Gallery: It’s in the details at the hand-built bicycle show
- By Brad Kaminski
- Published Feb. 27, 2013
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
"The Lumberjack" is a fat bike from Minnesota-based Appleman Bicycles, which incorporated plaid fabric and oak veneer for the head badge design. Some other interesting features were clear brake lines, and carbon rotors. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Richard Sachs has been building bicycle frames since 1972. Everything about his bikes are classic: the beautiful lugs, the geometry, and his RS logo head badge. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Winter Bicycles launched the Tool Series custom bike this year at NAHBS. The Tool Series is an attempt to offer an accessible handmade road frame for the person who doesn't need anything over the top in a custom build. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Andy and Steve Hampsten use the image of a wild boar on their Hampsten bike head tubes. The Italian word for wild boar is cinghiale, which is also the name of Andy Hampsten's cycle touring company in Tuscany, Italy. The seat tube graphic is a podium photo of Andy from his victory at the 1988 Giro d'Italia. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
This Black Sheep Bikes head badge is big and full of rich detail, very much like the fat bikes that the Fort Collins, Colorado, builder had on display at NAHBS. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
This Eriksen mountain bike has a special head badge designed specifically for the customer, who is a professor at the University of Wyoming. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
The Hunter Cycles logo and the one piece wishbone seatstays are signatures of Rick Hunter's bikes. The logo, which Rick designed, shows an image of a running archer shouldering his bow during a hunt, which is a play on Rick last name, and his appreciation of cyclocross racing. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
The crown and castle in the Independent Fabrication head tube logo are derived from a Revolutionary War monument in Somerville, Massachusettes. The design was created by Gary Mathis in 1995. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
The Weld One ogre and the rainbow coloring, a result of heating the tubes to bend, are created in the historical city of Kyoto, Japan. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
The tree in the Mosaic head badge represents the convergence of elements that are necessary to create the perfect bike. Originally designed and cast by Austin, Texas, artist Michael O'Brein (left), it has evolved into a similar design, though it is now a water jet-cut stainless steel version, which is polished, finished, and shaped in the Mosaic shop. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Robert Baylis used third-party head badges left over from the 1980s called "stick faces" to create the headtube and top tube designs for his personal track tandem. He modified the head tube stick face with ears from a doll, and made additions for the nose, so as to resemble his close friend and industry bike painter Joe Bell. The top tube stick face found near the back seat of the tandem was simply blended into the frame using bondo, then painted over. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
The Groovy Cycleworks graphics done by Rody Walter were some of the most eye-catching designs at the show. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Keeping with his minimalist bike design philosophy, English Cycles owner/builder Rob English uses a simple, understated "E" as his head tube logo. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Mr. Moots, the alligator in the Moots logo, rides a wheelie in the Colorado Rockies. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Jeremy and Jay Sycip are both former students of The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California, which is where they collaborated to create the Sycip logo in 1991. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Soulcraft builder Sean Walling got the idea for his head badge from his time spent working in an automotive machine shop as a teenager. Many of the industial machines that he worked with were stamped with model identification plates very much like the ones he now uses to personalize the bikes that he builds. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Don Walker pays homage to his Scottish heritage in his head badge design. The Black Stewart tartan comes from his family crest. The castle and swords in the design represent the strength of his bikes, and using them to go into battle. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Shamrock Cycles appropriately uses Irish symbols for fine detailing throughout its bike designs. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
The Connor Wood Bicycles head badge is a laser-cut mahogany veneer that is adhered to the head stock using a 3M adhesive. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
Personal touches at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show
Designed by Jeremy Madder, the Lundbeck Cycles head badge design was inspired by the Lundbeck team kit, with a Day of the Dead theme. Photo: Brad Kaminski | VeloNews.com
FILED UNDER: Bikes and Tech / Gallery TAGS: North American Handmade Bicycle Show
