NAHBS

The weekend began with an "early" departure Friday morning for our final destination Burke, VA with a slight detour to Richmond for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS). Our schedule/predicted departure time was 8:30 which quickly turned into 10ish after gas and picking everyone up, we finally got on the road. Before we left I decided that I need to a sweet cyclist Tat to make me fast for the weekend, and judging by most of the hipster cyclists the calf is the appropriate place to get it, I thought a skull would make me fast so I went for it:

Don't worry Mom, it's a temporary (I credit my success of the weekend to this).

Four of us, myself and three other members of the VT Cycling team (Reid, Zach, and Justin) were off to enjoy the rare opportunity of big bicycle show coming to the East Coast. After a very drawn out drive with bathroom breaks and stops for food we finally arrived in Richmond around 2PM. Since we were all prepared for a weekend of racing, we had lots of gear with us and Zach wanted to try out his brand new TT helmet to see if it would really make him more "Aero":

I don't know that 80MPH is a good representation, but if you're curious how those dimples work I'll explain it for you

Once we arrived we began contemplating the dilemma of having 4 very expensive bikes on the roof rack that: 1. were valued around $10k between 4 carbon bikes, 2 power taps, and 2 sets of deep dish wheels which couldn't be locked and 2. could not make it into a parking garage without being chopped off by a low-hanging yellow bar. We quickly determined that we needed to find a place to drop our bikes before heading to the show. Fast forward an hour later after dropping our bikes off at an undisclosed location, we finally arrived at the show around 3PM. I had arrived with an agenda, pick up a Chris King Tamp that had recently surfaced on Twitter via @MellowJohnny's and @ChrisKingBuzz. I wouldn't say that I B-lined it toward the Chris King exhibit but I managed to make it there within 1o minutes of being in the door.

These tweets from @MellowJohnny's first notified me of the awesomeness that is the Chris King Tamp.

A Tamp for all of those who are curious is a tool that's used when preparing Espresso. The tamp is used to compact the ground Espresso in a portafilter and give a level surface for water to be forced through to ensure even shots (of espresso) are pulled. Chris King is a producer of precision components for bikes, most notably headset's (the part that makes the fork turn smooth) but also hub's and other components.

Needless to say I had to have one and after my recent purchase of my Sirena, and wanting to switch from the stock pressurized portafilter to a user tamped portafilter it seemed as if it were meant to be. Kinda fitting that I picked up a tamp for Espresso this is technically "My Daily Ground."

Great Success! Well I couldn't decide on color so I picked up both.

They only had 58mm for now, which is perfect because that's the size of my portafiler (and also the standard size).

After making my only purchase of the day I had time to enjoy exploring and drooling over all of the incredible bikes at the show. I've been toying with the idea of going to UBI for about two years now and with my job starting this summer I think it's emminent after this show. One very cool thing about the show was the Blue Moon Brewing Company was sponsoring the show, and provided a happy hour with free beer.

The line for the Blue Moon Happy Hour

After partaking in the carbo-loading (for tomorrows race of course) that was provided I had the opportunity to talk to several builders and ask them how they got started building.

My favorite bike of the show, a Vanilla Speedwagen Cyclocross bike that was P-lush!

Another really cool bike at the show, a 24-ct. Gold plated Peacock 29er

Some of my photos from the show.

After about three-hours of oogling we decided it was time to get back on the road toward our final destination, our host housing for the weekend in Burke. We stopped by Chipotle where Reid and I talked to the regional manager for about an hour about the product they serve and whether or not they should have "messages" in the store, the manager appreciated our feedback and time and gave us both a gift card for FREE burritos!

The rest of the nights drive was pretty uneventful finally arriving around 10ish and setting up basecamp.

Basecamp.

The night ended early but not before watching some of the Olympics where unfortunately Apollo was DQ'ed for "pushing" another skater in his heat, bummer! Up early for a full day of racing at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.