NAHBS : Day 2

Day 2 at NAHBS was a blast, there were 5 times as many people at the show and the streets around the convention center were littered with as many awesome bikes as were held inside the showroom. Early in the day it was so crowded it was hard to even walk around let alone grab pictures so I waited till the end of the day to grab some shots of some of the real stand out bikes I missed yesterday.

This Peacock Groove 29er was catching everyone’s attention with it’s 24K Gold plating. Not only that but it also has a carved out seat tube to really jam the rear tire in to keep this 29ers wheelbase less than than a 26″ mountain bike.

And obviously it is all in the details.

Moots had this killer Snow Bike that I can’t even imagine how fun it would be to ride around an arctic tundra, or maybe Boston right after a blizzard.

Villin had me coming back to their booth over and over because their bikes were really that nice. This one in particular was made using hand made steel pieces. Just beautiful.

Detail of the hand crafted steel, looks kind of like a topographical map.

Of course I spent some time hanging out with my good friend Jeremy Dunn, former Cambridge Bicycle Employee, now of Embrocation Cycling Journal and Rapha Fame. Both booths looked fantastic!

And here he is pointing out one of his favorite embrocations.

Independent Fabrications, had an amazing booth set up and their bikes were so nice that I saw another bike builder who copied their lug design, I am not about to name names, but you know who you are. Imitation is the highest form of flattery and if you are going to imitate someone , IF is a good choice.

Here is Marty hammin it up in the Geekhouse Booth wearing his super geeky Spock outfit.

Well that is it from me for now, I have a lot of driving ahead of me, but will hopefully have more for you when I make it back to Boston! If you ever have the chance to make it to NAHBS I highly recommend it, it is a fun and inexpensive way to learn a ton about the bike industry from the people who are actually getting their hands dirty.

Paper Labels Friday Feb 12th @ 4th Wall

I wanted to put this out there in case some of you haven’t already heard about this really cool event (Paper Labels) going on tomorrow night @ 4th wall, 132 Brookline ave Boston(only a few blocks from Superb). Independent Fabrication , Bodega, and BaileyWorks have teamed up to create some amazing Bikes/Bags. These will all be on display as well as a sneak peek at some Indy Fab NAHBS Bikes that are fresh off the presses. Word is I’ll be playing you some party tunes and all your best friends are gonna be there. 7pm-11pm

Independent Fabrication Grasstrack Racer

I recently had the opportunity to follow the exploits of the new Concept Indy Fab Grasstrack Racer. It all started a couple days before Interbike when it was innocently wheeled into Superb sans crank and bottom bracket. After drooling over the new bike a black Sugino 75 Crankset and a locally made 3RRR chainring were purchased and mounted up to a fresh wider than normal bottom bracket (to account for the wider than normal chainstays.) We parted ways agreeing to meet back up in Vegas, and did we ever. That bike got around, maybe even more than my Huffy. First we saw it at the Wipperman Booth at the show, then later at the Tastemakers Party at the Artisan it was aglow in Knog Lights. Upon arriving home from Vegas I was then greeted with photos of the beautiful bike all over the internet, so I figured it was only proper to add on to the pile.

Independent Fabrication Blog