Welcome to our third installment of NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019, our analysis of the North America Handmade Bicycle Show. In this episode, we look at fashion, be that the brands everyone was wearing, anodized bits, and trends in color.
Let’s jump on in!
What everyone wearing this year at NAHBS?
We kick off our coverage with a showing of popular brands with builders. I will mention here that with Paragon Machine Works, I focused on dropouts and brake mounts – not cable guides or little parts. The Silca category is for painted or styled-to-match pumps. I included Raketa because they are a new-comer brand showing promise in the track segment. I did not include ENVE or Cane Creek, though I really should have. This was a lapse on my part.
“Custom cockpit” refers to custom stem/handlebar combinations. “Custom Stem” refers to, well, custom stems, etc.
For those folks about to ask: a handful of those dropper posts were on gravel category bikes, the others were on mountain bikes.
I took a shot at pulling color samples from each frameset examined and created this graphic showing primary and secondary colors. I did not include bikes with primarily raw finishes in this depiction because, well, I did not come in with a good plan for describing these bikes (I have one now moving forward).
How? I tested a series of apps that gather hex codes based off of your phone screen, found one that worked reliably with a white reference, and I used that to take samples from several areas on the bike – trying to stay as consistent as possible. Is this an ideal way of doing this? Nah. Does it give a picture of relative colors for the event? Sure.
To my color friends (Brad, I feel you crinkling again) I apologize in advance. NAHBS venues are often lit like after-hours big box stores.
For my raw bike friends, a few stats: I counted thirteen bikes utilizing colored anodization on titanium surfaces. I also counted five titanium bikes using polished details or panels.
I also took some notes regarding color effects. I came in with a list of effects I thought I would run into… and it wasn’t nearly sufficient to describe the fabulous paint jobs I saw. I should also mention here that I missed the whole Squid booth (one of the few builder booths I missed) which skews this a little bit.
The vast majority of bikes observed had a black paint or ano component build. Silver, of course, was in second place. Here is the spread for other colors observed.
Last but not least: touch points. The vast majority of bikes featured black tape or grips and saddles… while I have no data on this, ten years ago we were swimming in white and color. Tan and brown touch points came in third.
Stay tuned! We will be discussing how bikes from different regions are different. And steel nerds will get some fun stats on construction in the coming days.
This will all culminate in a special BikeRumor NAHBS Exclusive piece inspired by builder and data nerd, Eric Baar of Ground Up Speed Shop: Awards for Averages.
If you want to read or re-read pieces in NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019 so far:
Part 1: NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: The Overalls
Part 2: NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Summaries by Discipline
Part 4: NAHBS by the NUMBERS 2019: Regional Themes, Steel Construction
