Off-road beauties from Breadwinner, Independent Fabrication and more
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The painted to match fender is a nice touch(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Festka Root uses minimalist reinforcements around the headtube(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Festka is a custom-frame-building company that had hails from the Czech Republic(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Don't forget the stem, too(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Festka Pablo is a steel 650B model(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Painted to match X-Fusion fork on the Pablo(Image credit: BikeRadar)
This frame was made for the Dude, apparently(Image credit: BikeRadar)
This Eriksen full suspension has 90mm of rear suspension travel paired with a 120mm suspension fork(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Slack, trail-oriented 650B hardtails were a common sight at this year's show(Image credit: BikeRadar)
This Eriksen 650B hardtail is paired with a 120mm DT Swiss fork(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Engin Cycles Ti hardtail has clean lines and immaculate welds(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Engin Cycles Ti hardtail has clean lines and immaculate welds(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Festka Root's seatstays(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Groovy also makes LUV Handle handlebars with an integrated stem option(Image credit: BikeRadar)
This Ti Deluxe was an eye-catcher at the Independent Fabrications booth(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The paint has large metal flakes that make it stand out(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Independent Fabrications was one of a few builders with the new ENVE rigid fork on a build(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The painted to match fender is a nice touch(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The frame is equipped with a Gates Carbon Belt Drive(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Engin Cycles Ti hardtail has clean lines and immaculate welds(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The tough ceramic coating was originally developed for rifle barrels(Image credit: BikeRadar)
If you don't know, we're not telling(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Groovy builder Rody Walter opted to build himself a 29+ frame while he was creating one for the customer(Image credit: BikeRadar)
This day-glow 29+ by Groovy Cycleworks was built for a customer with a degenerative eye condition that will leave him legally blind within a few short years(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The flower power extends to the fork on Groovy's 29+ build(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Engin also uses a ceramic coating for the logo and designs on Ti frames(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Aluminum frames, particularly aluminum 4x/dual slalom frames, are a rare sight at NAHBS(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The additional layers of carbon are used to reinforce the water bottle cage bosses(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The one-piece stem and handlebar also has a Ti logo(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Intricate geometric patterns on the Six-Eleven(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Maxxis Ardents with skinwalls just look right on custom steel hardtails(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Hometown Manufacturing is Dykstra’s new semi-custom program(Image credit: BikeRadar)
(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Maxxis Ardents with skinwalls just look right on custom steel hardtails(Image credit: BikeRadar)
A railroad spike and feather make up Six-Eleven's headbadge(Image credit: BikeRadar)
This Six-Eleven 29er is fillet-brazed and is decked out in a stunning paint job(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The bike has short chainstays and a long front center(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The stealthy 44 Bikes steel frame has an understated look(Image credit: BikeRadar)
This Appleman carbon 29er sports ENVE's new rigid fork and weighs 19lb (8.6kg)(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Appleman logo on this carbon frame is constructed from titanium(Image credit: BikeRadar)
A dropper post is a good option is you need to actually pedal to the pumptrack or bike park(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The bad Otis is quite slack for a hardtail, with a 66-degree head tube angle(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Bad Otis has internal routing for the dropper seatpost and rear shifter through ports on the downtube(Image credit: BikeRadar)
A funny name for a bike(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Breadwinner Cycles' headbadge is quite intricate(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Breadwinner Cycles specializes in semi-custom frames. The latest edition to the line-up is the Bad Otis, an ultra-slack 650B (27.5in) hardtail(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Bad Otis uses Paragon's new PolyDrop dropouts, which use a modular design to allow buidlers to bolt of attatchments for different axle and deraileur mount standards, as well as different direct mount disc diameters(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Bad Otis is designed around a 160mm travel suspension fork(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Michaud features a 69.5-degree head tube angle, a 73-degree seat tube angle and 430mm chainstays with the Paragon rocker dropouts in the forward most position(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Michaud is a very traditional looking 29er, especially for Black Sheep(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Michaud features a 69.5-degree head tube angle, a 73-degree seat tube angle and 430mm chainstays with the Paragon rocker dropouts in the forward most position(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Kristofer Henry of 44 Bikes designed this 29er singlespeed for the trail he most frequently rides(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Fat bikes and gravel grinders made up a sizable portion of the eye candy at this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show, though mountain bikes were a common sight as well.
Mountain bike’s built around 650B (27.5in) wheels made up the lion’s share of the off-road machines. Many builders opted to gravitate away from traditional cross-country geometry and more progressive, trail-oriented builds with slacker geometry designed around longer travel suspension forks; terms such as “trail” and “enduro hardtails” were frequently employed by builders to describe their creations.
Click through the gallery at right for a detailed look some of the mountain bikes from this year’s show.
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