7 days till NAHBS

City bike by Alternative Needs Transportation. Credit: urbanvelo.org

Next Thursday, we’ll be heading down to Austin for the 2011 North American Handmade Bicycle Show. Countless artisan builders will be showing off bikes of all materials: steel, carbon, aluminum, titanium, bamboo. Like the bike above, there will be plenty of awesome practical and classy stuff; this isn’t just for racing gearheads.

What it won’t be is a typical showroom with Trek, Giant, Specialized, Bianchi, etc. What it will be is a celebration of handcrafted ingenuity, intricate detail, and graceful designs. It’s the best of the best, the bleeding edge, the stuff that big companies will copy. These builders value quality over quantity, and we can’t wait to see what they’ve been working on. There are seminars as well, for those who want to hear from top minds about brazing, welding, and running a bike-building business.

Some of my favorite builders in attendance are Vanilla (so popular they’re backordered 5 years), Ira Ryan, ANT, Geekhouse, Indy Fab, Bilenky, and Alchemy. Local DFW builders Gallus and Daltex will be there. Kinda makes me wish Denton had a builder on the exhibitor list. Our friends Russ and Laura from PathLessPedaled will be there, and I look forward to drinking a pint with them again. The excitement is palpable. This is going to be awesome.

So you want to go?  Here’s the scoop:

1 day: $18 advance (includes $1 transaction fee),     $22 at the door
2 days: $32 advance (includes $1 transaction fee),   $40 at the door
3 days: $51 advance (includes $1 transaction fee),   $58 at the door

Seminar Pass: $160 (includes $1 transaction fee).

Carl Strong Seminar: $125. For Framebuilders Only