New England Bicycle Expo The Final Chapter: Igleheart vs. Geekhouse vs. Budd Bike Works vs. Silky Cycles...In Space

This is the third and final installment in the New England Bicycle Expo series here on the Big Bikes. I probably could have nursed it for a couple more days, but I have a feeling that more stuff is going to come pouring in....more really awesome stuff. It might be that it's just a feeling. 

The big dog heavy hitter at NEBEs was Christopher Igleheart. He loves it when I call him that...big dog heavy hitter. His flagship at the show was a big ass randonee bike for a guy who's riding Paris Brest Paris. Or, as I say,

Paree Brest Par-iss. I only have the patience to pronounce Paris correctly once in a sentence.

Big guy on a big bike is still no match for fat guy in a little coat. 

Although big guy does have a big button on his stem that operates a headlight which runs off a generator hub.

Chris machined out the King headset top cap perfectly to accommodate this one-off-brilliant-weirdness. I want a button like that, but I want it to operate a death laser. Commuting into the city is bringing my inner bike messenger back out. I took my hands off the bars and held my arms out to a group of jaywalkers doing their lemming-like death march into an intersection this morning and bellowed "WHO WANTS A HUG?" No one did. Jerks. 

Geekhouse was in the...house with their new team-edition mountain bike. Word is that Marty is going back to mountain bike racing this summer. He's even talking about buying an old Intense...I think it's an M-1 and racing downhill again. He has to be careful though. The man is so influential, he might cause an avalanche of hipsters to follow him down the mountain on their brakeless fixed-freestyle bikes. He would be responsible for more deaths than the sick fuck who invented lawn darts. 

Geekhouse always has something slick to show off. 

And then. 

Snikt!

Brad and Greg from Geekhouse scrutinize the work of Matt Budd. 

Greg explores the many positions of the Budd Bolt Bar. 

The man on the right is either about to sneeze or he is saying "Aw fuck yeah dude!" I'd lean toward the latter. 

Like Niall from NFG Cycles, Matt Budd rode to the show with all his stuff. But unlike Niall, he rode only from Medford, not 100 miles from Easthampton. Of course he did actually bring some bikes in his massive Gentle Giant trailer. 

Karl Lee blew my god damn mind with his god damn Silky Cycles minimalist wooden fenders. I know Karl through my friend Dan. I knew that Karl worked with wood, I knew he messed around with metal in his basement, I even knew he could swing a pair of nunchucks after a few High Lifes better than most, but I didn't know that he made wooden fenders worthy of NAHBs-type-bikes (or that he spelled his name with a K). 

Wintah Hill Pumptrack from thom parsons on Vimeo.

 I also knew him as the guy who rips the world's smallest pumptrack in Winter Hill like no other man. 

His stuff looks good. How good is it really? Well shit...it's good enough for Drew from Engin to use it. 

One really impressive aspect of Karl's work is the attention paid to the brackets and mounts. 

Check it. 

Seriously dyude. 

You can mount the fuckers right to your axle on any bike. 

Did I already use the Wolverine deploying his claws sound effect today? Crap. I got nothin'. 

Remember when I said "I have a feeling that more stuff is going to come pouring in....more really awesome stuff," but "it might be that it's just a feeling." Well, there's a pretty good chance that it could be...