I spent an amazing Saturday at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. While I’m not the type to drop $5k on a bike anytime soon, it sure is fun to look gawk at these incredible bikes/works of art (and talk to their very friendly builders) in person.
Some quick notes: Cargo and city bikes were well represented. I think I saw four or five over-the-top custom long bikes and scads of stylish commuters (including a belt-drive, Rolhoff-hub-equipped Curtlo city bike). The quantity of porteur style bikes with integrated heavy-duty front racks was my real surprise. These strike me as the perfect mount for many riders: commute, tour, cargo, whatever. The show builders must agree — porteurs, and nicely racked bikes in general, were everywhere.
It’s refreshing to see utility and beauty get their due together.
I snapped tons of great photos, but, uh, forgot to bring a USB cable or card reader and can’t upload anything right now. Sorry about that. More detail and hundreds of photos coming when we get back to Seattle. Honest.
–Tim
Anne & Tim
Tim King
Anne
cfdgirl
Tim K
Car Free Days 
Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!!! (chanting) we just came back from celebrating our son’s birthday in Portland so we could not justify another weekend in Portland so soon. p.s I don’t know if you are foodies but if you ever need recomendations, we have tons. (my son and his girlfriend are both chefs)
Sorry I missed you there, Tim; we could have compared notes. Some truly fine hardware, yes, but for me the high point was connecting and talking to all the interested, interesting, and instigating people there. I think I only knew about half of them when I walked in, and about two thirds when I left, freshly inspired. Some weekend!
Wow! I wish we had something like that here! Sounds fantastic…
Can’t wait to see your pictures.
Tons of photos right here. I still need to clean them up, but feel free to dig through…Val, I had my eye out for you… thought you’d be there. I met some amazing builders (and some pretty cool fellow gawkers, too).