NAHBS 2014 (North American Hand-Built Bicycle Show)

For those of you that don't geek out over bikes like I do, you'd be surprised to know that there is an annual show where all of the best bike builders come to show off their newest and raddest bikes. It is usually out West somewhere or at least far away. I was lucky enough to attend the Austin show a few years back. The story goes that my business trip happened to coincide with the show. Its remotely possible that my friend Bill & I came up with a business trip to make that convenient. Remotely possible. Anyway, this year's NAHBS was in Charlotte, NC. I live in Greenville, SC now. That's 2 hours away.

Serendipity.

Jenny, I know what you're thinking. No, I did not find the Sunex Tools job and move us to Greenville to make it easier to go to the NAHBS Charlotte show. Admittedly, that's only because I didn't think of it. Better to be lucky than good.

Anyway, the show was great. There were a lot of fat bikes... a lot. There were some really sexy cross bikes. I literally backed into Tom Ritchey. Bike people are the nicest lot of folks you'll bump into. Here are the photos.

Alpacka PackRaft Plug Keeper

Here's a quick and easy project to make keeping up with your packraft inflation valve plug.

I originally tied a short cord around the back lash strap and the small hole in the plug. This keeps the plug attached to the raft so you don't do something stupid like kicking it in the river while you're inflating the boat. Unfortunately, the cord tends to get twisted and it gets in the way... very annoying.

I was able to make this quick and easy attachment point that mimics the keeper on your trusty Nalgene water bottle out of a scrap piece of plastic (this one was from a ziploc container).

Start with some scrap plastic - a milk jug would work nicely as well.

Sketch out your template. Make sure you set the ID to snap into the groove on the plug. I used a 29mm diameter as I recall. 

Make it!

Install your cord of choice.

Voila! Bonus points for fancy knots.