Interesting sights and Serotta Forum members at the Heartland Velo show

[Kontact]

Stopped by the Heartland Velo show (my boss had a booth for our shop) and got to meet "Ahneida" of Handlebra (great guy) with a Bedford on display, take a look at Doug Fattic's frame building jigs and look at some nice bikes, including Bilenky (show organizer).

KVA and Reynolds both had stainless tubes to look at, and KVA had given many of the attending builders a crack at their tubesets, so some nice lugged and Fillet Pro'd stainless frames where in ample supply.

A small company called Cysco had several bikes there with Lynskey-esque helical top and down tubes in S3, stainless and titanium. The company was started by some former Lynskey employees, one of whom goes all the way back to the old Litespeed days. I'll leave the analysis of the aesthetics to others, but paint was really good and the prices attractive:
http://cyscocycles.com/?page_id=125

The nicest thing I saw at the show were the frames of Chris Kvale Cycles. Chris has been building a long time, and his lug work was inspired by Eisentrout, but takes tapering to a whole new level. The lugs almost look like fillet brazing when he gets done with them, and a cutaway example showed some of the cleanest torch work you can imagine. I hope these pictures illustrate the tapering he does to the entire lug:
http://www.chriskvalecycles.com/CKC/Owners_Gallery.html
I like steel frames, but this was the first lugged frame that really got my pulse up in a long time.

I know some other members attended. See anything you liked? Did you ride on anything that said "Kontact" on it?

[Nathanrtaylor]

Richie Moore (of Cysco Cycles) is a good friend of mine. He does amazing work with a welder (you'd expect that after 15 years at Lynskey).

I have one of his 29er mountain bikes, and the aesthetic is indeed different, but man does it ride nice. I let a friend with a Niner Air 9 ride it and his immediate impression was that Richie's 29er geometry steered faster and was more intuitive than his Niner... and the Niners are GOOD.

That 650b titanium frame that was on the table belongs to another friend. He's excited, to say the least. This is his second Cysco.

Glad you got to talk to Richie and Zach. I'm hoping he keeps the repeat client wait list short for when I want another one. The pics I saw from the show were great.

[Doug Fattic]

I really enjoyed the Heartland Velo show this past weekend in Madison, WI. Bina Bilenky did a great job as the organizer. Herbie Helm and I put on brazing demos on Sunday to a crowd held back 10’ from the action by barriers insisted on by the fire marshal. I did a private show for them on Friday to get their approval. That distance made it more entertainment than education.

Besides showing my fixtures I brought bicycles and frames made by students that have taken my framebuilding classes. They were from different eras starting from 1977. I figured that seeing nice work students had done might help inspire others to try it themselves. What surprised me was the number of attendees that expressed real interest in taking a framebuilding class. I had to tell them they are booked up until next summer.

In the herd I displayed a bicycle frame I made for my daughter. It was tone on tone black pearl (meaning the lugs and front and back were a lighter color than the main tubes) with double box lining in yellow and white pearl. I’m a believer in doing a lot of lug filing. That can take several days of work. I don’t thin them quite as much as I used to because of fashion change but it still takes a long time to do – maybe longer because it takes more concentration to get them close but not right up to the limit and have everything the same thickness. I’m bothered that fewer understand and appreciate this skill in a custom frame. In the subject thread “how to pick a custom builder” I didn’t read anyone mentioning filing skills. That to me is like talking just about the talent portion of a Miss America contest without commenting on how they look (although to be fair, aesthetics were mentioned just not lug filing in particular). I can sure see big differences among names mentioned and some of them would not meet a standard I would be happy with.

I didn’t get much chance to look around or even go to the excellent seminars (or so I heard). I did talk to Marc at Waterford and was amazed that they now can have custom stainless steel lugs laser cut and welded into special designs. Like Kontact said, Chris Kvale’s frames were very nice indeed. I took one Wisconsin based attendee over to Ray’s Handlebra both to show him an Ellis frame and recommend that was a good place to get a custom frame.

Next year I highly recommend Midwest forum members attend the Heartland Velo show.

[oliver1850]

Thanks for the reports from the show. I hope it was well enough attended that it will be back next year.

Doug, it's always nice to hear comments from builders about what they think are important attributes of a quality frame. Where can I see some pics of the frame you had on display?