The North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) 2016

 If you're going to spend $10k on a bike, be it a downhill bike, enduro machine, hardtail or cross, you may as well do it properly and spend $10k on a bike from one of these guys instead of some chunk of far eastern carbon. Most high end bikes are nice, but nothing quite matches up to a bike that was made just for you.

 Yeah mad wants for all of the stuff above! It looks incredible - great coverage too! Cheers PB!!!!

 I went to the show on Saturday. The quality of the craftsmanship was phenomenal. I like road and mountain, so I was geeking out a ton. I think my next mountain bike will likely be a + size steel hardtail. That being said, if you are in the market for a new ride... check out custom builders. There's some amazing talent out there.

 Those 27.5+ bikes are fine looking rigs indeed.

 Not quite sure how I feel right now.

 So cool seeing so much passion being put into "fun". Some beautiful bikes...if I won the lottery I'd be inquiring about most of them on the page! Would make quite the garage/living room collection

 I'd like to see some more info on that small orange full suspension frame in Ventana's booth. Kids bike?

 Rick Hunter and Todd at Black Cat-- Quality stuff and good guys!

 I really dig that "Road Plus" bike. Unique and beautiful for city commute. Just love it.

 check out my friends Matter...

www.pinkbike.com/photo/13134699

 The "Righty" from English Cycles look awesome!.. i wan one to go head to head with Lefty!

 So far the plus size "movement" is an alternative to trust fund babes and noobs but as usual I find myself jumping over peoples head in an effort to clear trail clutter by bbw bikes.

 Actually, I imagine Pinkbike will like this one, it being the antithesis to PressFit. If your bike has an aluminum PF30 BB shell, you can run this; you just have to get threads tapped.

 T47 isn't exactly new. Also, it has an admirable goal- kill all of the stupid competing pressfit standards by offering all the advantages with few (if any) of the drawbacks while still being something that's easily installed by simple tools.

 My legend friend at the lbs knew I wouldn't want a standard press fit BB30 in the new bike, hope make one that screws together as well as pressing in which makes it turbo stiff and sturdy. Impressed so far but if it starts creaking. Threads will be cut and one of these badgers will go straight in! Threads all the way really!

 It's a new BB standard, starting from scratch... that STILL leaves the bearings external to the shell. Damn near every BB shell design, except the increasing bastardizations we've added to BSA(which started with internal bearings) has bearings internal to the shell. because putting the parts where you transfer load, at the end of a lever that's threaded into aluminum, is dumb. at the very least, it means you have to overbuild to sustain a load that would be handled with far less strain, if you widened the shell but a couple cm.

 @groghunter I have no idea what you are saying. It sounds important, but it has no bearing in this conversation....

 What will kill Boost?

 @groghunter There is enough room in the shell that you can run a 6806 bearing inside the shell for narrow BB30 cranks like some Sram 1X cranks.

velonews.competitor.com/2015/11/bikes-and-tech/argonaut-and-chris-king-to-slay-pf30-with-new-threaded-bb_388673/attachment/img_5757

 I F*cking hate PF30. So, if PF30 + threads = T47, then that's something good.

 I think ol' mate @groghunter found the grog cause that's the ramblings of a drunk.
T47 all the way!! The only reason any of the press fit standards ever became a thing is to make factory assembly of frames quicker. #deathtopressfit

 @whilgenb Yea, I noticed later that some narrower BB standards do work with T47 to run the bearing internal to the shell(& without a large difference in shell ID/bearing OD, which is also a positive.)

So I'm more cautiously optimistic than before. I still question fine (in fact, after looking, T47 is slightly finer thread than BSA) threads in an aluminum shell: Threaded BBs(& headsets, for that matter) were designed around the material properties of steel, & after dealing with what happens to an aluminum BSA BB shell if you don't catch a slightly loose external BB cup right away, I've gained a new appreciation for an interface that has less potential to catastrophically destroy itself.

Those press fit BBs that thread into each other have a pretty good advantage that this standard doesn't: you're putting the threads in a disposable part, rather than in the frame. if you destroy threads in a BB30 sized cup, there's no coming back from that, & I haven't heard of anyone squeaking once they went to one of those "thread together" BBs.

 Plus rides really nice for hardtails

 I know, I just bought a 26+ hardtail. I hope the 26+ can gain some attention away from the 27.5+ bikes so I can have more tire choices.

 Maybe one... wasn't.

 WTB is rapidly going from one of my favorite brands to one im starting to dislike seems to be solving problems nobody had ever had, case in point, padlock grips.

 Jesus christ. Okay those grips are actually really nice grips. I have a pair myself. I also did have problems with lock ons slipping. And also being really uncomfy. But the padlocs are really nice believe or not.

 they have "monster cross" races around where i live. basically a xc ride on stupid tame fire roads.

slap some flat bars on a plus sized cross bike and spank the roadies that enter

 I was thinking the same thing.

 Time to re-name it the 27.5"+ Hardtail show.

 I dig it as well but I couldn't help but think about how many pinkbiker's you could piss off in a day! Oh the horror...

 Just run them over. You'll hardly feel the bump.

 2016 the year of the 36r

 36 dh. Rig.. it's coming..

 Didn't have a booth, at least I didn't see them.

 Their bikes look a bit strange. But, I have thrown a leg over the pocket rocket and it is a capable rig. Brian definitely rips on it.

 They're a rad company, and I can't wait to get my matchstick!

You can support them at: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1106708179/lichen-bikes

 As the owner of Lichen's prototype #2, I have to say Devin has come up with something amazing. It blew my boyfriend's old Yeti SB-66 clean out of the water in all departments, it climbs so well and loves to smash through rough descents, and the Matchstick is going to be even better! But I'm really excited for his DH bike that's supposed to come out next...

 I'm Lichen it!

 Super stoked to get a Matchstick. Steel full suspension bikes are outta control. Especially when they weigh virtually the same as alu and carbon. It's pretty hard to beat a fully customized geometry too. Mad respect to all the builders out there who experiment, refine, and evolve the sport for the love of the game.

 And so pretty.

 Seriously!

 I'm trying to get my head around how that linkage would ride. So as the rear compresses, both links rotate down and forward (relative to their mounting points on the front triangle). That lets the rear axle move upward, but also immediately moves it forward. That's usually not the best recipe for smoothing out small bumps or square-edge hits, but I could be wrong here.

 The lower link hardly moves at all, maybe a few millimeters. When he had it on display he was also cycling the suspension through the travel.

 In the video it looks pretty plush.

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgmxJOIecsw&feature=youtu.be

 I'm the builder, happy to answer any questions. The axle path is very similar to a single pivot for the first third of the stroke, and then slightly more rearward for the later portion of the stroke.

 Thanks for the reply, and best of luck @devin-bodony !

 Or maybe that's just what PB decided to cover...?

 nope. just about every booth that wasn't road bike only had a fat bike or a 27.5+displayed

 @nozes Maybe that's what their customers wanted?

 That's why they're called custom builders. They can definitely build other wheel sizes for you!

 @whilgenb Do you still believe the industry really builds what customers want? Do you remember any of your friends saying 2 years ago "man I wish someone came up with a bike with 650b 3" tires,now that would really be the sh1t!"?

 @nozes The handmade bikes are likely all using production parts that were requested by the customers. Blame the manufacturers who are pushing the parts if you'd like to blame someone.

@thehustler Exactly.

 I dont get it

 Think about it this way: this is bike porn for frame builders, not bike riders.

 The part about durability testing is absolutely true. NAHBS is about who can make the flashiest looking bike, not the best performing or most structurally sound, and nobody at the show really knows what rides best because you can't ride any of the bikes like at other bike shows where you can demo stuff from the different manufacturers. Not to say there aren't great bikes there, but most of the builders there have no engineering background, and at best were welders or machinists prior to building frames. Plenty were photographers, worked in marketing, etc. and don't come close to really knowing what they are doing beyond getting a fancy paint job put on their bike, which most of them also don't do themselves. It's bike porn for people who like pretty bikes, not necessarily high performance bikes.

 Saw some DIY snow bikes at Sierra at Tahoe last week one was just a trail bike with a boxxer

 ^What he said^ ... Totally agree there are some true works of art there and some genius innovations that make you question why hasn't it been done before!

 That's forker...

 can someone explain to me what a negative travel bike is please?

 @graeme187

www.pinkbike.com/news/first-look-foes-ffr-dh-prototype-has-two-stage-damper-to-boost-negative-travel-sea-otter-2014.html

 Piggyback reservoir? I have seen it before moto forks.

 Some resorts in NH allow ski bikes. Jay Peak allows them on the tram. Hopefully more will allow them eventually.

 The front triangle is only 10% of a FS frame? That said, your bike, regardless of what you're riding, is mostly made in Asia.

 hand made bike show? it is pretty ballsy to give it to a bike where pretty much everything is made in asia.

my bikes are made in usa. Except for the drivetrain that is made near osaka, japan.

 @MojoMauer All the bikes at the show were laid up in the USA.

That being said, even the Asian manufactured carbon fiber frames are handmade. . .

 i am talking about the alchemy bike. the front triangle is made is us. the rest in asia. it just does not belong to nahbs. even less to win an award. look at the eriksen in comparison. the alchemy is just a supermarket bike like many. besides the fact the paint screams newbie.

 Its just all filler until the fest series begins.

 You might want to join the beard wearing beer brewing crowd at mtbr then..

 Wrong he has really nice chop style sideburns!

 What's wrong with beards and beer @bonkywonky ?

 @bonkywonky don't tell us your into bib short bulges and after ride cream soda's. Don't you have a plum smuggler anonymous meeting to get to!

 Rear wheel has travel both up and down...so if you're going through moto whoops or something the rear wheel would absorb the bumps and use that negative travel to extend down into the divots as well

 So 3" of sag. Sounds... uh... actually I don't really know.

 That's what sag does... So his question is valid. But to somewhat clarify it's a dual stage damper. They had an article up here about it some months back.

 Not exactly sag. The dampening will be different if it is truly negative travel in the..... negative tracel. Squared.

 *travel

 its not sag, its negative travel, the extra cost proves its different

 www.pinkbike.com/news/first-look-foes-ffr-dh-prototype-has-two-stage-damper-to-boost-negative-travel-sea-otter-2014.html

As I said. Makes the rear wheel extend back down, pushing it past the extension...here's the article. Interesting stuff, but not sure how it'd apply in riding when you want to skim over something and your rear wheel's still glued to the ground

 It is travel that becomes available once your weight is off of the bike. When you catch air this travel will become available to you, but if your weight is on the bike you will only have the 9" available (or whatever is left when you take out the sag for your body weight).

Think of desert trophy trucks. They have huge amounts of travel, but half of that is "negative" travel. This way they don't ride that high when their weight is acting on the suspension. This allows for a large amount of travel for big hits, but they won't handle like crap due to their high center of gravity.

 @bmxsnox, thank you, that finally makes some sense

 Maybe it's for those brief but intense moments where you're riding the bike upside down

 It stands for "Anti Wheelie Device" . I helped build that fork and it probably weighed 5 pounds.

 Looks like WTB is the main Sponsor of this Show.

 Fatiguing coils, seals, it's the same thing. Probably more reliable as you can actually visually see the wear w/o having to pull it apart. Now performance that is something to look into.

 Even still, when one of those things goes, the fork isn't just going to compress into itself, you're going OTB.

 That and weed.

 Lucky you, mid terrace here.