Article on NAHBS blog

A little love from Matt Shields, one of the official NAHBS blog editors. Thanks, Matt.

Zanconato Custom Cycles

zank

First report from NAHBS

Greetings from Austin, TX. What an incredible city; it's the perfect venue to host this show. It's got a fantastic bicycle culture, incredibly warm and welcoming residents, and amazing food and drinks. I'd come back here in a heartbeat.

I didn't get much of a chance to walk around the show yesterday. In years past, Friday was usually a slightly slower paced day and then Saturday was insane, but yesterday was pretty busy and there was a constant stream of folks coming through the booth. I did take a quick stroll and all I can say is "WOW!" What an incredible time to be in the market for a new bike. All of the booths and bikes look incredible. I'll get more pictures today and gather some more thoughts.

Here are some pictures of my booth. My theme, as it's always been with everything I do, is clean and simple. I wanted a lot of room for people to be able to move around and not feel cramped or pressured to move on. I'm happy with how it came out and I've received some positive feedback. I'm banking on my choice to pay off today, because the powers that be at NAHBS are predicting an incredible attendee turnout.

Thank you to everyone for all of the well-wishes by phone, email, forum posts and PMs, Facebook, and Twitter. You all are the best. I feel so fortunate to have such great supporters.

More from the show later. Have a great day.
zank

NAHBS show bike #3

This one was a blast. Combining some old school pipes with new-age shifting may raise some eyebrows, but I say why the heck not? Who says you can't cross generations?

I carved up this set of Max lugs to look a little different than the last set. The goal here was a slim profile and a little less glitz. I've also learned that the seat stay attachment is a little stronger and cleaner looking if I add a skirt to the back of the seat tube. That way, I get a nice full miter of the seat stays to the seat tube. I made a few other changes outlined in some previous blog posts. I've enjoyed refining my techniques with this set. It's too bad they are disappearing so quickly.

Integrating the full internal Di2 wiring kit cleaned up the look of the bike even further. Word to the wise. Test all of the Di2 stuff before installing everything. I had to a bad Junction B and had to pull everything apart. Chad and the guys at Shimano came through for me though. Lesson learned.

Keith pulled off a stunner of a paint job. All of the bands and lettering are painted on and there isn't a bump or ripple anywhere. It will glow under the show lights.

Thank you, Bryan! What a pleasure this whole process was. I can't wait to get your feedback on the ride.

NAHBS show bike #2

A bike hasn't affected me in this way in a long time. Crazy emotions ran through me as I put it together. Memories started coming back. I started with the parts laid out on the bench and all of that polished aluminum simply gleamed. And as each part went on and the bike started coming together, I got a little giddier. Now look, I'm usually not one to hark back to days gone by pining for what was. Technology and fashion move on. I tend to adapt. I try not to get wrapped up in trying to control things that are out of my control. But I found myself thinking about this bike a lot starting from when Paul and I started talking about the build. And every thought would bring me back to memories of rides and bikes gone by. I guess today is one of those days when I wished all bikes looked like they did a generation ago. Alas, time moves on. But it's nice to know there are still a few companies that allow us to indulge these thoughts and desires.

There are more photos here.

Thank you, Paul.

NAHBS show bike #1

We are one week away from the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show in Austin, TX. It's getting a little crazy around here as the time winds down. I'll have three bikes with me and here is the cyclocross machine. I love it when big bikes don't look particularly big. This one will be tearing up the Mid-Atlantic this fall. Many thanks, Bill! I can't wait to see photos of it all dirty.

There are more photos here.