New England Bicycle Expo Part One: Belle Helmets, NFG Cycles, and 2nd Suit

The New England Bicycle Expo went down this past Saturday at The Armory in Somerville, Mass. I was there tabling for Roll It Forward...and every other program and initiative of Boston Bikes. It looked like something like this:

My coworker Mo Mo and I sat there and mostly answered questions about Boston's upcoming Bike Share program. I have no idea what I said to people, because I don't actually know anything about the Bike Share, and what I do know I gleaned from this article on Boston.com halfway through the day.

At one point, my ex coworker Jose came up and told Mo Mo that she looked like "That actress, you know..." She finished his sentence "Lucy Liu? Never heard that one before." Then I said to him "Hey Jose, you know who you look like?" "Who, killah?" he asked. "Luis Guzman." 

"You know what you're doing kid?"

(That will be very funny to about six people who probably don't read this blog.)

Danielle Baskin from Belle Helmets (that's right "Belle" not "Bell") was there with her freaking gorgeous hand-painted helmets. 

A little event-specific model. 

A phrenology chart model. (That stuff really works y'know?). 

 And the rest were from her tarot card collection. 

If I had had a hundred-ish bucks on me and I wore BMX helmets, I totally would have bought this. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have mugged someone, bought it, and then hung it on my wall. 

I don't know about wearing headwear that looks like food. I mean, dudes are getting their heads attacked by animals in my neighborhood, and they don't even have heads that resemble food.

Matt from 2nd Suit was showing off his handmade from thrift store materials cycling caps. Look for him at the North American Handmade Bicycle...Hat Show or NAHBHS. I actually bought one of these hats, it's sick. I kept my own cap on throughout the day, but the second I got outside I threw my 2nd Suit cap on so I could look wicked, wicked cool while having beers with Christopher Igleheart at Flatbread in Davis Sq. And wouldn't you know, who comes walking in? Matt Reineck himself, the maker of these fine cycling caps. "Nice hat" he said. Fucking busted.

Niall from NFG Cycles (stands for Niall Francis Gengler) rode his god damn bike 100 miles from Easthampton, MA for the show. Nutter. His car wouldn't start so he said fuck it and hopped on his bike with a couple panniers full of photos and custom stems. 

He's collaborating with a BMW Ironworks to do cool stuff. Stuff like this:

That's a sweet bridge. 

 Niall also creates stems with an integrated brake cable stop. I have stood witness to the drilling of super-lightweight stems that no one has any business drilling to accommodate cyclocrossing types who insist on having their stems slammed, leaving no room for a stop below. This is way less terrifying.

Terrifying. That is what my day is going to be like tomorrow if I don't cut this short and go to sleep instead of yammering on about Christopher Igleheart's custom headset-cap-button for a hub generator on a crazy randonee bike or the brilliantly innovative wooden fenders I saw. That, will have to wait for tomorrow or the next day or the next day.

In the meantime you can watch this horribly offensive Mother's Day video (it's still Mother's Day while I'm writing this dammit) brought to you courtesy of Squirtgun Show. I am Thom Parsons and I did not approve this message...Squirtgun Show did. I am merely a very amused messenger.