The 2015 North American Handmade Bike Show (NAHBS) was held in Louisville, KY from March 6th-8th. Check out some of the highlights inside from the event. In Part 1 we check out a selection of items from Black Cat, Cykelmageren, Boo Bicycles, and Abbey Tools.

Attending shows like the NAHBS is a treat because you get to see some really interesting bikes that are hand crafted. While there can be an allure to typical bikes you’ll find at most stores, there is a certain art to seeing some of these custom bikes and learn about the work that goes into them.

Black Cat

http://blackcatbicycles.com/
In talking with Todd Ingermanson of Black Cat, it’s clear he has a passion for bikes. His bike quickly caught our eye and many others for a number of reasons that i’m sure you can extrapolate from below. He wanted to keep the geometry of this 29er bike short, but not too short.

If you’re looking to pick one of these up they can be custom designed in a number of ways including various dropouts and tubing. Prices start at $2800.00 and that includes the gorgeous stem. If you’re after a stem, that will set you back ~$400.00

Additional shots can be seen in the gallery. You can learn more details about Black Cat at http://blackcatbicycles.com/

Cykelmageren

http://www.cykelmageren.dk

Cykelmageren is out of Denmark and had a very popular little booth. After spending a few minutes at their booth it was clear why so many people were drawn to their booth. A common theme amongst NAHBS attendees was handmade but Cykelmageren took it to another level with their craftsmanship. They even won a NAHBS award for best artisan bike.

From afar they may not look that unique but looking closer shows that just about every part was custom made.  Hubs, brakes, shifters, you name it.

They’ve created some custom shifters and as such had to design the indexing to work properly. Usually you wouldn’t see the internals of a shifter exposed in this fashion but here they have.

The brakes on the bikes they had on display were simple in nature.  Essentially the brake is activated by essentially squeezing on the brake wire.  A sheath or nuts were used across the two bikes they had on display.  The nuts integrated on the version you see below really made the bike glisten and drew some attention to say the least.

Custom hubs that allow you to change the look of them via interchangeable pieces.  You can also see some details of the brakes below.  Additional shots can be seen in the gallery.

Boo Bicycles

http://boobicycles.com/

Boo Bicycles has been around for awhile now and if you can’t tell from their name, they build their bikes out of Bamboo which is quite unique.

Boo Bicycles handcrafts bicycles using the finest bamboo in the world.  Our bamboo is so strong it is nicknamed ‘Iron Bamboo’ and is commonly used to build bridges and multi-story scaffolding locally in Vietnam, where we grow our bamboo ourselves on our private plantation.

Boo frames are built using a tube-to-tube construction method.  All tubes are hand-cut and chiseled to fit together perfectly in the jig before they are bound together with unidirectional carbon fiber.  Tubes are hollowed to a 3-5mm wall thickness (dependent on frame size and type) for weight savings and stiffness tuning.  The average Boo frame takes 40-50 hours of hand labor to construct.

Abbey Bike Tools

http://www.abbeybiketools.com/

If you’re looking for some beautiful tools, Abbey Bike Tools offers some really ornate pieces that might have you leery of actually using them in fear of diminishing their beauty.

See additional photos in the gallery and stay tuned for some more updates we’ve got lined up from NAHBS.