As anyone who has been to a show like the North American Handmade Bicycle Show knows, the number and variety of bikes is a bit overwhelming. From traditional to outlandish, there is a huge range of bikes to see, and that means sensory overload at the very least.
We like bikes that have (according to us at least) a tasteful use of color through paint and parts, and that look like they'd be fun to ride. At this show we also found ourselves drawn most to the road bikes that were on display. Even having narrowed the choices down that much, there were still a lot of them to choose from, and that makes the process of determining which ones will show up here that much more challenging!
Here are a few more bikes that stood out to us:
Simple Bike Co Titanium All Road
This is one of a few Simple Bike Co bikes on display at NAHBS, and they were all very cool. Oscar from Simple has been building for many other US-made brands over the years, and many of us aren't familiar with the frames he builds under his own brand, but we should be!
The matte paint on this bike gives it a really clean look, and we love the way the Chris King matte slate InSet and R45D Centerlock hubs pick up the titanium color and contrast with the yellow.
Black Cat All-Weather All-Road
This Black Cat is one of those bikes that if you weren't looking closely, would let you walk right by it; but if you happened to actually give it a second glance, you'd be pulled in by its details. The paint, which had a beautiful semi-gloss finish, was an intricate pattern of blue on blue, and that theme was echoed in the blue Chris King R45D hubs, tapered NoThreadSet, and fenders that were painted to match the frame, fork, and stem. Overall it was a surprisingly subtle bike considering how much it had going on, and we really liked it.
Mosaic RT-1
With so many beautiful bikes to choose from at the their booth, it's hard not to feature a couple of bikes from Mosaic in our coverage of NAHBS. If you've ever visited Mosaic's website, you'll find that they have an extremely thorough range of paint options, and the bikes they brought to NAHBS really showed-off what they're capable of when it comes to paint. Of course once you get close to the bikes, it's clear that there's a lot more going on than flashy paint, but that paint sure is effective at drawing you in! The Chris King InSet is one of the few parts that isn'tcustom painted given that the everything from the Silca pump to the hubs on the Enve wheels get the custom treatment on this shimmering blue beauty.
Caletti Jeremiah Kille Titanium Adventure Road
This Calettiwas eye catching to say the very least. With paint by Jeremiah Kille, and a booth designed around the bike, it really stood out. It's also a perfect example of an instance where having hubs, headset, and other parts that don't match. Generally it just makes sense that you would try to color-match these parts, but with paint like this, the shiny black Chris King InSet works perfectly with the matte turquoise R45D Centerlock hubsand ThreadFit 30 bottom bracket.
