Increasingly, it's not enough to just be a fantastic fabricator of custom bikes. Finish, business model, and brand are all just as important to an increasingly savvy consumer. Companies like Vanilla and Pegoretti have paved the way for a new wave of builders who strive to also offer the complete package, and one such brand is Nate Picklo's Lov Bikes.

Walking into his extremely dialed booth, one would never imagine that this is his first time at NAHBS, and his third year as a brand. "I've owned several business over the years, and this is the one I get to do that's purely a labor of love," said Picklo.

That love is apparent when you look at the work he produces. Based in Eagle, Colorado, a town steeped in cycling culture, Picklo makes sure that every step of production, from initial CAD drawings to finished paint, stays in-house for his full creative control.

"Having control over every aspect of a bike allows us to make sure that there's not one thing that doesn't pass our high bar for quality."

Picklo handles the engineering of each frame, and has three separate welders in house for each specific area of expertise: titanium, tig-welded steel, and fillet brazed. In addition, Lov Bikes prefers to deal in complete builds, so everything down to an accent on a rim to a detail on a stem gets completely worked out before a bike heads to its new owner.

The finishing work is where their brand aesthetic really shines, and Picklo personally paints each bike himself after extensive conversations with each customer on their desires for their dream bike. In order to remove all limitations, the price of the finish is already built into the upfront price of the frame, so while customers can choose something understated, there will still be subtle details involved.

Prices for steel Cross and Road come it at $3600 including forks. Titanium bikes start at $4100, and jump up to $6000 for a ti/carbon combination (their carbon tubes are sourced from ENVE composites). For more information, head to www.lovbikes.com