This travel to and from the North American Handmade Bicycle Show has been exhausting. Because of the storm last Wednesday, I decided to leave the Bicycle Forest corporate jet in the hangar and take a commercial flight for a change. I had a rather convoluted itinerary involving a quick stop in Detroit and a long layover in Dallas, but I did make it into Portland in time for the show.

The way home has not been so easy. Last night, I took the red-eye out of Portland and landed in Orlando this morning. From there, I flew to Detroit. After a weather related delay, I took off in a small prop plane for the final leg of the trip. We hovered over the Waterloo Airport waiting for the weather to clear, but it was not safe to land, so we had to fly all the way back to Detroit which is where I am again tonight. I’m crossing my fingers for better luck tomorrow.

I shouldn’t complain though. I didn’t have it as bad as Tyler Russell of Nice Bicycles who was snowbound in Wyoming for most of the show. Tyler epitomizes the spirit of the Handmade Bicycle Show. Not only was Tyler’s bike handbuilt, his posters were also hand drawn.

As I sit here snowbound in Detroit, I’ve put together a small gallery featuring the work of a few more BikeCAD Pro users at NAHBS.

Nice Bicycles

Dean

Caletti Cycles formerly known as Cloud Nine Design

Vicious Cycles

Marcroft Cycles

Sweetpea Bicycles

Vanilla Cycles had another classy booth, as always. These two bikes are from Sacha’s Speedvagen line which features the work of guest builder Mike DeSalvo.

Margo Conover from Luna Cycles seemed to be constantly occupied with inquiries, possibly thanks to a recent review in Bicycling Magazine.

Bilenky Cycle Works’ booth was full of interesting bikes including the Viewpoint semi-recumbent tandem.

Igleheart Cycles

GoodTimes Bicycles

Pereira Cycles

Jones Cycles

Grognard Bicycle Company

No one was surprised when the President’s Award, the People’s Choice Award and the Best of Show Award all went to Sam Whittingham of Naked Bicycles and Design.  Sam’s fixed gear bicycle was the talk of the show. It features old fashioned elements like beechwood rims and grips, polished lugs and a sculpted handlebar. The bike also has modern elements such as state of the art hubs and a front disk brake with cool internal cable routing. Another neat touch was the hole through the top tube for securing the bike with a U-lock.

Since there were no awards that BikeCAD could have fit into, I had to take satisfaction in seeing owners of BikeCAD Pro winning awards. Besides Sam Whittingham, who’s been a long time BikeCAD Pro user, the following award winners also use BikeCAD Pro.

Ahearne Cycles won Best City Bike

DeSalvo Custom Cycles won Best TIG Welded Bicycle

Crumpton Cycles won Best Carbon Fiber Bicycle

Calfee Design won Best Tandem

Engin Cycles won Best Off-Road Bicycle (not shown here)

Here’s a photo of my booth neighbour from NAHBS, Tony Maietta.  Tony used to work at Hot Tubes, so not only does he weld his own frames, but he also paints them too.