I visited the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS 2009) in Indianapolis this past weekend. This was a welcome respite and my first trip outside of Chicago since my arrival in October.
Thanks to my friends Tom and DeAnne for hosting my Indianapolis stay and welcoming me with all manner of good company, conversation and food. As well, I'd like to thank the Fighting Cocks volleyball club for initiating me into their fold with a shot of their namesake whiskey and a hearty rendition of their fight song. Mercifully, they only sang their limerick (to the tune of "Mickey Mouse") once and I was able to avoid the 103 proof rye for the rest of the evening. These guys have been playing together through three generations. Their jolly party banter, good humor and obvious joy in each other's company reflects a life well-lived and played amongst friends.
I was hoping for some efficient form of public transportation to whisk me down to Indy for the weekend. The Amtrak "Hoosier State" runs once per day leaving Chicago at 5:45 PM and arriving Indy over five hours later at 11:50 PM. Not attractive, seeing as a three hour drive down the freeway takes me right to the bar where I can drink a beer and eat pizza with Tom and DeAnne. In that way Hertz is a far more convenient (and not much more expensive, sparing carbon emissions-associated guilt) solution than Amtrak. Amtrak was not going to ferry me back & forth to my hosts who live in the suburbs of Carmel, IN. Once clear of Chicago's early Friday afternoon congestion I felt a proud freedom fueled by the open highway ahead, a full tank of gas, a company debit card, my folding bike in the trunk and cruise control locked on 72.
Indianapolis, beyond being home to the world's most famous speedway and the NFL's Colts, is the home to many war memorials. Driving into town I am greeted by a most impressive obelisk capped by a sword-bearing, torch-holding, tunic-clad, winged-cap-wearing sort of lady liberty. The Indiana Soldier's and Sailor's Monument and the round brick-paved plaza surrounding it mark the center of the city. For a moment I imagined I was in Italy or France, but once through the lovely plaza it was clear I was just on my way to a big parking lot in the neighborhood of an American football stadium. I popped the trunk, unfolded my bike, rode through crowds making their way to a monster truck jam and found my way to the convention center.
I saw no bike parking accommodations outside the convention hall. In the lobby, a local organization hosted a handy bike corral, likely to spare us the bike confiscation debacle of last year's show.
The convention hall itself was packed. I bumped into some of my new Chicago friends as well as Dutch Bike Co. Chicago customers. My impression from talking to some of the builders is that the quantity and caliber of prospective buyers increased over last year's show. I imagine that mid-west cycling enthusiasts confined by this unusually wicked-cold winter make it a point to stoke their passion at any opportunity. This festival of bespoke bike porn proved the perfect remedy for mid-winter blues.
The show seemed more homogeneous than last year's: missing were odd builders and specialty component manufacturers (Rohloff, Schlumpf... ) from the far reaches of Europe. More present were the bigger custom manufacturers like Independent Fab., Co-Motion and component manufacturers like Brooks, Cane Creek and SRAM. I liked that SRAM was promoting their Truvativ two-speed HammerSchmidt crank/bottom bracket. Though an innovation focused mainly at the mountain bike and 29'er market, I believe the HammerSchmidt would make an elegant and bullet-proof two-speed city bike solution.
As far as city and utility bikes, many builders displayed sporty solutions with derailleurs and forward-leaning positions for the riders. Really, because they're so precious, it's hard to call a $3-5000 hand-built bike a utility bike, unless its a cargo bike or a long-tail. I would have liked to have seen builders using full chain cases and more internally-geared hubs. These two components combined with a completely upright riding position are the trademarks of a true utility or city bike. The maintenance and longevity benefits of having your whole drive-train sealed are innumerable, way beyond the bonus of never needing to roll up your right pant leg. I saw not one bike with a full chain case, though some very beautiful stylized chain guards.
Someone leading the city and utility bike design movement is Mike Flanigan, known as ANT Bike Mike for his company Alternative Needs Transportation. Mike is building one of his popular designs in a more standardized manner. No longer a true custom, his low-volume production, front and rear-racked Boston Roadster is a paragon of fun, style, utility and affordability. One look a the steel one piece crank may drive many gear-headed dilettantes into a hypertensive pseudo-scientific rant, but to me it just says strong, durable, time-tested and gives me the warm fuzzy feeling I get when I think of my first Schwinn.
It's worth mentioning that Mike's roadsters have internally geared hubs, grip shifting, dynamo hub-powered headlamp and tail lamp, fenders, roller brake, a sprung saddle, as well a front and rear rack - all features that turn a bike into a practical and comfortable appliance - a true city bike and one that will serve its owner for years to come with little maintenance. The only thing missing is a full chain case, which remains in the domain of Dutch city bikes designed for those who wear their business clothes when they ride.
It's also worth celebrating the sporty and cool Bilenky cargo bikes. Bilenky seemed to have the widest variety of bikes, from fat-tired monsters, to porteurs, to hybrid tandems and a triple with recumbent stokers on either side of the captain.
While in Mike's booth on Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting someone who is likely The Daddy of all Indianapolis bike riders. He asked me to guess the year of his birth. I suddenly knew I was getting sandbagged. I blurted 1920, figuring he was so old that everyone guessed short of his real age, so I thought I'd guess long. He answered 1915. Whoa, and still riding a bike. That's 93 or 94 years old, for those of you who don't have a calculator or like me, spare brain cells devoted to arithmetic. He owns 3 bikes and told me the story of recently re-discovering his first (1920) bicycle in a local antiques shop. He said that the bike was the only one to be found in a neighboring town's mercantile store, initially so big that at first he could only ride it standing up, because he could not reach the pedals from the saddle. Eventually the bike fit him and after some time he repainted it and it was this paint job which gave the bike away almost ninety years later when he spied it hanging in the antique shop. Missing was the perfect ending in which the antique shop owner sells the bike to the nostalgic 90-plus year-old man who was once the bicycle's original childhood owner.
Enjoy the slides below...
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