Paleo Vélo

Like many bike geeks out there, I love custom bikes made by small builders. The number of such builders seems to have mushroomed in recent years, and they periodically gather to show their wares at different custom bike shows around the country. We have our very own custom bike show in San Diego coming up this April, and I’m looking forward to attending.

In many ways, the premier show is the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS), being held this year in Austin. As usual, a lot of stuff on display is to bikes what concept cars are to cars: cool eye candy, and some neat experimentation there, but much of it not the stuff any of us will actually be using any time soon.

Maybe it’s the increased competition between builders and the publicity bump that shows like NAHBS can bring, but the over-the-top gaudiness of the show bikes seems to increase every year, with fewer and fewer builders content with putting on display the types of bikes they typically produce and their customers actually buy.

The spectacle is understandable. You don’t go to an auto show to look at a Ford Taurus. Then again, you don’t go to look at a clown car either. So I’m just going to say it:

Builders: yes, you CAN have too much cowbell!

After checking out this year’s pictures, I felt like I needed to clean my eyes out by looking at the relatively simple and classic lines of my friend Esteban’s new Ebisu Randonneur bike, pictured here with its designer, Hiroshi Imura of Jitensha Studio in Berkeley:

Pretty much everything Hiroshi touches just exudes class.

Oh, and get this:  Esteban actually uses his Ebisu randonneur bike for randonneuring, including this cold and snotty 300K Brevet. Get outta town, man!