The head badges of the Handmade Bicycle Show

A head badge is the bicycle brand’s logo affixed to the head tube on the front of a bicycle. Here are a couple of dozen I saw at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show 2016, which took place last weekend in Sacramento, CA. You can find much higher resolution images for each of these head badges by clicking the links below. Each link will open a new window. Alternatively, you can start here and view my whole collection of NAHBS photos as a slideshow.

Head badge Montage NAHBS 2016

This first set shows head badges from Wittson Custom Ti Cycles; Andrew Low of San Francisco; Karen Massier’s bike built at the University of the Fraser Valley bicycle technology program, a reproduction of an 1888 “Whippet” full suspension bike, also built at the University of the Fraser Valley; Sarto; and Ti Cycles. The Ti Cycles head badge is a montage of scenes from the city of Portland, OR plus some history of that builder.

Head badge Montage NAHBS 2016

You can see a collection of some of the headbadges Rick Hunter of Santa Cruz County uses for his bikes in the top row of this second set. Caletti‘s head badge on the orange Scrambler features his last initial and a seagull. Rex Cycles has used essentially the same head badge design for I don’t know how many decades. The man throwing a flower appears on a bamboo bike from Boo Cycles of Fort Collins, Colorado.

Head badge Montage NAHBS 2016

This next set of head badges includes a sheep for Black Sheep Bikes of Fort Collins. The buffalo in that next head badge appears on 36er built for the fabricator’s son, which is interesting given the rivalry between the Colorado State University Rams of Fort Collins, and the University of Colorado Buffalos in Boulder.

CICLI IRIDE is a century old Italian brand of steel bicycles built in an old factory somewhere outside of Venice.

The next two badges come from No. 22 Bicycle Company of New York. That last tree badge comes from Mosaic Bicycle Company.

Head badge Montage NAHBS 2016

In this final set, we see another badge from Mosaic Bicycle Company. Don Walker, who organizes NAHBS every year, uses his family crest for the head badge on his bikes. Kent Eriksen’s badge evokes his Scandinavian Viking heritage. DirtySixer’s brass headbadge on the white head tube features the 36″ wheel their bikes are designed around. English Cycles uses a simple capital letter “E.”

That bamboo skateboard from Boo Bicycles has a decal on the truck. This isn’t Boo’s standard head badge, and I don’t know skateboard truck companies so I don’t know if this is a truck decal, or something special Boo made. If you know skates, I’d love to know about it.

The skateboard is a long board that Boo’s founder uses SUP style, with a bamboo pole used to push the skater along. They’re thinking about launching this as a Kickstarter later in the Spring of 2016.

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