For NAHBS newbies — that is, first-time builders — there’s a special table. It’s called the New Builder’s Table and entrants can only display one bike. Alex Cook is a Minneapolis native who has been building frames for about 5 years as A-Train Bicycles. This is his astounding NAHBS masterpiece: a candy-colored stainless steel 29er.

Alex went all out on this, there’s no doubt he’ll be invited back to future Shows. He started by building a fillet-brazed front triangle out of 4130 sleeve tubing, then cut it apart and took the joints. Those joints were then shaped by hand into a set of lugs, which he then used to join together a KVA stainless steel front triangle. The rear triangle is Columbus Life and the fork is a matching Niner carbon fork.

We’ve featured one of Alex’s bikes before, a stainless steel tourer, but you can chat with him in person at the 2013 NAHBS — he’s on Booth #9. If you can’t make it along, head to his website instead. Massive thanks to Dan Bailey of Pallas Athena Custom Bicycles for the scoop.





















