This post was written by Robert Leone of the Knickerbikers, San Diego’s Bicycle Touring Club.
The San Diego Custom Bicycle Show 2010, ably organized by Ybarrola Bicycles is past – but it was a great April 9, 10 and 11 for bike stalking. The event, carefully organized by David Ybarrola (Ybarrola Bicycles and SelleLogica saddles), Chuck Schlesinger (Sadilah Bicycles), and Brian Baylis in the massive Town & Country convention complex in Fashion Valley featured fifty-seven exhibitors, industry booths, shop booths and dealers. Head to the official website for a full list – it’s worth it just to see the breadth of the industry.
I’m not a single speed or fixed gear rider, but there was plenty of impressive eye candy. Some of it was old, including a 1927 Bismark on display at the Far West Milano CC area, which evoked the era of wooden rims and iron riders.
Some of it was quite new. Home Brewed Components out of Escondido showed off titanium rear cogs mounted onto aluminum carriers to slide onto freehubs, or simply milled out of stainless steel. Just cut off at the top of the shot you can see a chainring designed to slide directly onto a bottom bracket spindle.
More mainstream vendors, such as Speedplay, were not immune to the “show and tell” aspects of a custom bicycle show. Their “Museum of Pedal History” featured 96 pedals, 33 toeclips, 17 cleats and 32 toe straps.
If it’s frames you’re looking for, you can skip my no-flash VGA resolution shots and go directly to the Velo Cult shop blog, where instead of hand-holding a camera purchased at Big Lots, real velophotographers used tripods, digital SLRs, diffused flashes and a gray screen background to bring out the best detail in each picture. Here’s a picture showing what it takes to get images that good.
I did use a flash once, to bring out some detail in Swrve’s display of reflective keyrings.
Gallus Bicycles proved a bike could be practical and over-the-top at the same time with this attractive green porteur.
Marice Rebolledo showed off the bike on which he came in last in the Oregon Manifest challenge, an achievement that is less modest than it sounds, given the number of DNFs, the fact that he rode his own bike (many framebuilders put someone else on the bike) and the requirement to pick up drinks for the after-ride party on the way. Note the rear rack and light details.
Moth Attack, in building a track bike for a tall and strong rider, used several flat plates to bridge between the seatstays rather than one rounded “brake bridge.” The best pictures of this are on the Moth Attack blog, just scroll down a bit. It was pretty, and pretty impressive, in pink paint and a white rear disk wheel. I wouldn’t necessarily call a track bike “practical,” but given the forces on a track frame, especially with a punishing rider, it’s a great way to stiffen the rear triangle.
In one of the strongest examples of projection I’ve seen, Peacock Groove showed a 20” wheeled road bike sized for when a little girl reaches six to eight years of age – and yes, those are integrated brake and shift levers on the drop bars.
However, the master of over-the-top was Bruce Gordon, who rolled in a bike featuring carbon fiber tubes set in titanium “lugs.” It was finished with Bruce-produced Ti toeclips, cantilever brakes, and front rack. The carbon fiber weave in the fenders matched that of the frame tubes. Not only did I get a front shot of the pointy front rack, but I’ll include one of the matching stem.
By the way, that’s Mr. Gordon himself on the right side in the bike shot. On the more solid and steel side of things, Bruce Gordon also brought along a Rock and Road and one of his recent production run of Taiwanese-produced Basic Loaded Touring frames. His price of $1499 for a built-out Asian-produced Basic Loaded Touring might seem a little steep, until you realize it includes the justly-famed Bruce Gordon racks.
If you are thinking that’s a bit pricey, Pacific Coast Cycles in Oceanside, which is about as close as we’ll ever get to a Surly bicycles dealer with bikes in stock, was showing off this tour-ready Surly Long Haul Trucker; just add rider and stuff to lug in the luggage. And maps.
However, most of the avid collectors and restorers had eyes for the new old stock and used parts in Pacific Coast Cycles’ parts cabinet. Even I felt the seductive call of a little metal tin Tip-Top patch and glue kit. But they kept it locked.
Sometimes it wasn’t just about the bike, or the accessories. Adams Avenue Bicycles made many, many friends over the weekend once their espresso machine had built up pressure in the boiler.
There was one final bit that was not in the exhibit hall – that was bike parking.
My ostensible reason for attending all of this, my excuse for wandering around with camera in hand, was to tend the bicycle parking area outside the center with my friends from the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition.
Frankly, the eye candy out in the sun and open air rivaled much of that in the official show itself. Folks walking, discussing, and taking photographs in the parking area was enough of a phenomenon that I took to calling it the “San Diego Custom Bicycle Show Fringe Festival.” It wasn’t just that we had TWO of the legendary Bridgestone XO-1 bikes parked there on Sunday after the Rivendell Ride rolled in on Sunday, along with a lot of other lugged steel. It was also what people had done with otherwise “normal” bikes. For example, there was one Masi, a straightforward, conventional, current production street singlespeed – with a bottle opener (from Harbor Freight) in place of a water bottle cage.
Another rider came in on a bike to rival the Bruce Gordon – a restored Hetchins with House of Kolor copper metallic paint detailing, from the rivets on the Brooks saddle to the fenders and even the carbide lantern.
If you’re difficult to size, need something very specific in a bike that you can’t get off the shelf, want to accessorize, or figure three or four hours wandering a convention hall looking at and talking about great bikes for a better entertainment deal than a movie, consider the San Diego Custom Bicycle Show in 2011.