My VO Polyvalent among many practical steeds
The weather in Austin on Friday was perfect. Some of the afternoon was spent indoors appreciating the fine art of bicycle building, and some of the afternoon was spent appreciating the function of the bicycle. When one attends a show intended to focus attention on details, and when one spends a few hours admiring thousands of those amazing details, one can be overwhelmed.
I took a lot more photos than this, but I don’t even have the time to describe these few adequately. There were a lot more cool bikes that I didn’t spend much time with, or photograph. So, as I said in my previous post, let’s just say these are a few things that caught my interest and attention.
Brakeless, fixed gear, rando bike
I think easy travel was the motivation for this design
ANT had several clever designs present
I’m a sucker for retro
Richard Sachs cyclocross bikes, complete with mud
Lovely wooden fenders
Do I need these? No, but I want them anyway
Comfortable, functional, light
No BCD problems here, flexible design
My favorite Ellis bike, 23.4 pounds with racks, fenders, and lights
Bilenky beauty
Chainguard closeup
If I still used foot restraints…
Bishop beauty (matches Bilenky mixte)
There were all kinds
As one guy said, there’s another show outside
February sunshine, warm in Texas
Austin skyline across Lady Bird Lake
Nice day, looking forward to Saturday…
Pondero 
Sensory overload in a single post. I hope this will be the first of several more to come, but OFF TOPIC, I don't recall much info on the Polyvalent dribbling out in the past in these posts. Among other things, 650B tires are a matter of great interest, but also concern. A thorough report to your loyal fans is overdue.As for the cyclocross bike. I think that cross bikes are becoming the bike equivalents of Land Rovers – at British car meets, the Land Rover crowd bring along giant rocks and mud to enhance the displays. Even I, a dilettante in the area, take photos when Buddy gets all muddy so I can pull up suitably arty photos if needed in the future.
Reporting request – more details on the transmission of that Pashley Clubman. IG rear hub with bar end shifters and no travel agent to adjust the shift travel is VERY unusual. It looks like a S-A hub. I don't think JTEK makes bar end shifters for S-A. Inquiring minds want to know!
Actually the VO is my bicycle. I just let Mr. Pondero use it.
Thanks for the photos, I knew that you'd come through for us.That White Industries crank is very interesting. I bet you could use an extremely small inner chainring with that thing?
very cool
Fun, fun, fun! Although I've heard from friends that have attended previous editions of the NAHBS that sensory overload is a real issue.