Report 3 The final gathering of bikes from the Handmade Bicycle show - Dan Barham reports
Grognard is French for "Grumpy Old Soldier", and that's exactly what Dave McCormick is - well, he's an ex-Marine at least. Based in Sacramento, CA, specializing in 29in singlespeeds and building barely ten frames per year, he'll put together a fully custom package including seat post, two-tone paint and silver head badge.
Ahrens of California were showing this 650B bike. Mike Ahrens will put together an aluminium powder coated frame with the same wheelbase as a 26in bike.
Rick Hunter of Hunter Cycles made his carbon seat-tubed full sus design the focal point of his show booth, and with good reason: 5lb, carbon seat tube, bottom bracket concentric main pivot means you get the option of running it with gears or single-speeded.
Delta 7 Sports were showing off their Arantix mountain bike frame - built with a whole bunch of carbon fibre and kevlar triangles weaved into an Iso Truss. 2.6lb for a frame with lifetime warranty and no rider weight limit. They're currently taking pre-orders for their March release, although the price is sure to thin potential customers out a little - a mere $6995. Bonkers...
True Fabrication specialise in TIG-welded steel 29ers. The real attraction was the personal bike of marketing guy Cody Baron, who'd customised his frame with a 'fake rust' paint scheme that made the bike look like a cross between a high-class hardtail and canal-trawled junker.
Ever desired a wooden bicycle weighing less than 17lbs? Well here you go....
Groovy Cycleworks have been making bikes in Ohio since 1994. "Have" should really read "has", as it's all the product of just one man - Rody Walter.
Rody will weld up a custom frame, a custom fork and will even completely design and build a welded bar/stem combo.
Tiz cool to see this stuff.
Just wish the large images were larger.
Agree about the images and links back to the vendor's sites would be good too.
That Hunter is Fugly but interesting and the carbon/kevlar thing would collect more mud than a bulldozer - can you imagine trying to clean it?
