Lots and lots of pretty bicycles

We made a quick run down to Austin to plan out the course for the new Diva Dash and had to swing by the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. It's amazing how the bicycle is such a simple creation, but there are some very creative people out there that are able to tweak the design and style just so...in a way that makes them so beautiful. The engineering, design, paint, and general artistry was amazing.

Here are a few things that caught my eye with a couple notes about the bikes....

 Loved the paint, head tube lugs, hammered fenders and white racks. A fun bike for the Ft Collins Ralleye rides

 This is a Black Cat. They're famous for our their pivoting dropouts that allow a chain to be tensioned. They did this paint in house - which is pretty sweet.

 This bike got a lot of attention. Custom Ti single speed cross with belt drive, tapered headtube fork, and deep carbon wheels.

 Here's that headtube, made possible due to some nice Chris King headset engineering. Also loved the V-brakes

 Oh how I love IF bikes. Here's a nice simple 29er single speed rigid. Integrated seat post, carbon wheels -no doubt this one is well below 20 lbs.

 Here's that seatpost.

 This bike was insane. There were no bolts to be seem. Super CLEAN. Inset leather on the top tube bad grips, integrated/seamless everything. This got my vote for best of show. It's by Naked, who won best of show in Portland in 2008.

 Here's the curvy rear end

 so pretty! looks at those lines!

 Milwaukee bikes had a single speed road frame as their 1st model about 7 years ago. They're branching out now. This is a cool and simple 29er hardtail

 This bike was full of tricks. Not something you'd want to take on a long remote MTB ride due to the tubular wheels, but if you light light bikes, this one was under 19lbs

 The good fellas at Ft Collin's Panda bikes had some really nice bikes on display. They use the bamboo for main tubes and metal lugs. you'll be seeing these at some UARs this year

 It's really cool how you can see the texture and organic look of the tubes. Bamboo is light, strong, renewable, and easy on the eyes

 This could very well be my next bike. A full-squish blacksheep. I didn't get a lot of photos of this one -I was too busy drooling over it. Some cool things: 4" of travel, pivoting on a plate welded to the bottom bracket shell. The chain is tensioned with a 2 sliding attachments that not only allow the frame to accomodate a belt drive, but it can also be taken apart - to fit in a suit case. I LOVED it.

 Crumpton is an Austin builder who has been in the game for quite a long time. This is a Di2, electronic shifting bike

 Erickson has some of the cleanest welds around

 Another nice custom cross bike

 Vanilla bikes really caught my eye back when the NAHBS 1st started up. Since they won best of show, they now have a 5 year wait and are not taking orders. This is their Speedvagon model - which you can order. Beautiful paint that starts at the stem and goes all the way down the bike

 I knew a rider in Austin who was a huge fan of Richard Sachs bikes. I didn't really get them until a few years back. They take the art of lugged bikes to a new level

 Another Vanilla Speedvagon

 Vanilla paint

 Closer to see the lines. I'm a sucker for continuous lines

 This is a nice clean builder from Boulder: Mosaic Cycles. I really liked their style.

 very clean.

 Check out the Liger. Napoleon Dynamite would be proud

 At the Cielo booth, they had this stem. What's cool? Integrated top cap and headset top, with a cable line through the middle for clean cross bike cable routing

 At Geek House - here's a sweet bike that resonates with probably less than 1000 people in in the world. It's a dedicated bike polo ride. Dual disc brakes - with one lever. Rotor guards, mallet mount, and front full disc wheel

 They welded another rotor to the fork to protect the actual brake rotor

 Eye candy at the Erickson booth. So colorful and precise

 Here's another shot of the Naked 'boltless bike'

 Creativity must run the family. Zack (owner of Panda bikes) brought some saddles handmade by his Dad. Love these and they felt way more comfortable than Brooks saddles

 Looks like something you'd see on a German kids toy.

 At the same booth, a rather unique looking carbon wheel. One question: how do you true it? Oh...I guess you don't. Maybe this is a good wheelset for your rollers at home

 Pretty pretty paint

 Pretty wild looking. Gotta wonder how much the bottom bracket would flex under hard pedaling

 Another custom cross bike - this one from Independent Fabrications.

Here's the headtube.

So there you have it folks. If you are a bike geek like me, you've got to make your way to this show next time around!

Thanks for checking out my photos and ramblings