MyWHaT

MyWHaT’s second guest writer, Bill Palladino, reports back from the NAHBS.

This past week found me in Richmond, Virginia attending the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, (NAHBS).   It’s the premier conference for custom bicycle frame builders attracting artists and craftsmen from around the world.  Most of the 120 or so booths at the Richmond Convention Center were occupied by small businesses often made up entirely of one individual.  There were also a collection of larger builders, still building custom frames, but with some more support behind them.

My interest at these shows is partly leisure, partly business.  I interview people for Dennis Bean-Larson’s Fixed Gear Gallery, where I often write reviews and create stories about the experience of riding my bike around the U.S. and elsewhere.  My emphasis at shows like this tends towards innovation.

Who’s taking us to the next place in bicycle practicality?

Rasmus Guesing of CykelMageren in Copenhagen. (From his website)

For one, Rasmus Guesing from Copenhagen, Denmark.  Rasmus heads up a small company that builds bikes, and most interestingly, creates its own custom crafted bicycle components.  His booth featured a tiny, hand-drawn sign for the company CYKELMAGEREN.

Everything was in shades of black and silver; from the drapes, to his clothing, and to the bikes and components themselves.  And there were candles.  I showed up to his booth early on Sunday – the last day of the event – and asked for an interview.  “Sure.” He said with a smiling face through strong, but broken English.  “I must first light the candles, please.”  All around the booth were small votives that he painstakingly lit one at a time.

We then started a delightful conversation about his design philosophy, his work, and the bike culture in his native country.  All of his creations shared a common design aesthetic that shouts out Scandinavia.  They are simple, practical pieces whose appearance is driven by intention.  A set of hubs that are user-buildable in several configurations.  A micro-sized stick shift for a Shimano three-speed hub.  A “lever-less” brake lever that uses the cable housing alone as the way to apply force.  Everything clean and pleasant to look upon, like the heyday of Swedish sports cars or Danish furniture design.

Bike design school

A Guessing design taken at the 2010 NAHBS show (Photo: Bill Palladino).

I asked him what schooling brought him to such cutting-edge design work.  As an American, I was anticipating a treatise about some long internship at a manufacturing company, or an advanced degree in mechanical engineering.  His off-handed response set me on my heels a bit, “I went to bicycle school in Denmark.  There, we choose to make a career out of this, like you would choose to be a doctor.”  He then mentioned that in Copenhagen, bicycles are so popular as a form of daily commuting that there is a constant shortage of bicycle mechanics!

NMC Bicycle Mechanic School…

So, I’m now left closing my eyes to imagine my hometown, Traverse City. What would things be like if the demand for bicycles was so high that NMC offered advanced classes in bike maintenance?  Maybe MTEC would have a special facility, (connected to the TART of course) and maybe the State of Michigan and Michigan Works would pay businesses to train employees for such work.

We have a long way to go in Michigan before bicycles and the culture that surrounds them are taken seriously, especially as a form of economic development.  I have a vision for this region that includes it being a magnet for all manner of businesses that contribute to the economy through their connection to the bicycling, walking and skiing community.  Bike shops, messengers, frame builders, tour groups, welders, web-sites, and innovators, all choosing to locate here because it’s simply the hippest, friendliest and most profitable place to do business for people in this sector.

I can’t imagine anyone saying that Brick Wheels, or McClain Cycles, or Boardman Paddle and Pedal are anomalies.  They are real businesses, not very different from any other retail store or manufacturer.  What they produce however contributes in a much more focused way to creating the type of community so many here seem to envision.  Let us find ways to support and encourage the creation of more businesses like these as a matter of practice.

John W. Gardner, writer and former secretary of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare famously said: “We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.”

We need to build demand and capacity for transportation alternatives in northern Michigan. When we ask for our leaders’ commitment to a vision so many of us played a role in creating, let us not take “no” for an answer.  And let us not accept that such a vision won’t work in Michigan simply because it hasn’t worked here before.  The auto industry, and by association the state of Michigan, are shadows of their former selves.

Who will be our next Henry Ford? Who will be Michigan’s Steve Jobs?  What role will Traverse City play in making it possible for these people to be recognized here, start businesses here, and claim ownership enough in this community that they will choose to stay here?

FYI: Prolly is not Probably has a video tour of this year’s NAHBS

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Bill Palladino is owner and principal consultant for Krios Consulting based in Traverse City. He provides strategy planning and leadership development for businesses and organizations around the world. In July of 2009 he gave away his perfectly good car, committing to ride his bike every day when at home. He can often be seen making his way to meetings around town on one of his fixed gear bikes with his brief case slung over his back and a sly smile on his face.

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