Friday News And Views

 NAHBS Show Canceled For 2022:

In a reecent "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" article, it was revelaed last week that the North American Handmade Bicycle show was not going to happen in 2022. The show, scheduled to occur in Denver Colorado, was cancelled by the organizer due to a claimed "lack of interest by the vendors ". 

A long Facebook thread was posted afterword, mostly bemoaning the cancellation of the show, but there were several interesting comments. Some claimed that they were interested in showing at NAHBS and had tried to get information on the show, but were left with dead ends and unanswered e-mails. The show's director, Don Walker, claimed to have been having health issues which were also making it difficult to put on a show of such magnitude.

MADE To Occur September 2023:

As if on cue, a new gathering of frame builders and attendant cycling component and accessories brands have committed to a new "show" called MADE. This hasn't been 'officially' announced as of this past Wednesday when I found a mention of the gathering on Instagram stories. 

The show site claims the following:(Note- Use of shouty all-caps is from their site)

• MADE CELEBRATES THE ART OF BUILDING
• MADE SERVES BUILDERS, MAKERS, MEDIA AND THE CUSTOM COMMUNITY
• MADE LIVES AT THE INTERSECTION OF BIKE AND CULTURE
• MADE IS DEDICATED TO SHARING STORIES OF BUILDERS AND MAKERS TO THE WORLD

Furthermore the site informs us that this is a 'multi-day trade event" and that there will be consumer and 'industry-only' days where media can gain access to brands for content creation and 'community building'. 

The gathering is set for Portland, Oregon and the site claims that this will be mostly held outdoors. UPDATED: Story on MADE appeared on the "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" site HERE.

Comments: The timing of this comes at a point right after the NAHBS announcement. Make of that what you will. However; in the previously mentioned Facebook thread, there were mentions of a possible "alternative" to NAHBS, or that there should be one. This appears to be that alternative. It also is highly likely that the Portland custom builder scene had a hand in getting this off the ground, since the event is in Portland, Oregon. 

There were a lot of criticisms leveled at Don Walker's NAHBS organization, and well, now you have people setting up a show which I am sure they feel addresses all of those concerns.One of the big criticisms of NAHBS was that it got away from the custom builder/component cottage industry types and became a de facto Big Corporate show where the "little guy" was overshadowed by the bigger entities like SRAM, Shimano, and more. That's my take from what I read about this situation. If I have that wrong, I'm all ears..... Time will tell all. I'm keeping an eye on this. 

Sarah Cooper and myself at Trans Iowa v12

Trans Iowa Stories Series Ends:

This coming Sunday the Epilogue for the Trans Iowa Stories will post marking the end of the series I have run every Sunday since June of 2019.

The idea was sparked at the close of Trans Iowa v14 by a commenter here that suggested that I probably had a lot of good stories from 'behind the scenes' about the event over its 14 year run. 

It's been difficult in many ways to tell anything 'new' about Trans Iowa. The Trans Iowa related posts here on the blog probably number into the 100's. But the thing is, after a decade plus of posts, you cannot assume that everyone has read the blog that diligently all these years. So, while it is true that the Trans Iowa Stories series has a lot of 're-told' stories, it does have a fair amount of stuff in there I never told before the series. 

I tried to be conscious of that all throughout the writing process. I hope that some of that was noticed. And now the writing process is through. Now what? 

Hmm.......that's a great question. Initially the idea was to make this a book. The thing is, there is just far too much material here. You have no idea, for example, how many images I have that I collected for the series which have not been used, and deserve to be seen. The visual history of Trans Iowa could literally fill volumes. Then there is the written text....... Whoa! That would be a pretty thick book if I were to publish this series in its entirety as a book. 

So, a lot of decisions are needing to be made. The direction of the book, if there is to be one, needs to be determined first. Should it be culled down to the most amazing stories? Maybe 30? That would be a long read in itself. Or, maybe this is best told in images, so a photographic piece, which would have some captions, maybe some light commentary. As I have said, I couldn't possibly even use all the images, so again- use maybe 30-ish? 

Lots of questions, no answers yet. Stay tuned..........

And Don't Forget: The "GTDRI Stories" series kicks off on Sundays starting in August.

EVOC shows new bikepacking range: Image courtesy of ©EVOC / Baschi Bender

EVOC Shows New Bikepacking Range:

Late this year EVOC will have a new range of bikepacking bags on hand which have been improved over the outgoing range. 

Improvements include an upgrade to the BOA closures, new hidden vents which allow roll-top bags to close easier, and the range is now fully waterproof with waterproofed zippers, welded seams,and waterproofed  materials.Velcro straps have been replaced with cut-to-size hypalon Velcro straps.

The range consists of two different sizes of seat packs, a half-frame bag, top tube bags, and a  handle bar bag. They come in two colors, a "steel" and a "carbon grey". These EVOC bags should be available this Fall. Prices range from $40.00 for the smaller items in the range to $150.00USD. https://evocsports.us/

Comments: I have not used EVOC bags before, but they seem to be very popular with some of the ultra-endurance cyclists in Europe, in particular. I imagine that they are now fully waterproof that their popularity will only increase. Good looking colors that should appeal to most riders and look fine with most paint schemes. The pricing seems fair as well. 

Personally, I have not ever liked the look of a half-frame bag when it hangs down away from the frame. I don't have any technical or performance reasons for that, it's just my personal opinion. So, that makes the EVOC half-frame bag not very appealing to me. But maybe you don't care about that? Then this might be a good deal. The rest of the range looks fine to me.  

Patent drawing image from www.wheelbased.com

 SRAM Patent On New Rotor Design:

The "wheelbased.com" Instagram page which showed patent drawings submitted by different bicycle companies had been dormant for some time. However; suddenly it is back again and boy! Have the floodgates opened! If you like to ferret out tech and future developments in bicycle design, this account is worth a follow.

Well, one of the more recent postings that seems realistic for production is this new composite rotor from SRAM. It uses a "spray-on" steel coating over an aluminum core. The advantages are that brake temperatures can be reduced. Shimano has been doing something similar with their "IceTech" for several years already. 

There are some other pretty far-out electronic things happening which may or may not come about. But this brake rotor deal will likely be produced for SRAM's higher end brakes in the near future, I would think. Anyway, check out "wheelbased" on Instagram if you haven't already. It is a good account to 'nerd-out' on, if you are in to such things.

That's all for this week! Have a great weekend and we'll see ya back here soon, I hope. Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions!