We’ve covered some of the best gravel bikes as well as traditional road bikes on display at this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle show. Last but not least, let’s take look at four interesting mountain bikes.
Adam Sklar starting building frames as a teenager, and although he’s only 24 years old, he already has a strong following.
Based in Bozeman, Montana, Sklar builds mountain, cyclocross, gravel and all-road bikes with his signature arcing top tube. He primarily crafts his bikes from steel, but has recently added titanium to his repertoire.
This particular bike was made for a Kitsbow employee. The TIG-welded steel frame features long and slack geometry, a 150m-travel fork and meaty 29x2.6in tires.
Pete Olivetti is a new builder hailing from Boulder, Colorado. His “Thunder Pig” is constructed from straight-gauge 4130 steel tubing with some artful bends. This rigid singlespeed 29er was designed around 29+ tires.
The Thunder Pig has a bit of a bikepacking theme to it. The segmented fork has plenty of braze-ons for cargo cages. A custom Porcelain Rocket frame bag fits perfectly between the two curved top tubes.
Most custom builders work in steel, aluminum or titanium. A handful work in carbon. Boo melds carbon and bamboo.
According to Boo, bamboo has some similar properties to carbon fiber, such as impressive stiffness from the unidirectional fibers of the plant’s vascular system and excellent vibration-damping qualities.
The most striking feature of this 27.5+ singlespeed is how clean the transition from the bamboo tubes to carbon lugs is. It’s virtually seamless.
Rody Walter has been building frames for more than 20 years. The Ohioan does his best to bring fun to all the bikes he creates. Unlike many of this fellow frame builders, Walter also paints his own frames. As if building and painting his frames wasn’t enough, Walter also builds matching stems, “Luv Handle” handlebars and “Hot Rod” crankarms.
This particular 27.5+ hardtail is about as color-coordinated as it gets. Walter’s cranks and stem are pained to match and let's not forget about the MRP Ribbon fork that ties the build together.
Josh Patterson is a BikeRadar contributor and former technical editor. He has spent most of his career working in the cycling industry as an athlete, mechanic and journalist. He holds a master's degree in journalism and has more than 20 years of experience as a cyclist and 12 years of experience riding and writing for BikeRadar, Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Dirt Rag, RoadBikeReview and Outside Magazine. A native of the Flint Hills of Kansas, Josh was a pioneer in the gravel cycling movement, having raced the first Unbound 200 and many other gravel events around the globe. He considers himself a cycling generalist and enjoys road, gravel and mountain biking in equal measure. When not traveling for work, he can be found exploring the singletrack and lonely gravel roads that surround his home in Fort Collins, Colorado. In addition to his love of cycling, Josh is an enthusiastic supporter of brunch, voting rights and the right to repair movement.
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