Texas Custom Bike Show!

I received this email from Glenn Thompson a few days ago. Glenn is the owner of Daltex Custom Bicycles from Dallas (obviously). He's also the guy putting this show together:

Good Afternoon!

In less than a month the best handmade framebuilders from Texas (also Oklahoma, Arkansas, & New Mexico) will gather in Austin Texas for the 4th Annual Texas Custom Bicycle Show. This year's show has 24+ exhibitors and will be the biggest TxCBS to date. Six of the exhibitors are from the DFW area. This year's show will be held October 15th & 16th at the Austin Convention Center. www.TexasCustomBicycleShow.com

I'd love to go to this year's show, unfortunately that's not possible. If you've been looking for an excuse to visit Austin, this is it. If you do go please take lots of photos (I want to see them) and be sure to say hello to Fort Worth bike builder Jeremy (Gallus Handmade Bicycles). I wonder what new creations Glenn and Jeremy will be taking to the show this year?

Gallus Handmade Bicycles

This past weekend I had the privilege of dropping by Jeremy's place to check out his workshop, which is better known as Gallus Handmade Bicycles. I found Jeremy in the process of building a custom aero time trial fork for a customer. This was a rush job, so everything else was put on hold. He showed me the CAD drawings of the fork he designed and the dropouts that he was hand grinding from a small steel plate. All kinds of challenges were popping up for this seemingly small job. One thing that I can say for Jeremy is that he is detail oriented. That's a quality you want in your frame builder.

I followed Jeremy out to the garage behind the house where his shop is set up. In this photo you can see the time trial bike that will be the recipient of the custom aero fork. I was a little surprised to see a carbon fiber frame in the shop of a man who works primarily with steel.

Some tools of the trade.

Jeremy shows me a fixed gear frameset that's still a work in progress.

This is a frame jig built by the man who taught Jeremy to build frames.

After a short tour we went back into the house where we talked about his recent participation in a 600k brevet. That's 373 miles of riding in just over 35 hours. Of course this feat was accomplished on one of his own creations. He says that the feeling is just starting to return to his hands.

We discussed his plans for the business and future projects, bikes and otherwise. I ended up taking far fewer pictures than I had intended but I knew he was busy and didn't want to delay him any further.

I must say that getting a behind the scenes look at the work Jeremy's doing and getting a glimpse at his thought process when it comes to bike building, I was very impressed.

Support your local frame builders!

Texas Custom Bicycle Show

For two days in October (16th and 17th), Texas' most talented framebuilders will converge on Austin for the third annual Texas Custom Bicycle Show. Glen, the owner and talent at DALTEX Handmade Bicycles, is the person responsible for putting this show together. He asked me to help spread the word. The first day of the show, October 16th, is being held at Austin Music Hall in downtown Austin (that's 208 Nueces St. to be exact). The second day consists of a show and cyclocross race at 4210 W. Braker Lane in north Austin. For more info and a list of builders attending this years event check out the website.

Several weeks back while on a group ride I had the opportunity to chat with Jeremy Shlachter (Gallus Handmade Bicycles). He's got something interesting that he's putting together for the show. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a secret so I won't repeat what he told me. Let me just say that I'm looking forward to seeing it. I can't write a post that mentions Glen or Jeremy without showing some examples of their work. So, here you go.

Gallus

Gallus

Jeremy hard at work

DALTEX

DALTEX

DALTEX-I love the design on the head tube.

If you're thinking about going to the show but don't have a way down there, drop by the Amtrak website. Round trip from Fort Worth to Austin is less than $70. I don't know what their policy is about travelling with your bike.