Part of the fun of NAHBS is the paint and wicked finishes the builders come up with, many of which are for actual customers who’ve been patient enough to let the builders bring their bikes to the show before delivering them. For this roundup, we’ve picked some of the best from four builders and brands.
FiftyOne Bikes
FiftyOne Bikes is named after the special number plate that’s earned a bit of mystique over the years for riders starting with a low ranking number and going on to win the Tour de France. For this year’s collection, they started with that bolted white bike shown at the top, then moved onto a smooth white-to-green-to-black paint scheme to celebrate their home country of Ireland.
Notice the little three-leaf clovers in the paint?
The FiftyOne Mad Bastard is a celebration of fast bikes that don’t play by the UCI’s rules for shapes and sizes. Built as a showcase for what they can do, it (along with the rest of their carbon bikes) uses a special process that removes the surface layer of resin so they can bond the tubes together better, resulting in a stronger frame. Check them out at FiftyOneBikes.com.
Enigma Bicycle Works
England’s Enigma Bicycle Works might be close to FiftyOne’s part of the world, but their bikes tend toward the classic (and metal tubes), but are fully modern and use incredible finishes. In year’s past we’ve seen an ultra-deep candy apple red. This year, they brought this shade-shifting gravel bike.
Depending on where the light is hitting it, the green or purple becomes more dominant.
Careful masking lets the metal show through.
This was their Campy bike contest entry, which they tweaked by polishing all the other parts to match…shiny silver Rolf Prima rims and hubs, White Industries cranks and chainrings, headset, stem, seatpost and more all matched the polished Campy derailleur, levers and brakes.
Enigma makes a range of drop bar bikes, from pure road racing models all the way to off-road gravel bikes. More info at EnigmaBikes.com.
Cerreta Cycles
Cerreta makes lugged and fillet-brazed steel bikes, and this one’s paint scheme reminded us of the stealth schemes used on fighter jets and prototype cars to hide their angles. Which is fitting, because the builder is ex-Air Force and has traveled the world fabricating parts for various types of planes. Now retired, he’s switched to making bicycles.
The notched chainstay bridge was a nice little hidden feature, too. More at CerretaCycles.com.
Panasonic Bicycles
The new Panasonic ORCD05 “gravel” bike is a steel frame, disc brake option that joins a new disc brake ti road bike (not shown) offered on their website. Want an adventure? Try finding their website…but this link will take you to a Google Translated page for this model.
Not a stock paint scheme, this stained glass finish with color-chromed lugs was gorgeous.
The back of the bike had it’s own unique finish, blending a couple shades of green into a matte ano. Dropouts are custom lost-wax cast, as are the head tube lugs.
So, how big of a deal is the paint and color at NAHBS? Check out Anna’s NAHBS by the NUMBERS post on style and color to see what all goes into it!
