045: N a h b s : Wrap-up. Part One. Of Many.

I realized while looking through the photo and video content that I obtained from the handmade show that I would have to post about three times a day for the next...ok, so I didn't think it through that far. What I'm trying to say is that I've still got good stuff from the land of handmade bicycles. I'll just keep dipping in to it as things get boring.





A video of Sacha White talking about his new Speedvagen Track Bike. Pretty hot stuff. But then again, that is kind of what we all expect from Vanilla right? That's just the way that it goes.

I started a 'channel' on vimeo to put these things.
Check it out.

As I was watching this video I came across this little article by Amy Walker over at Momentum Magazine. They had a very nice booth at the show and took some great photos as well. I think that somewhere they had a booth set up...

The last part of her article she talks about the five things that could be done to enhance the Nahbs experience for next year. I'm a big fan of this. I'm glad that she has opened the dialogue as to keeping these things not only fun and exciting but working to expand the cycling audience.

I'm a big fan of her #4. Thanks Amy.

I would also like to add one on as well.

6. Expand the awards to include a number of other artistic diversions that happen throughout the show. There are all kinds of things happening in the periphery that are easily overlooked each year. Like, as Amy mentions earlier in her article, the lack of women builders.

So, here's what I've got for you.

NAHBS: The Other Awards. And the Other Winners.

Award:
Best Underground Club Formed During the NAHBS
Winner:
The Hot Tub Club.

You thought I was going to say the Framebuilders Collective didn't you? Nope. I don't think this one got the same amount of hype, but who knows where they will be in a year. My guess is that they're going straight to the top.

Letsee...who have we here: I think all the major food groups are represented. Signal Cycles, Villin, Courage, Seven Cycles, Cambridge Bicycle Shop, Chicagoland Racing (Ben Popper), Hufnagel Cycles, and if you look closely even Sachs in the background. (Thanks to Molly for the Photo.)

Award:
Best Guerrilla Marketing Campaign
Winner:
Independent Fabrication

What is guerrilla marketing anyway?

Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla marketing tactics are unexpected and unconventional; consumers are targeted in unexpected places, which can make the idea that's being marketed memorable, generate buzz, and even spread virally.
- Wikipedia.

Novel concept.

This was their campaign. Taking over bathrooms everywhere.

What I would be really curious to see though. Is photos from bike shops everywhere. Because they gave out these posters at their booth and I'm sure that they have made their way to gracing the walls over more than one fine bicycle purveyor? This might actually make a good photo spread for an upcoming Embrocation: Bike Shop Bathrooms. I could see that.


Award:
Best Sock Puppet.
Winner:
Pucket, the official Artbike Puppet.

Pucket is the one on the left. I believe that she was given out as part of the raffle that Artbike was holding during their Goldsprints event. I don't know why someone would want to give up such a wonderful prize/pet, but who am I to judge. All I know is that she's got a good home now. I don't know what happened to the creepy blue sock puppet.

Award:
Best Nahbs T-shirt
Winner:
Duh.


I used the same image for the intro to the Speedvagen video above. There are still some available. You can get them here.

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Now, maybe some of these would be considered "joke" awards. I wouldn't consider them in that fashion, but whatever. But I think that it brings up a good point, and that point being that there needs to be more going into the Nahbs awards and award ceremonies. For example and in all seriousness now:

Paint - These guys work their asses off to make sure that all the bikes look good. There could even be individual awards. Best Paint Job, Best Painter, Best Thematic Paint Job?

Booths - I've seen a ton of work go into each and every booth that goes up at these things. Why is there not an award for this? It might also make it interesting to see where they go from year to year. Maybe get a Home Depot to sponsor this award and give out a gift certificate for the winner to use for their booth next year? Just another little idea.

Best Use of An Old Thing in a New Way - I don't know if you saw the Signal wine rack, but that is what I'm talking about.

040: N a h b s: The t-shirt collection

Try as I might to limit the number of t-shirts that I picked up this year. I couldn't do it. I came home with no less than ten t-shirts...not good. Or, good, depending on how you look at it.

I looked at almost every booth there to find what I deemed to be the best shirt of the show. Here are some of my favorites.

Big fan of the color scheme on the Signal Cycles shirt. If you remember, and I hope you do. This was the color scheme of their award winning bicycle last year at the show in Portland. Great image of the satellite too. Apparently at the show this year they overheard someone saying that "a signal is something that you receive, not send, so in this case the waves on the satellite would be going the wrong direction." My response to that? "Hey Pal, its art. Art."

This one cracks me up. It is from Inglis Cycles the frame company of Curtis Inglis. He makes really sweet bendy frames. I spent a good amount of time lusting after one of his 29ers last year. He also does a really great job of putting together slick paint jobs to go on his bikes. Ingliss was also the host of the 2008 Mountain Bike Single Speed World Championships in Napa Valley...what else?


Meet Andrew Frasca of October Hand Made Bikes. Great guy. Great bikes. I love the slogan that he is using on his shirt. "Guided by a different set of principles." Yes, my friend. In this industry we all are. Lust, greed...kidding, I'm only kidding.... Another thing that I really like about the shirt is the off-center positioning of his logo. I love when photos bleed off the page of a magazine, and I love when t-shirt graphics wrap around.

Here we have Jon from No Brakes, a shop in Atlanta. I visited his shop last January on a visit to Atlanta. It is a really small shop run by a bunch of really great guys. I'm glad to see that they are still doing it. In fact, I got to spend some time with these guys and it sounds like they're doing pretty well. Here Jon just finished up his heat of the Gold Sprints during the Art Bike Party that was held on Friday night of the show.

I like the No Brakes t-shirt. In fact, I am now a proud owner of the Yellow (not for Livestrong, just happens to be the same color) version. I like how the beard of the man on the shirt bleeds out to say "No Brakes." I like beards too.

Here we have our man Chris Igleheart. I tell people all the time..."no Purple, purple equals crazy." In fact, I had a girlfriend in college who used to love the color purple. Everything that she owned was purple. Purple shirts, purple bike, purple purple purple. And I know everyone says it about their ex girlfriends, but this girl was craaaazy. I'm not even lying.

I like Chris' shirt though. I like it because I have one of his single speed 29ers (pictured in the shirt) and it rides like a dream. The bike has 'Guilt Trip' painted in the top tube. Guilt Trip indeed, for ever time I look at that bike I feel bad that I don't ride it enough. Sigh.

Jordan Hufnagel is from Indianapolis. What a rad guy he is too. He is the founding member of the NAHBS Hot Tub Club. Which boasts a pretty great membership too. Lots of builders and friends of builders. Signal Cycles are a part of it. Midwest Cross Racer Ben Popper made an appearance, and by the end of the weekend it was all I could do to not beg desperately to be let in to the club.

Jordan also did a great job of hosting the weekend. He took Molly and I back to his parents place to cook some vegan food. I'm no where near vegan, but Molly is so she really appreciated the break from middle america slop...I mean stuff.

DeSalvo. 10 Year Aniversary. This one is for you Yash.

Courage Cycles. Another Portland builder here. They really are everywhere. These guys were really great to hang out with though and if I had to choose brought their A game in the Cyclocross Department. Ah, how I love the three color stripe combo. You could say that I'm a sucker for it. Also a sucker for the Griffin. This mythical beast is known for its Lions body coupled with the wings of an eagle...one feather of said wings are known to cure blindness. Which I would think would be a good thing.

Jay Sycip. Hold that Cielo shirt close to you my friend. Jay also designed the packaging that the Cielo bikes ship in. There is a photo in yesterdays post. Jay said that more people looked at the packaging than they did the actual bikes. Dimensions were taken, mouths were drooled from, and Cielo moved on into the future. The future.

Last but certainly not least we have a t-shirt from our Teddy Ruxspin toting friends over at Broakland Bicycles. If you click on that link you'll be taken to their Myspace page. It is interesting to note that the character, or avatar if you will, that is Broakland Bicycles is a green elf that is tearing his own guts out...but the guts are shaped in the form of "Broakland Bicycles."

I wish that I had the sheer tenacity that it would take to tear your own guts out and then form them into some sort of shape, or in this case, words.

These guys were pretty great though. Every time I would see them hoards of people would be standing around their booth. Watching them. Emmulating them. Trying to get their hands on that cute little bear that plays cassette tapes from his backside.

This is my favorite shirt from the show.
There, I said it. Its done. Yes, and...good.

Lex from Villin Cycle Works is pretty much an all around amazing guy and he's got the t-shirt to match. Don't try and fight it, just believe in its power. "What does it mean though?" Does that mean he wants to be taking a nap instead of building bikes? I doubt it, I mean he did just chop this here pile of logs, but I'm sure he's not napping.

Thanks Lex and everyone who knowingly, or unknowingly participated in my sick obsession with the t-shirt.

I also ran into some very classy and interesting t-shirts today that I'll try to get to at some point.

But it does beg the question:
Do T-shirts (especially the ones that say 'Virginia is for Lovers') make the world go round?

039: N a h b s

I don't know where to begin. I mean, I guess the logical place to start would be at the beginning. That makes sense right?

Or does it?

I've been anxious to fill everyone in on what happened at the show this year, but a few things prevented me from doing so. The first was the simple fact that Indianapolis has decided, collectively, that they're not interested in making wireless internet easy to utilize for the general public. The Official NAHBS Media Office cited "too expensive" for their reason behind not offering internet services to their media outreach. Whoopsie.

So, now that I've made the trek back from Indy, through the arctic blast that is New England I'm ready to start thinking and talking about the NAHBS show.

First off. It was great.

But what is the best way to do this? Break it up in to three days? Slam it all out on one post? Maybe find a few relevant things and just kind of go for it? In any case, here's what you've got to look forward to in terms of photo, video and written exploration of the 2009 North American Handmade Bicycle Show:


Video:
-Sacha White Explains the new Speedvagen Track Bike.
-Cielo. Chris King's new line of bicycles comes to fruition. Red Herring much?
-Lex from Villin Cycle Works talks about hitch-hiking in Alaska. Beardy.
-Broakland Bicycles get weird with Teddy Ruxspin.


Photo:
-Lots of close ups. Yes Carbon does look that good up close.
-Spent too much time looking at Speedvagen Brass Knuckles.
-Have now determined that my city bike (which I don't have, but will when I move to Portland) most definitely needs a wine rack. How else am I going to get my wine around?
-Spent a good amount of time looking for the show stopping T-shirt.
-Other weird shit going on in Indianapolis.


Writing:
-Essays on love (ie bicycles.)
-Apologies. Not really. I don't have anything to apologize for. Or do I?
-What happens when a bicycle company that isn't known for its carbon bike wins "Best Carbon Bike" at a handmade bicycle show.
-Other weird shit going on in Indianapolis.
-How to throw a "Secret Party" and have everyone come. A field guide.
-Nothing on the Frambuilders Collective.
-Are beer coasters the new business cards?
-Can I let celebrities on the Embrocation Cycling Team? Should I? Can we handle it?


So, in the next few days, I think that you can expect to see all and more of these things.

Promise.

And if there's something there that you don't see, or you don't see me keeping up my end of the bargain, well then let me know. Seriously. I wouldn't want to fail anyone like that.

I'll leave you with a quote from my friend Ira Ryan:
"It can't be all Unicorns and Cupcakes every day." But we can still try can't we?