Gallery: Custom road machines on display at 2013 Handmade show

Festka made its way to Denver from the Czech Republic, and brough this incredible chromed track frame as a centerpiece. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

More interesting design from Festka. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Discs you can see yourself in. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Brian Williams is the man behind Kelson, building with steel, Ti, and carbon. A background in carbon from the boat industry led to the design of the Custom Carbon, which uses tube-to-tube construction for a classic lugged look. Frame weight lies between 900 and 1,050 grams, depending on size. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Former Moots owner Kent Eriksen is still building out of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. His bikes are known for the hyper-clean lines present on this model. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Eriksen's head badge. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Eric Coury builds his Castle frames from Ti and steel;€” this relaxed roadie is the latter. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Gaulzetti Corsa. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Craig Gaulzetti builds aggressive bikes, the sort he wanted when he was racing along the gutters of Belgium in the 90s. The Corsa, above, is "the best race bike we can build," Gaulzetti says. It uses oversized 7000 series Dedaccai tubing, custom drawn for the builder, and an oversized head tube. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Form is the brainchild of three former Titus builders. This steel road disc model uses internal routing to keep the lines clean, oversized stainless tubing, and custom geometry. The company is in its fifth year and is based in Sedona, Arizona. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Internal routing throughout Form's steel disc frame. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Merlin debuted its new Extralite at the show on Friday. The bike features a PF30 bottom bracket, new dropouts, slightly altered chainstays to bump tire clearance up to 28mm, and oversized head tube and double butted tubing. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The Merlin Extralite uses double-butted Ti tubing throughout. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Groove cycles showed up with one of the most eye-catching bikes of the show, featuring a wild zombie theme and an intriguing ceramic-based finish. The stuff is called Cerakote, and was originally developed as a coating for military rifles. Since its declassification, producer Nic Industries has made it available elsewhere. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Groove's show bike uses 3/2.5 and 6/4 titanium tubing, a bi-ovalized downtube (the oval goes in different directions at the head tube and bottom bracket) to resist torsional twist, and oversized chainstays and head tube. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

"In case of zombie attack, pedal faster." Good advice. This bit of masking is particularly impressive, given the difficulty of working with the Cerakote finish. "I found that when working with this stuff you only have about a three-to-four-minute window after the bake process to remove all the masking before it hardens too much," said builder Rody Walter. "It builds less than 1/1000 of an inch, and is much stronger than paint." Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Rob English's incredible steel time trial frame is only 18mm wide. It uses a single, full-carbon front chainring and custom-built Di2 buttons to control the rear derailleur at the tip of each aero extension. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The entire front end of the English TT frame is purpose-built. The steerer/headset design took "hours and hours; I use my long rides to think on such things," English said. He must have plenty of long rides on the schedule, too: he's a multi-time Oregon state time trial champion in addition to his framebuilding skills. Look for more on English's bikes next week. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Argonaut Cycles offers fully custom carbon fiber frames using molded construction. The company makes all parts in house, including its seatmasts, and also machines the molds to make its carbon parts. As a result, it has the capability to do fully custom geometry as well as custom fiber layups. That means Argonaut can dramatically change the performance characteristics of a frame without changing its look at all, using different fiber orientations and altering the amount of fiber used to address stiffness, weight, and other rider requests. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Argonaut machines its own carbon molds and can offer custom geometry and fiber layups. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Vendetta built this beautiful, city-influenced frame, which features rack and fender mounts and is designed to be used with an internally-geared hub, with inspiration from Panerai watches, a favorite of one of the builders. Everything from the matte black finish to the small notch on the seat lug draws inspiration from the company's timepieces. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The small notch on the Vendetta's seat lug conjures up the small latch on many Panerai watches. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Bishop shows that the classics are now, as they always have been and always will be, beautiful. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

There aren't enough frame pumps in the world today. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

This beautiful split-top tube frame from Victoria Cycles is the personal bike of the brand's namesake, Dave Hill's wife, Victoria. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

We love the split top tube on this Victoria. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

This steel Shamrock customer bike, build by Tim O'Donnel, comes in at 15.8 pounds. It features fully internal Campagnolo EPS wiring and no brazeons or cablestops, and uses new-old-stock Campagnolo dropouts. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The NOS Campagnolo dropouts needed some "major surgery" to work, said builder Tim O'Donnel. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

We'll be taking a closer look at Denver local Alchemy Cycles later on, but let's start with this beauty: chromed steel with a Dura-Ace group of yore in absolutely gorgeous condition. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Perfect 7400 Dura-Ace on this Alchemy throwback machine. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Classic look from modern builders at Alchemy. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The Independent Fabrications XC has some of the most distinctive and beautiful lugs in the business. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The Independent Fabrications lugs are fit for a king. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com