For Art’s Sake - North American Handmade Bicycle Show

Indianapolis, IN - People have often jokingly referred to the images of curvy, sexy, well-built bicycles as bicycle pornography, or "bike porn," because those images can easily elicit feelings of lust or desire.

And while I’m not immune to such wanting myself, something is amiss when using that descriptor on anything on display at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS). Each bicycle, frame, lug, drop, or chosen component is crafted as a labor of love by artisans whose purpose is to create something for the sake of their craft, and not solely to draw out someone else’s desire.

In that respect, each one of these frame builders is an artists and each bicycle a true piece of functional, kinetic art.

The 5th Annual NAHBS was held this past weekend, February 27 to March 1st, at the Indianapolis Convention Center.

The move to a Midwestern locale produced stunning results for a show that has traditionally been held in the western part of the United States. Buoyed by early online registration, the show produced its second best attendance numbers, 6,428, in its five years of existence. Despite the drop off in overall numbers from the 2008 Portland show, many argued that this was the best NAHBS yet.

The “original six,” including Walker, Sachs, DeSalvo, Vanilla, Crumpton, and Calfee headlined the show. They were joined by a select company as a policy change this year restricted entrants to those builders with product liability insurance who had completed at least 50 frames or been in business for at least two years.

"It is always a risk to introduce a policy that raises the bar like this, but NAHBS is a show that presents the best of the best in bicycling, and to be true to this goal we needed to have only the more accomplished frame builders there," said Don Walker, the founder and director of the show, a frame builder himself who runs Speedway Handmade Bicycle Works out of Speedway, Indiana.

Nonetheless, 116 exhibitors featuring the world's top frame builders and some of the top component manufacturers such as Zipp, Shimano, Campagnolo, SRAM, Cane Creek, Paul, White Industries, Chris King and HED, among others were present.

Having been to Interbike several times, I was initially surprised by the size, or lack thereof, of the show’s exhibition hall. The entire show would have fit nicely into the booth of one of the larger Interbike exhibitors.

But what the NABHS lacked in size was made up for with beauty, craftsmanship, and simplicity.

If Interbike can be likened to a being at a carnival, then NABHS is like being in a single wing of MOMA; both are stimulating to the senses, but a single piece in the latter can keep your attention for hours.

Over the next several posts, we will try to take you into the NAHBS and introduce you to some of the exhibitors and their works through few words and plenty of photos.

Part I - Go West Young Man | Part II - Rocky Mountain High, Don't Mess With Texas | Part III - The Heart Of It All, East Coast Bias | Part IV - International, Soft Goods, and Miscellany

And if lust should work its way into your heart while viewing the proceeding images, you'll have to take a number as most of these master frame builders have waiting list months and even years long.