On Saturday, Jane and I attended the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. I never expect much from these types of convention shows because they always seem to disappoint on some level. Still, I was very excited to check it out and I have to say that it exceeded my expectations.

One of the missions we had going into the show was that I needed to get my business card into the hands of some people in the industry. I think (or at least hope) that the type of art that I do would be a nice fit for a bicycle site, catalog, or instruction manual. I have had to overcome my typical desire to stay low key and be a passive observer. With Jane’s help I was able to get out quite a few cards and got some positive face to face responses. Who knows if anything will come out of it, but it was encouraging regardless.

Cancer was on my mind for some of the show oddly. I over heard some of the representatives for Dario Pergoretti discussing how he is doing with his lymphoma treatments. I butted into the conversation a bit and we were joking about how much stronger the chemo can make you with the proper training. TdF winners will (not) testify to this. Jane and I talked to Matt from Independent Fabrication for a bit about our last couple of years dealing with everything. He mentioned how much cancer has hurt his family recently and we all kind of had an awkward but beautiful moment of silence. He seems like a wonderful guy. The Lance Armstrong Foundation was on hand spreading the message. Jane made me sign a “Survivor” badge that they hung up in the booth.

“He is too modest to admit it himself,” she told them.

I suppose there is some truth in that. You wouldn’t really know it reading here, but I don’t wear it on my sleeve. It has been a long struggle, but it has only made me stronger. I am not embarrassed by it.

I was smart enough to pack the camera this time around (thanks to prodding from Chris and Joby). There were so many beautiful bikes available that I didn’t know where to start. Everything was on display, from track bikes, to city bikes, to amazing randonneuring rigs. Here are a small sample of what I was able to capture. I am not a photographer by any means. Some are blurry, and a number of my shots didn’t come out. None of the Indy Fab bikes are here, but they were beautiful machines. Hopefully you can find pictures of them elsewhere. Anyways, here are a few…
Rando/Touring style


Fixed Gear/Single Speed


Standard and City Bikes


Unusual