If you're looking for unique, exquisite bikes from around the world, then the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is the place you should be. This is the third year we've attended, and once again it didn't disappoint. Read on to see some of our faves from the trade show floor.
This year's show took place in Sacramento, California, over the last weekend of February.
Throughout the past few days, we've already featured some of the bikes that really caught our eye for one reason or another. For a quick recap of those, along with a whole bunch of others, just pay a visit to our photo gallery.
Show website: NAHBS
I came back in four months to pick it up, and it was GORGEOUS! Cost me about $225 back then, a nice deal since a finished Hetchins bike for sale at a specialty shop in the USA typically went for up to $3,000 at the time (a LOT of money back then!). I had a pal with a bike shop in Santa Cruz hand-build the wheels and finish the bike for me using all the best Italian parts and Phil Wood sealed hubs and crank bearings. And I had Spence Wolf of the Cupertino Bike Shop fix up a superb Brooks Pro leather saddle for me ... he oiled it, baked it, and pounded it until it was SOFT! It eventually molded to my rear end and is still the best saddle I ever sat on.
The finished bike's total cost was about $1,200, and it was the prettiest thing you ever saw. I used it in the BikeCentennial tour across America in 1976 and rode it an average of 70 miles per day for 82 days (less a day off every 10 days), for a total of 5,000 miles (once I hit the east coast, I kept riding north for awhile). It was so comfortable and so stable you could ride it all day with no hands, even loaded with 45 pounds of panniers. I never dropped the bike and even took it into stores and restrooms with me.
Ten years later I had it on the roof of my car as I drove to a grocery store for medicine for the flu. I was so messed up that I drove right into the underground garage with a concrete ceiling. The bike was crushed to death, and I immediately burst into tears. I was a 45yo man, but that bike was my most precious possession, and it died a terrible death right there in my arms. I now have a hitch rack (the only way to go), some photos, and my memories of that wonderful, incredible bike.