North American Hand Made Bicycle Show -

San Jose, California, March 2-4, 2007

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Part 6 - Top builders honor one of their own

By James Huang in San Jose, CA

Bruce Gordon accepts his award for "Best in Show"
Photo ©: Jonathan Maus

This year's North American Handmade Bicycle Show finished off in the usual fashion: with an award ceremony honoring its own for various achievements, including "Best Lugged Bicycle" (Brian Baylis), "Best Road Bicycle" (Tony Pereira), and "Best Tandem" (Dave Bohm/Bohemian Cycles). Winning the overall "Best of Show" category, however, was none other than long-time builder Bruce Gordon.

Gordon is somewhat of an icon among the hand built crowd, having earned his status over the course of one-third century starting back in 1974. In fact, one of the draws of this year's show was Gordon's own monster-sized booth, which he used to display the personal collection of bicycles and frames he's built for himself over his 33-year career. According to Don Walker, founder and organizer of the NAHBS, and an accomplished framebuilder in his own right: "I don't know of another builder who has such a complete collection of his work, including so many varieties and styles, in a year-by-year progression."

Interesting configuration of the rear bottom bracket area.
Photo ©: James Huang

Indeed, Gordon's career has spanned a longer period of time than some of the builders on hand had been alive. Although he is best known for his lugged work, the majority of Gordon's business these days involves a TIG welder. "For the first 15 or 16 years, all I did were lugged bikes; basically two a week," he said. "When I moved from Oregon in 1989, it sort of flip-flopped, and all of a sudden everything went from lugged bikes to TIG-welded bikes. The last few years with these shows, I started making fancier lugged bikes again. For me, they're sort of therapeutic; it's the way I used to do things."

Gordon has been in the business longer than nearly everyone else at NAHBS save for a select few. Given his longevity in the industry, he has a few words of wisdom for the newest crop of builders: "Don't start with 'ok, I'm going to make bikes.' Think it through. Making bikes is the easy part; selling them is the hard part."

With any luck, the majority of the builders on hand this year will take those words to heart and thrive for years to come; a lucky few may last long enough to achieve Gordon's status within the framebuilding microcosm. When asked what he'd like to be remembered for whenever he decides to hang up the welder and/or the torch, Gordon has a simple hope: "I'd just like to be remembered for making really nice bikes."

Spectrum Powderworks covers the faux gas tank
Photo ©: James Huang

The 2007 North American Handmade Bicycle show has now put itself to bed for the year with another healthy growth in traffic (over 4000 people attended this year) and an ever-dedicated following. According to Walker: "I could not be more pleased about the way it has gone. All we need to take it to the next level is corporate sponsorship - and I think the show is ready for that."

Next year's show will be held February 7-10, but with a change of scenery to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. In fact, Walker hopes to move the show each year to highlight different regions and their builders in order to balance out the creative flavor of the show. "We're still figuring out our circuit, but I think the way to go with it is to have one well publicized event, move on for the next year, and then come back three or four years later."

Regardless of how things shape up, we're already looking forward to next year's show. See you all then.