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Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you are probably aware that the NAHBS was in Denver this past weekend. With the gathering being less than a few miles away from my place, I set aside Sunday as my day to check out the bikes. Let me take a minute to warn you that if you are looking for quality pictures, insight into the next trend/movement/direction the cycling industry is headed, or name drops, head somewhere else. All the major bike websites have plenty of great photos, interviews, and insights, I merely have a collection of iPhone photos, and my personal thoughts and opinions regarding what I saw.
Easily the favorite bike I saw at the show was Andy Hampsten’s 1988 Giro road bike. Hands down this is the most badass “Huffy” you will ever come across. As a fan of the history of cycling it was very cool to see a great bike that is a piece of that history. Even more impressive was the poster of the iconic image of Hampsten on the Gavia Pass in 1988 for sale for $20, which cost an additional $0 to be autographed Andy himself.
Heading into the show, it was an iron-clad lock that there would be plenty of fat bikes on display. It was nice to see a fair amount of fat bikes with front suspension, and even a few dual suspension fat bikes. While the full suspension fat bike Black Sheep brought had a seriously innovative (and eye catching) front shock, I really liked the look of the dual suspension fat bike on display at the Ti Cycles booth. And as far as suspension goes on fat bikes I’m guessing/hoping it will gain a strong footing. The fine folks at Form Cycles (friends of DC) had their fat bike with a Lefty fork on display, and it looked damn sexy.
Other thoughts that pass through my head as I wandered the floor, was seeing a fair amount of bamboo frames/bikes. Still not sure where my opinions land on this, but according to some guys I know that work for Boo Cycles, the material is legit. There were plenty of bikes that had the Surly Knard tire, which is on my list of “bike toys I want to play with” list. It was also great to spend some time chatting about exploring the woods of Montana on bike with Carl Strong. Halfway through the conversation I was already trying to figure out a way to explore the Pioneer Mountains of Montana this summer.
Even though the “BS” in NAHBS stands for “bike show” there were plenty of other booths that weren’t dedicated to frams and bikes. Easily my favorite non frame or complete bike item I saw was the King Cage bell, which not only alerts folks that you are coming up on them, but also doubles up as a shot glass. It was great to catch up with the guys from Club Ride, showing off their finest threads. The clothes may be expensive, but damn do they feel and look good (for both riding and living). I cant think of a better way to think of ways to blow your paycheck than by walking by a table full of Chris King components or Paul Components. Another highlight was hanging out with the always lovely Sarai from Girl Bike Love, who toils away fighting the good fight to promote women’s cycling. And that is my quick take on 2103 NAHBS (next year’s show will be in Charlotte I think), if you have the chance to attend a show in the future I would suggest to do so, just make sure you have been saving your pennies so you can afford a new fram/bike if you get the urge.
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Fullie fat bikes— because pumping the suspension makes riding in deep sand even more fun.
That “Huffy” isn’t. It ain’t a Serotta either, though the rest of the team’s “Huffies” were. No siree, Andy rode a Land Shark to the win in Italy. :)
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/historic-pro-bike-andy-hampstens-1988-7-eleven-huffy-giro-ditalia
Mine own road shark is green and black and it absolutely rawks!
Well aware it was a Land Shark, that’s why there are quotation marks around “Huffy”
Fork mounted bottle holder? Don’t these fucking pinheads know a good set of panniers will hold a 30 pack? Jesus tittiefucking Christ, hipster, buy a vowel.!
Joey-
First off, I drank an amazing amount of whiskey with the boys from Moots last week and I can say with absolute certainty that they are by no means hipsters. (Even if one guy was named Semen)
Second, panniers suck balls when riding offroad. Once you lose the rack, you never go back. Fork mounted libations (or fuel canisters, or water…) pretty much kick ass…in a dorky and functional kinda way
There aint nothing dorky about ones libation. Shit, I’ve had to full on duct tape my bottles of xxx to all kinds of free space on my frame. That piece of work in that there picture is a game changer.
Joe have you ever thought about being a positive person? It goes a lot further than the negativity. So what if some one expresses himself differently than you do. Feel free to fly your panniers as you wish.
What is that clusterfuck in the last picture supposed to be? Get your drink on, motherfucker, and make sense of that shit, Tyrone!
After seeing some of the rigs they put together for Mike Curiak, there’s no doubt in my mind that Moots takes hauling shit seriously. They’re hardly part of the “put a bottle opener on it” crowd.
Dirty,
1-That’s “Mr. Joe” to you.
2-Wouldn’t know aboot the boys at Moots, eh. But any wrong way of carrying stuff on a bike is gonna be a must-have to the hipsters, and I can’t think of a worse place for a bottle cage than on the fork. Well under the bottom bracket, maybe.
3-We’ve been over this before. Some folks go somewhere to ride a bike. Other folks ride a bike to go somewhere. Those in the latter category (that’d be me) sometimes find themselves offroad with groceries or camping gear or power tools or whatever, and we deal with it just fine. Again, the difference between a tool and a toy.
Now run along and play.
backwards swimming salmon,
I calls ’em as I sees ’em, and I’m positive about what I seen. Good enough?
affordable forks with bottle mounts have been a game changer for me. It don’t rain much around these parts so carrying a shit ton of water on a tour is a must. Any way to get it off my back is a good way for me.
had 5 bottle cages on my bike in this trip:
http://drunkcyclist.com/2012/10/26/mexico-friends-and-fatbikes/
two on the frame, 2 on the fork and one on the stem.
this particular Moots in question was an offroad touring rig and even had one of them cages on the downtube. http://www.bicycletimesmag.com/content/nahbs-2013-adventure-touring-bikes
that ain’t no grocery getter.
You say “grocery getter” as though there’s something wrong with owning one.
Alright, Joe’s being kind of a dick (Hey Joe, stop drinkin’ that blue-tinged fire water them old boys brew up in the holler and go back to factory-grade likker, it’s safer) but there is a salient point that’s being missed here.
Mounting bottle brackets on the fork is all right if (as in the case with the Moots in the photo, and with DB’s Messican adventure rig) it’s a rigid fork.
But a lot of folks run squish at the for’ard end the their off-road machines, and then you’d be back to the “unsprung weight” situation that carries a massive penalty in vehicle dynamics. For a squishy-fork bike, you’ll very much want to mount your bottle brackets on the bars and frame to keep that mass “sprung.”
At some point on a bike, all that effort to keep the weight unsprung pushes the cg up to the point where suspension dynamics are fucked anyway. That’s why the really heavy rigs, like the one pictured, ditch the suspension and load the cg down as low as possible. The overall handling is better, even if you’re depending on the tires to do the work when the trail gets choppy.
Don’t know about squish. Had a boinger fork on the KooKoo and got rid of it. It just don’t feel right; at least not to me.
All I’m sayin’ is, them toy bikes (dual boinger and road bikes and all that other crabon shit you strap on the roof of a car and take someplace to ride) is all well and good. But I don’t see hardly anyone using a bike for-well, a BIKE. You know, the kind you get on and ride in whatever clothes you’ve got on, or the clothes you plan on wearing when you get to wherever, and if it’s alittle damp or hot or cold you just nut up and fucking do it anyway. And when I DO see someone using a bike as such, it’s like there’s some sort of stigma attached to it-“What, you mean you’re not GOOD enough to drive a car? Why can’t you be like normal decent folk?”
And it pisses me off.
Oh yeah, and Mikey’s comment about boingers nailed the general unspoken concern I had about the setup in the first place.