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The High Road professional cycling team announced a partnership with Right To Play in an effort to increase awareness of the charitable organization and in turn help improve the lives of children through the power of sport and play.

“Right To Play’s values and mission align with those of High Road. They develop the values and benefit of sport and play in society. Team High Road focuses on clean and fair sport and upon success won by fair means. We believe in the global work of Right To Play and hope that we can help, “says Team High Road owner, Bob Stapleton.

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It takes three generations of a single Italian family to make the Ghisallo rims, crafted from Slovenian beech using a laminated construction method that doesn’t produce a seam. Hjertberg sells them for $175 apiece.

Ric Hjertberg was at the show with the Italian wooden rims he imports. “They have DNA,” he says, “and they’re incredibly lively.” They’re also quite durable — he has nine months of everyday commuting on a pair of the wooden clinchers he imports. He also brings in two tubular rims: One weighs a mere 320 grams; the other, 420.

Shimano used the Handmade Show to unveil its 29er wheel. The nine in the graphic is a snake. Snakes eat frogs; if that’s an indication, the competition should look out. The wheels are built on a XT platform with 24 spokes, a 7075-T6 aluminum rim and XT freehub body. The set weighs 1810 grams and will be available in July.

The Grognard from the front.

The bar McCormick built has a purposefully large, flat top, palm-sized bullhorns and an integrated brake lever.

Its dropouts are hand cut, something craftsman Dave McCormick will do in any custom build.

Grognard Bicycle built this special fixie for the show.

Romano and Norstad built it up using Paragon’s junk bins.

The owners of VeloNews have entered into an agreement for the sale of the magazine, its website and parent company, Inside Communications Inc., to Competitor Group Inc., a recently formed private equity-financed media company based in San Diego, California. The deal, announced to staff on Friday, is intended to add needed financial clout to VeloNews and other ICI divisions, including VeloPress, VeloGear, VeloSwap and Inside Triathlon magazine.

Romano couldn’t throw the CAD scraps away, so he saved them for four years and molded the Garbage Fiber 3000.

Franco Romano, who was sharing space with Norstad at the show, builds CAD cut carbon frames using T-700 fiber.

Norstad, who has enough tubing for three more ti' couches, estimates this one's price at $16,000.

Norstad’s titanium couch. The titanium rods were originally made for medical usage as femur implants but when tested had too much iron in the alloy. They came to Norstad in a bundle 1.5 feet wide by 20 feet long. The couch took 300 hours to complete and is built on an aluminum frame. He has enough tubing for three more and estimates its price at $16,000.

Paragon’s business: All the little bits and pieces to build a bike.

Mark Norstad of Paragon Machine Works explains the intricacies of one of his bottle openers.

Moon's britches come in two styles, shorts and plus fives for men and women. The plus fives are shorter than pants and longer than knickers. The herringbone series Britches will cost $170.

Sheila Moon previewed her Herringbone Riding Britches at the show. She had her regular Riding Britches on sale for $100; they were a hit with the Portland crowd.

Fi’zi:k had three brown and black saddles at the show with matching brown Microtex handlebar tape. The styles fit the scene well.

The Brooks saddle booth had a fitting flat screen and the will, so the crowd grew.

Someone was looking for a good place to show a San Francisco-made messenger movie.

Nobilette also had a few customers’ bikes on display as well, including this custom white cyclocross bike.

Mark Nobilette, a builder from Longmont, Colorado, had a few frames on display. This one was built especially for the show.

SyCip's fixie sported matching tidbits, including the steel bar-and-stem combination.

The SyCip has a unique braking (or at least velocity-damping) system. It has a Formula Oro brake attached to its downtube and a rotor attached to the custom White Industries crank arm. Obviously, since the gear is fixed, the brake slows both cranks and the bike.

SyCip had one of the most-talked-about fixed-gear messenger bikes on the floor.

Actor and comedian Robin Williams was both admiring and admired.

Gravity racer Brian Lopes also visited, and he, too, seemed genuinely intrigued by the fine craftsmanship on display.

Lance Armstrong was in attendance, though there wasn’t a Trek in sight.

Hometown pride was on display for Portland, Oregon, and the builders who live and work there.

Exhibit hall C was packed to capacity with bike geeks for three days.

Monday's podium: from left, Won Jae Lee (Seoul Cycling), Mathieu Sprick (Bouygues Telecom), Anuar Manan (Letua Cycling Team) and Shinichi Fukushima (Meitan Hompo GDR).

Summer Fun in August 1975, A Day of Bike Races for U.S. Military Dependents in Frankfurt, West Germany Thanks to the USO, 7-UP, and AMF Bicycles

DeSalvo hasn’t had trouble keeping busy in the age of carbon fiber, Indeed, he says his titanium sales are growing. Just a few years ago it was a third of his business — now he estimates it’s up to half. He’s not afraid of the current carbon craze, saying his customers are constantly telling him that the “off the shelf stuff has no character.”

Mike DeSalvo could be found next door, behind one of his latest custom projects, a BMX-inspired 29er.

A Selle Italia saddle also gets the Vanilla treatment.

Sacha White, Vanilla’s proprietor, has a new paint booth in his workshop and isn’t afraid to make things match better — like this Ritchey stem.

Molly Cameron, a Vanilla Factory racer and owner of Portland’s VeloShop (in black behind the Speedvagen Project road bike), was just back from a European cyclocross campaign and hob-nobbing with attendees in the Vanilla booth.

Hunter's brake mount and stay junction is particularly smooth.

Hunter's single-pivot design rotates concentrically around the bottom bracket shell on four sealed cartridge bearings.

Hunter's bike also features a minimalist front-derailleur cable routing.

Hunter, hiding behind his latest creation. Notice the semi-integrated carbon seat tube.

Rick Hunter, who grew up racing mountain bikes, was proudly showing the first rendition of his "World Cup Level" full-suspension cross-country bike , which his wife will race on this year. The mostly True Temper OX Platinum steel bike weighs about 24 pounds and has 3 to 3.5 inches of travel.

The king of water bottle cages, King Cage, made by Ron Andrews in Durango, Colorado had special show stamps on the stainless steel and titanium cages he was selling.

Chris King is pictured in the center, with his collar up. He is in his early 20s in this photo.

The front end of the bike isn’t the only part that draws attention.

The fork crown is machined from stainless steel.

This frame is built with a 1-inch head that has a modified 1.125-inch Steelset headset brazed directly to its stainless lugs allowing a 1.125-inch fork steerer to be fitted.

Also on display in Chris King’s camp was a frame called Cielo. It’s a brand King started back in the ’70s, but took a backseat to the headset and hub business. King produced frames under the name as recently as ’96 but let it go dormant in the last decade. Now that King Components is settled and thriving in Portland, he hints at the possibility of bringing the bikes back to life.

Chris King also displayed a special “Sotto Voce” edition, named for its toned-down graphic. The standard-sized headsets were created just for the show, but the look was first unveiled on the 1.5-inch headsets. King wasn’t planning to release it to the retail market in the standard sizes, but seeing the overwhelmingly favorable response to its plans that may change in the near future.

The mahogany version of the special-edition 110.

Cane Creek makes a version of the 110 for integrated headsets called the 110 IS. The model pictured has a maple top cap and spacer.

A cutaway example of the internal workings of the 110. The headset comes with interlocking, hollow aluminum spacers, a captured compression ring — the key design element of the headset — and a split lip sealed bearing. The whole package weighs less than 100 grams.