The Made show returns to Portland for the second year, providing a geographic alternative to the Philly Bike Expo and Master Bike Builders shows on the eastern side of the USA.

Frame building in the San Francisco Bay Area goes back to the 1890s. The area has seen highs and lows since then, most recently a low when the tech boom priced many workshops out of the area. Post Covid, frame builders have been trickling back in, including Oakland-based Zabrina Cycles.

The Master Bike Builders Show in Bentonville, Arkansas, Sep 14-15, is a further sign that the custom bicycle shows industry as a whole is evolving into a stronger promotional vehicle for the sector.

Serotta bikes were everywhere late last century, and his fit apparatus was at the leading edge. He was so good, people were copying him. Then the company disappeared, only to resurface again around the time of Covid. It would take a large book to fully tell the story, but Ben himself gave the outline view when we met him earlier this year at the Philly Bike Expo.

The Covid shutdown of 2020 was pure opportunity for Ben Jurgensen, then a 33 year-old sculpture studio teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design. Freed from the routine of everyday life, he started on the path of bicycle frame building to create July Bicycles. He describes that time as “my sourdough."

Bilenky Cycle Works stands among the select few bespoke frame builders ready and willing to craft ebikes, a fact starkly evident at the Philly Bike Expo where Steve Bilenky’s enterprise stood as a beacon amidst a sea of – albeit excellent – custom built convention.

An astonishingly efficient all-rounder, this bike by Naked does everything well. Its primary purpose is 75-100 mile mixed-surface rides with 10,000ft climbing and descending. Good riders on other bikes have been unable to even finish these rides. In my view, energy saved by this bike is what made the difference.

Stepping up from bike maintenance to frame building is, well it's more a leap of faith. Charles Thompson of Fine Bikes completed that leap last year, and in the biking boom town of Raleigh, North Carolina, he's plying a healthy trade in partnership with Oak City Cycles.