The 2011 Handbuilt Bike Show is just 10 days away. This year’s extravaganza will be hosted in Austin, Feb 25 and 26. Wheel Fanatyk will display our wheels and tools and I hope to see as many of you as possible.

So many unique bikes and components are built for a show like this, attendees are full of anticipation. Among the surprises will be a his and her pair of city bikes conceived by Brett Horton of hortoncollection.com fame. I won’t spill the details but am proud to be building the wheels. Ghisallo agreed to make four special profile 650B rims with mahogany inlays.

The hubs are Phil Wood one-offs, the rear contain Rohloff 14 speed internal guts. I could hardly believe my eyes when these hubs arrived in Seattle. Before shipping them back, I caught a couple images.

141mm flange diameter!

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Last month I was privileged to build a pair of wonderful wheels onto an unforgettable hub set – Prior, great examples of the elegant, high flange hubs that decorated the cycling scene, especially track racing, from the 1930’s to ’50’s.

Almost too delicate to work!

The flange is precisely coned inwards to match the spoke path to the rim.

Perfect geometry.

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