The Bike Valet will be parking bikes as a part of the inagural SLO Marathon. Come cheer on the runners and view part of the happenings at the Madonna Expo Center where the Bike Valet is going to be set up!
When: Sunday April 22, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Where: Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo (map)
A recap of the annual event, courtesy of one our Coalition members, Matt Pierle:
If you weren’t lucky enough to make it to the Sacramento Convention Center on March 2nd-4th for the 2012 North American Handmade Bike Show (NAHBS) you missed an exciting gathering. Well represented were custom frame and bike builders as well as accessory manufacturers from the West Coast to the East, from the U.S. and Canada to Italy, the Czech Republic and Japan. The common thread was an emphasis on quality over quantity, and the attention to detail that comes along with craft design and limited production.
NAHBS showcased just about every style of bike you can imagine but particularly well represented were track and road, touring and townie, cargo, tandem, cross country, utility and commuter bikes. Titanium mingled with steel and carbon shared the stage with more ‘traditional’ bike frame materials including hardwood and bamboo. Some builders toyed with lesser used materials including Magnesium.
Suppliers of steel, aluminum and titanium tubes set up next to makers of bike specific production jigs, tools, lugs, dropouts and ‘extras’ like trailers, bottle cages, jerseys and caps.
Bike publications doled out free copies of their magazines (Momentum, Bicycle Times / Dirt Rag, Mountain Flyer) while makers of metal lugs and dropouts exhibited their products in briefcase like hard cases like so much fine jewelry.
All told, this year’s show featured 158 exhibitors and drew over 12,000 attendees, the biggest crowd in the show’s ten year history. This is the third time the show was hosted here in California (it had a two year run in San Jose in 2006 and 2007).
Seminars were offered on topics ranging from: Bike Building Business Basics to the History and Future of Handmade Bikes and from Fillet brazing to the “Wooden rim renaissance”.
Santa Cruz’s Craig Calfee presented on the Bamboosero, an appropriate technology development project which is spearheading the training of people in Africa to build tough yet refined bamboo framed bikes designed for domestic transportation and cargo use (load of 450 lbs. plus) and also for income through ecological tourism rentals and export sales.
Sacramento was a great venue for this year NAHBS which just happened to coincide with a Beer festival. The show’s “ARTBIKE!” events included: live music, local grub and brews, bike parades and other delicious bike fun.
By far one of the collect bikes at the show, which picked up an award for Best Experimental Design Bike was the super big wheel (32 inch!) mountain bike displayed by Black Sheep Fabrications.
photo credit: davidfolch.com
Rookie Builder of the Year bragging rights went to: Aaron Stinner of Stinner Frameworks in Santa Barbara.
photo credit: cycling news
Best of Show honors went to the über sleek “Cherubim” bike by Shin-Ichi Konno.
photo credit: bicycling magazine
Other award categories included Best of for categories including: Road, Track, Tandem, Cyclocross, City Bike, Mountain, Carbon Fiber construction, Steel construction, Titanium construction, Lugged frame, TIG welded frame, fillet brazed frame as well as Best New Builder, Best Finish, People’s Choice, President’s Choice (the President is none other than Bike Builder and NAHBS Founder Don Walker).
See the complete list of 2012’s “Best Of” Winners.
As with every NAHBS this year’s show was flush with fine finishes, smoothly curving racks, tightly sewn bags, classy cycling wear, and over the course of three days thousands of wide eyed and sometimes drooling Bike fanatics.
In case you’re wondering…next year’s show is on tap for Denver, Colorado. Dates TBD.
All photos by Matt Pierle, unless otherwise noted. Matt Pierle is a cyclist from the Great Lakes region lucky enough to be attending bike related events and cycling around the west coast this winter. He can be reached at mattpierle@gmail.com or on Skype at the handle: bikelove.
If you are interested in writing a guest post, send an email to leslie@slobikelane.org , we’d love to showcase your words, pictures, videos, on bicycles!
The newest Spoken Wheel newsletter just dropped… hot off the presses! Find it in your mailbox (members only!), online, or at a local coffee shop.
Inside you’ll find our latest annual report, program updates, happenings, a puzzle, ‘know your rights’ column, and much more! View it online here.
Look closely, those are two people riding some Capital Bikeshare bikes here on the Hill.
We were finally able to get outside for the first time today and see the cherry blossoms in full bloom, making for a beautiful day in DC. We can’t wait to get out to the national mall and see more of them from the Bikeshare bikes ourselves!
We just wrapped up our day on Capitol Hill, and were able to meet with staffers from both Rep Capps’ and Rep McCarthy’s office, our elected officials from SLO County!
In Lois Capps office with our neighbors from Santa Barbara County
In Kevin McCarthy’s office with his transportation staffer, Rob McCarthy
All of the California delegation almost all posing for a photo! We’ve got people from all across the state, and sat together to make sure we could meet with every representative in the California legislature.
For now, we’re off for a much needed bite to eat, it’s been a long day of meetings all over the hill, and a slice of pizza is in order. We’ll provide a more detailed update of our day on the hill tomorrow.
Today is off to a great start! With meetings scheduled with Sen Boxer & Rep Capps’ offices, we’re excited to share the benefits that biking & walking will provide for our future!
In between these meetings we’ve been dropping in to chat with other elected officials, on behalf of those who couldn’t make it out to DC to join us. Our message is concise and extremely relevant, as the federal transportation bill is on the top of everyone’s mind.
House leadership proposed a 3 month extension this morning and it has been the buzz on Capitol Hill in the hallways. This timing allows the conversation to run parallel to what’s being discussed in the House of Representatives today.
Have we mentioned how much everyone loves the bike pins we’re all wearing?!
Here we are before our meeting with Capps’ office with our fellow advocates and neighbors from Santa Barbara:
Stay tuned for some better photos later today when we have time to upload them from a computer!
Going over our last minute details & fueling up in the Rayburn House Office Building before we start our day of meetings of leaders throughout CA!
We dress to impress here in DC.
After a day of advocacy strategy meetings with others from California and beyond, we’re prepping for our meetings with elected officials tomorrow.
Off to dinner first, then more prep for tomorrows meetings! Wish us luck!
