NAHBS travels to a new city every year, and this year it was in Denver, Colorado after Sacramento, California hosted last year’s event. Shifting the show to Colorado coincided with a significant increase in the number of exhibitors (199 compared to the previous record of 172 in 2011). There was a strong local presence at the show with almost 20% of exhibitors being from Colorado but there was also a substantial group of international visitors (30 companies from nine countries outside the US).
Over the course of the weekend, judges picked winners for a range of awards for different types of bikes (road, cyclocross, mountain bike), construction materials (carbon, titanium, alternative materials), and construction methods (lugged and TIG).
Alchemy bikes won the award for best carbon construction, Kent Erikson was awarded best Ti construction (road bike), Chris Bishop took home another NAHBS award for best road bike, Cherubim was awarded best city bike, Bilenky Cycle Works won best lugged bike, and Rob English was given best of show. You can see the full list of award-winners here.
In previous years, it was easy to spot emerging trends, such as disk brake mounts for cyclocross and road bikes, or new standards for bottom brackets and head tubes. The 2013 show demonstrated that there continues to be strong support for 44mm head tubes among custom framebuilders, but otherwise it appeared to be a year of consolidation for construction methods.
In contrast, the craftsmen devoted to finishing the frames on show seemed intent on pushing their work to a new level, virtually outshining the efforts of the builders. But, curiously, no award was given for best bike finish in 2013.
Visit the NAHBS website for more information about the companies and bikes on show this year including contact information for all exhibitors.
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- Groovy Cycleworks exhibited this stunning zombie tribute frame (dubbed “Feast of Flesh”) that has the flesh-eaters revealed in naked Ti finish in contrast with the matt paintwork and spatters.
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- Cherubim exhibited their intepetation of an integrated stem design.
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- Yipsan is a previous winner (2010) of the best city bike category at NAHBS and continues to devote its efforts to perfecting the city bike.
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- Ventus exhibited at NAHBS for the first time in 2013, showing off this CX bike with distinctive lugs.
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- Sanomagic builds wooden boats as well as bikes and incorporates the material throughout the entire build.
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- Continuing the wood theme were these old world wooden rims for the devoted connoisseur.
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- The Matsuda Cycle Factory is responsible for Level framesets and won this year’s President’s choice award best track bike at NAHBS.
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- Brian Williams is the builder behind Kelson Bikes.
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- Glitter and pin-striping adorn this BMX frame from Ground Up.
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- This might be the first custom-built BMX to be exhibited at NAHBS.
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- More glitter and pin-striping from Ground Up.
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- Craig Gaulzetti only works with aluminium and builds his bikes with a pure racer’s intention.
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- Festka is a company from the Czech Republic that uses chrome to provide the shine in the paintwork you see in this limited edition steel track bike.
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- Festka uses carbon tubing and lugs to create its Zero road bike.
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- Bishop Cycles took home another NAHBS award in 2013, this time for best road bike.
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- Chris Bishop has such mastery over lugs that it’s difficult to believe that they have been worked on by hand.
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- Take a moment to search out the polished lugs to appreciate all the work that has gone into the frameset (see below for more detail).
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- The folks at Anderson Custom Bicycles like to make use of polished lugs to highlight their craftsmanship.
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- A-train Cycles love working with stainless steel and used the material to provide the main tubes of this MTB.
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- A-train left the stainless steel naked to show off the material and painted the Columbus steel and Cr-Mo portions to highlight the lugs that were created for this project.
