Lug Nuts

The bicycle as we know it has been around for over 100 years and there are many interesting stories on how innovations occurred along the way. This Sunday I attended the Philly Bike Expo mostly to attend a seminar by Gary Helfrich on the history and theory of titanium frame building. For those of you not familiar with Gary he was one of the founders of Merlin Metalworks, the first company to build titanium frames. As a proud owner of a titanium bike(a Feather not a Merlin) I wanted to learn more about the history of the titanium bike.

I didn't know much about Gary before the seminar but it turns out he is a crazy mad scientist and a very entertaining speaker. He had a lot of great stories not only from his 10 years as a roadie for Aerosmith but from the insanity that ensues when starting a new business while trying to do something  that other more knowledgeable people had tried and failed. Although Gary did a lot of drinking and drugging along the way his passion for bike building and titanium made him the leading expert in both disciplines.  For a glimpse of his genius and crazyness you should check out this link. as it will give you a general idea of his story.

I really enjoyed both his talks. We also got to see the Bike Snob who I think is even more funny in person than on his blog. All this was besides the actual show itself which is a exposition of cool custom bikes along with many cool bike accessories and cloths. I have included a few pictures below but you can see more pictures on Jim's post.

The main difference between this years show and the one I attended a few years ago was that I saw a lot less lug construction and a lot more welds. I know some people have an almost pornographic attraction to lugs but I think welds can be as attractive if they are done right. And after understanding how difficult it is to do a titanium weld properly I have an even better appreciation of how good they look.

I was lucky enough to have Jim along with me as he is a titanium bike geek and didn't mind getting up for an early ride. We ended up getting to Philly at 7am and doing an hour an a half ride around the city and through the Wisahickon before riding to the show. On the way back we found some public art that you see below. All in all it was good day for a couple of bike geeks.