The North American Handmade Bicycle Show had some amazing custom craftsmanship - James Huang / Immediate Media
Minneapolis builder Erik Noren showed this stunning e-bike at NAHBS, complete with Shimano's new STEPS drivetrain and a custom painted Maverick DUC32 fork - James Huang / Immediate Media
The cage surrounding the Shimano STEPS unit is built completely from scratch - James Huang / Immediate Media
Why use the standard Shimano STEPS computer head when you can dress it up a little bit? - James Huang / Immediate Media
Peacock Groove builder and painter Erik Noren never fails to impress at NAHBS - James Huang / Immediate Media
Erik Noren of Peacock Groove regularly presents themed bikes at NAHBS - James Huang / Immediate Media
Gorgeous - James Huang / Immediate Media
Sometimes a standard Campagnolo EPS electronic front derailleur just won't do - James Huang / Immediate Media
Italian builder Sarto will make just 25 of these limited edition bikes. The carbon frame is dressed up with 18k gold and crocodile leather - and it's astronomically expensive - James Huang / Immediate Media
Whether such a seat cluster design offers any performance benefit is questionable but it certainly looks unique - James Huang / Immediate Media
Sarto was founded by Antonio Sarto and his son, Enrico, shifted the company to carbon production in 1992 - James Huang / Immediate Media
The Enve carbon bars are wrapped with stitched crocodile hide - James Huang / Immediate Media
Likewise, the saddle gets a custom crocodile leather cover - James Huang / Immediate Media
This is not your standard chainstay protector - James Huang / Immediate Media
Gold! - James Huang / Immediate Media
More gold! - James Huang / Immediate Media
Quite possibly the most excited customer at NAHBS - James Huang / Immediate Media
Shamrock Cycles built this custom push bike for one very special customer - James Huang / Immediate Media
It's a shame that this bike will be outgrown so quickly - James Huang / Immediate Media
Shamrock Cycles pulled out all the stops for this push bike, including a titanium seatpost with an Eriksen Cycles head - James Huang / Immediate Media
Chris King hubs are used front and rear. Note the spoke colors, too - James Huang / Immediate Media
The handlebar was custom made as well, complete with an integrated steerer clamp and rearward sweep - James Huang / Immediate Media
In a novel reversal, the fork is built with rear dropouts while the rear end is built with fork tips - James Huang / Immediate Media
Absolutely awesome - James Huang / Immediate Media
Clever - James Huang / Immediate Media
There's a certain beauty in the symmetry of all those paired tubes - James Huang / Immediate Media
Japanese builder Futaq brought this stunning titanium creation, called Samurai, to NAHBS. From a distance, it looks to be built from a bunch of deftly curved tubes - James Huang / Immediate Media
But upon closer inspection nearly all of the curved sections are actually made from straight tubes that have been mitered and welded - James Huang / Immediate Media
The truss-style structure bolsters the otherwise unsupported bottom bracket - James Huang / Immediate Media
The head tube is attached to the main frame with this unusual mesh structure - James Huang / Immediate Media
A closer look at Futaq's handiwork - James Huang / Immediate Media
The cutout is supposed to evoke the image of a samurai being protected by armor - James Huang / Immediate Media
Such construction is undoubtedly time consuming - James Huang / Immediate Media
Such enormous seatstays likely don't need any reinforcing but the bridge makes for a handy place for a logo - James Huang / Immediate Media
Novel rocker-style dropouts allow the belt to be tensioned. The raised chainstays don't require a split to feed the belt into the frame, either - James Huang / Immediate Media
The North American Handmade Bicycle Show has always had many facets since its modest beginnings in 2005. On the one hand, it’s a chance for the world to see what the industry’s finest builders do on a regular basis for their customers. But on the other, it’s also a showcase for spectacular one-offs that are sometimes neither practical nor logical but are beautiful and amazing nonetheless.
In our continuing coverage from this year’s show in Louisville, Kentucky, we bring you some amazing paintwork by Erik Noren of Peacock Groove in Minneapolis, Minnesota; an utterly over-the-top carbon, gold, and crocodile hide creation from Italy’s Sarto Cycles; an incredible display of titanium TIG-welding by Japanese builder Futaq; and Shamrock Cycles’ unspeakably cute custom push bike.
Japanese builder futaq brought to nahbs this stunning titanium creation called samurai. from a distance, it looks to be built from a bunch of deftly curved tubes but upon closer inspectioné:
Stay tuned for more coverage from NAHBS and start planning to attend next year’s show in Sacramento, California.
James Huang is BikeRadar's former technical editor. After leaving BikeRadar in 2016, he worked at CyclingTips and Escape Collective. He now runs the Substack cycling publication N-1 Bikes.
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