Online Exclusive: North American Handmade Bike Show 2008

Naked's Award winning "best of show" bike. Seriously, would you ride this bike? Or put it in a gallery? Colin Meagher

Part art show, part science fair, part grassroots rally, the fourth annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show held last weekend in Portland, Oregon celebrated the craftsmanship, ingenuity, and solidarity of the small frame builder community.

With 152 exhibitors and more than 6800 in attendance, the turnout for the show illustrated overwhelming support for custom builders. Crowds swarmed around the eye-catching bikes, taking time to soak up the details and to cast votes for their favorites. One award-winner, Engin, garnered Best Off-Road design for their 29er frame with its custom-crafted lugged stem and seatpost. Fans also rushed the Naked booth to drool over Sam Whittingham’s homage to Portland: a fixie dream bike that claimed two prizes, Best of Show and People’s Choice.

People also flocked to see artistic and engineering marvels that came in smaller packages, like Cane Creek’s 110 Reserve headset, a limited edition Ti masterpiece with wood inlay. Unique touches could be found all over the show. Head badges adorning bikes expressed each builder’s signature style, conveying the builder’s distinctive personality and vision. More subtle embellishments came in pleasantly surprising places, like the etching on the Chris King SteelSet that had been sculpted into a lug on the designer’s new Cielo Cycles frame.

The creativity that produced such aesthetic details could also be seen in such inspired designs as the 650B frames offered by Ventana, Coconino, Sycip, and others and the “Iso Truss” grid structure frames by Arantix and BME. The custom frame builders’ experimentation with exotic material combinations like Ti/carbon, Kevlar/carbon (Arantix), and even bamboo/carbon (BME) gave enthusiasts something else to “geek out” over. The mounting excitement at the show for these and other innovations testified to the crucial role that small frame builders play in pushing the bike industry forward. Sometimes they pull mainstream builders along in their draft, and sometimes they end up waiting around for them to get on board.

Although it took a while for the industry to get behind the 29er, the bike popped up everywhere at NAHBS. (Consider it a silent rebuke to all those years feeling like the red-headed stepchild to the 26er.) Now the new 650B bikes are aiming to win over crowds (and hopefully parts manufacturers) more quickly in their attempt to bridge the gap between 26er and 29er rides. Several parts manufacturers, like Pancenti and White Brothers, whose tires and forks appear on Ventana’s 650B bike (El Bastardo) are following the frame builders’ lead with their own complementary innovations.

Arantix's Truss Matrix bike. 2.9 lb frame, but $7 grand is a steep price tag. Colin Meagher