. Thanks for making the time to post them.

Slash5

Very cool - love the PVC pipe frame jig.

thin_concrete

Mentions cute girl in the next booth, but doesn't post pictures of said girl...

Great pictures though - seems like it was a cool event. Thanks for posting!

Darth Lefty 

It wasn't that kind of show. Try Jalopnik.

indyfabz

Was Engin there? He won't best MTB twice in the last decade or so.

This is what he built for me last year:

Darth Lefty 

pretty much everyone you could think of was there, it sort of ran together after a little while. Nice bike!

Viich

Any sign of Altruiste Bicycle? They're from almost as far as you can get from California and still be in North America, my home area. I know he was there last year and were well regarded. I'm still trying to talkmyself into buying a LeCorbo frame.

Darth Lefty 

Engin and Altruiste are neither on the exhibitor list

Homebrew01

Thanks for the pics.

ironwood

The first cargo bike is a Frances Smallhaul. BQ reviewed one a few years ago.

Darth Lefty 

Edited. Thanks!

fietsbob

Any more Pix?

Other peoples flicker posts .. I got off i-BOB google .. group.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/636115...57664488250809

https://www.flickr.com/photos/254518...58411731/page2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/254518...17912409/page1

Wildwood 

The red/yellow/blue Lemond was produced by Craig Calfee - a product from a brief business relationship.

Darth Lefty 

That was all I had, but I'm sure there will be zillions more from other people. There's a thread in the C&V forum too

canklecat

You may have misspelled "awesome iPhone photos". Those look great. Every time I see a bamboo bike I wish I had a garage with room for such a novelty, just because.

Darth Lefty 

There were several other people selling them. Some had more finish to the bamboo than others... just like bamboo furniture, the stuff can be sanded. There was one that the sanding was so smooth and the stain so dark that at first I thought it was a really weird carbon fiber uni until I saw the bamboo joint in the middle. The most professional-looking were these https://boobicycles.com/

LelandJT

I'm gonna buy the doggie Dutch cargo bike in the photo. My 9 year old Aussie shepherd is ready for it. The Sarto track bike and single sided English MTB were my favorites. It was fun to meet posters from this and other forums. WAY better than Interbike!

Darth Lefty 

I forgot about the study... a few survey threads started this morning reminded me of it.

A college kid came up to me with a clipboard and asked me if I'd like five bucks for doing a little experiment. He said he was from Stanford. He had a sheet of paper with maybe twenty bike words all over it. Most of them were components (wheels, brakes, handlebars), some of them were materials like steel. He asked me first to draw arrows between parts that might be connected to one another, then in the second phase he asked me to draw circles around parts that came in groups (like wheels, tires, hubs). Then he gave me the stickiest most crumpled $5 bill ever. It all took about three minutes, I guess.

It seemed authentic, no one went for my wallet while I was distracted, or if they did they realized it was empty and put it back. No one jumped out from behind a bike with a video camera to tell me I was on Candid Punk'd

PatrickGSR94

dang I reallllllly want NAHBS to come to Memphis one year. I really want to go to a show but don't want to spend the bucks on travel and lodging and food, etc.

blakcloud

If possible you should go to at least one show in your lifetime. It is interesting to see how the show has been evolving as it gets bigger and bigger. Lots of nice bikes this year, with my favorite being a single speed by Philosophy Bikes. Though I am typically a lug guy this bike had the nicest filets and finish work. Then again Steve Rex had some pretty nice bikes also.

Next year it is being held in Salt Lake City for those who want to plan early.