Events: North American Handmade Bicycle Show 2009

Preparing for NAHBS

The fifth annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show is rolling into Indianapolis, Indiana, today through this weekend, giving Midwesterners a chance to ogle some of the most beautiful bikes ever made and shake hands with the craftsmen who built them.

The event is coming off its strongest and most successful showing to date last year in Portland, Oregon, where it drew 150 exhibitors and 7,000 visitors over three days. The show has grown in size and prestige every year, and is looked to for inspiration from even the biggest bike companies.

According to pre-registration figures, attendance looks like it will be on par with last year's turnout. The number of vendors exhibiting this year is down slightly, but Paul Skilbeck, the show's media representative, says that the show is stronger than ever, and that a slight drop in the exhibitor list—this year topping out at 116—owes to internal changes meant to strengthen the quality of the show.

"The idea behind it is that we really want to present the best of the best builders, so we introduced the policy whereby you have to have completed 50 frames or have been in business for two years, and you have to have liability insurance," says Skilbeck. "These are basically all things to protect the consumer. It takes a frame builder a while to really hone in on the craft, and this raises the bar."

But the new policy is not without its risks, Skilbeck admits.

"Sascha White [owner and frame builder behind Vanilla Bicycles] hadn't built many bikes when he first showed up at NAHBS. His is basically a brand launched by the show. But what we lose in some of the brilliant new guys, we gain in an overall level of quality—and that's important, because the brand of the show is the best collection of handmade builders in the world."

And this year NAHBS is attracting more prestigious international builders than ever.

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