NAHBS 2015: Shamrock Wows with Winning Paint, Beautiful Steel

Straight from the mountains of Indiana, Shamrock Cycles is consistently becoming a show favorite of many. Aside from providing one of the better heckling camps at the local cross races, Tim O’donnell has been building incredible steel bikes out of Indianapolis for years. Enlisting the finishing services of Corby Concepts for special projects, Shamrock had some breathtaking bikes at NAHBS for 2015. Bicycles like this steel road bike built for Rob Simon. Calling it the most intricate paint scheme ever to grace a Shamrock frame, Corby Concepts knocked the Mondrian theme out of the park and walked away with the award for Best Finish…

The reasoning for the ward is pretty clear – each color had to be applied one by one with each square masked off before the next color could be applied. And that was over the entire bike including the matching ENVE components. The frame uses a PF30 shell, 44mm head tube, hydraulic disc brakes, and was fillet brazed with Columbus Spirit tubing.

If the Mondrian bike wouldn’t have won Best Finish, this cross bike wouldn’t have been far behind. The paper plane concept was dreamed up by local artist Kate Oberreich who has worked with Tim a few times in the past on other bikes. Painted with 585 paper airplanes by Corby Concepts, each one represents one of the days between the time that Josh and Sarah met before the two got married (the bike was a wedding present for Sarah).

Quite possibly one of the nicest balance bikes you’ll ever see, this custom rig was built for Eva Sherman. Along with the custom frame, the bike boasts an Eriksen titanium seatpost, custom laced 12″ wheels with King hubs, a King headset, and a one piece bar and stem combo. Expect to see Eva on the next StriderCross podium near you. Paint by Rocky Tomas.

Built for Grey Dyas, this modern looking cross bike was also built to accommodate gravel rides and long days in the saddle. The mix of Columbus and 4130 tubes have been shaped on the top tube for better shouldering, and the frame features internal routing of the rear derailleur cable with stainless tubing. Paint by Corby Concepts.

Jason Renschler’s cross bike is meant to be a traditional looking frame with a finish that will look good years down the road. A classic if you will. A mix of Columbus tubing and Sachs lugs, this bike was painted by Ethic Paintworks.

Finally, if you follow Shamrock Cycles on Facebook, this is the result of that stunning polished frame that Tim posted a while back. The completely stainless frame uses KVA MS3 tubing with a sleeved junction at the ST/TT/SS and was hand polished to a mirror finish. Choosing to paint certain sections with pearl white through Corby Concepts, sunlight is said to bounce off the polished stainless underneath and illuminate the pearl finish. Built with Paragon sliding droputs to accommodate a belt drive, this bike is meant for racing so if you see Dave Aukerman whiz by on this bike, make sure to give him a friendly heckle.

Of course you couldn’t leave the Shamrock booth without taking a look at this awesome custom Silca pump. Customized with a Shamrock base and paint by Corby Concepts, the pump was raffled off to support Midwest Devo, a local junior development race team in Indy.

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