Bike Porn: The 2011 North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show

So this post is going to be all about bike porn. Which I am a real fan of (Not that that is surprising.)

The 2011 North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show was this last weekend in Austin, Texas and it appears to have been a hellava show.  I went to the 2009 show up in Portland, Oregon (Very near to where I live.) and was blown away by the beauty and care that have been put into all of the bikes.

And as a very intelligent person once said (Rambo, I think.) A picture is worth a thousand words. So this will be a very "wordy" post.

I'm just going to make a few comments on these particular shots (All except the bottom photo were borrowed (stolen) from Cyclingnews.com.  So if you want more. By all means go check them out. (The bottom one is from Red Kite Prayer.))


This is Independent Fabrication's road bike (Check out the seat mast. A more and more common thing on a lot of top end road bikes.) with it's lovely paint scheme with the custom Cole wheels to go with it. Gorgeous!

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This is something Calfee does very well. Integrate carbon stems and bars. Just beautiful red dyed carbon too.


The company Engin fabricated this lovely randonneur bike. With integrated lighting system and space for full fenders. Very classy color and paneling too.



Cielo is the bike brand for Chris King (A Portland based company). This particular bicycle has very classic lines with a steel fork and room for fenders (I'm a sucker for fenders.) that are painted the same color. Beautiful.


KirkLee has this black stallion as one of there show pieces. The Lightwieght wheel set alone would make your heart stop to see the price tag. Each set is custom made for the customer. KirkLee used a very suttle etching design for the decals and the different carbon lay up for the tubes and lugs is just awesome.


Crumpton is another brand that went with the black on black scheme this year. He is a builder well known for his meticulous detail and subtle designs... Sorry, I'm drooling a little.


Moots is a well known titanium bike fabricator that always brings some fun inventive stuff to the show each year. This 29" wheeled mountain touring bike is a great example. I love this thing! If I had a bottomless budget I'd have one of these in my stable at home.


Vertigo is another Ti builder that delivered this really cool city bike. Custom racks (Check out the really cool lock holder), integrated hub with belt drive and disc brakes. I want it! I'm not above begging...


This bike is really cool! Made by Black Sheep this 36 inch wheeled single speed mountain bike takes the idea of rolling over obstacles to a whole nother level.



This bike is made by Cherubim a Japanese builder. I think this one gets the sexiest lines on a road bike award from me. Also another road bike with disc brakes. I bet we are going to see a lot more of that in the future.

So there is just a little taste of what was there. I tell you I'm going to need a mop and bucket on my computer desk (Clean up on aisle four!).

I may come back this subject if there is another set of pictures that I think is worthy of the Bike Porn moniker.

Hope you all enjoyed! Now make sure to clean up after yourselves. And for God's sake pick up those tissues! Pervert....

Rubber side down,

Big E