Every year, NAHBS brings together a huge selection of builders, from seasoned veterans to first year endeavors.
Ventus has been around for a little while now. Beginning frame building in 2006, Mark Kargol of Ventus cycles has crafted some beauties, like last year’s sky blue touring build. Shown above is his disc brake gravel racer, built with carbon tubing and some dashing stainless steel lugs. After speaking with Kargol, he said that he can do the same with titanium tubes, but he preferred carbon for gravel riding.
More on Ventus, A-Train’s sparkly green mountain bike, and Shed 6’s Dutch bike after the break…
Modifying a cyclocross geometry raking out the fork a bit more and lengthening the chain stays for long distance riding. It gets Hayes Cx5 disc brakes, a beefy 44mm head tube, full internal housing, a Rol wheelset, and a Campy Chorus gruppo.
The seat stays bolt into the dropout and seat tube. That lets Kargol modify the frame for custom sizing without a complete revision of the lugs.
Kargol uses strictly Campagnolo components for aesthetics and ride quality.
A-Train Cycles
Alex Cook, head of A-Train Cycles brought a glittery hardtail specced with boutique components. With a shop location in Minneapolis, he’s set up in the same neighborhood as Appleman and Peacock Groove, but brings a different mindset to the table. For this singlespeed 29er build, he shot for timeless beauty, in a functional modern bike.
The whole bike weighs in at 19lbs 14oz. The main triangle was initially created as a 4130 steel. Lugs were cut custom from this and used to hold the stainless steel top and down tubes. A Salsa bar was sanded down to match the stainless steel tubing. It ended up being lighter than a Thomson titanium bar. The fork is a painted carbon Niner.
The rear triangle’s made from Columbus life stays. Components were sourced as much as possible from the US, UK, and Germany. A White Industries crank pushes a fresh Niner RDO ti cog and the wheelset rolls on White Industry hubs. Thru axle is 142×12. On a singlespeed. That’s not something we see too much.
Shed 6
This was Felix Fried of Shed 6‘s first year at NAHBS. Based in Yorkshire, England, Fried came a long way with his Dutch-inspired “Stroopwafel” named after the thin syrupy Dutch waffles. The build is Fried’s personal bike, designed to commute in unpredictable rainy weather conditions in the inner-city and components were picked up on the cheap.
This is Fried’s fourth bike, made from a Reynolds 631, and it gets dynamo hubs and internal routing.
Cable routing is completely internal for the top tube and emerges at the rear derailleur.
Stroopwafel has some fun bells and whistles, like a built-in taillight so the hooligans don’t jack it. The on/off switch is on the interior.
Also, we noticed the Sögreni Bell, an awesome addition that adds quite a bit of flare. For the full build process, check out the Shed 6 blog.
