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"I am very pleased to have Shimano come on board," said show organiser Don Walker.
"They have been working hard to establish relationships with independent framebuilders, and their presence at the show confirms exactly that."
Chad Roberts from Shimano’s US marketing department (not to be confused with Brit bike builder Chas Roberts) said
"Shimano supports small frame builders 100 per cent and feel that they are what makes the industry so special.
"Trends and new designs more often than not come from these smaller companies and without them the bike industry as we know it would not exist. All the big bike companies started out as small guys."
The seminars currently confirmed are:
Bill Boston: Accufit Designer Demonstration.?Craig Calfee: Modern Materials.?Tom Kellogg: How to choose your next framebuilder.?Brian Baylis: The classic steel lugged bicycle.?John Murphy: The art of lug carving.?Paul Sadoff: Performance cycling.?Reynolds Tubing: 953 Q/A.?Richard Schwinn: Decisions on your handbuilt bike – the promise and pitfalls.?Henry Folson: Lug making.
The cream of USAÂ’s frame builders will be there, including Richard Sachs, Tom Kellogg, J. Peter Weigle and not forgetting show organiser Don Walker. Litespeed and Merlin are also exhibiting.
Non-framebuilding exhibitors include Zipp, White Industries and Phil Wood.
The show has also added a guest of honour in legendary US frame builder A.D. "Art" Stump. Art Stump began framebuilding in the late 1960s and while he went more for quality than quantity, he became known for his lug carving and his beautifully ornate frames. Stump’s frames are very rare, and Walker says that anyone who owns one is welcome to display it at the show and get free admission for all three days.
Admission prices range from $12 for a one-day pass to $100 for a three-day pass including admission into the seminars.
