NAHBS on the trail: Hope and a Russian hardtail

North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) has returned to Sacramento, California and, while boutique road bikes may be front and centre, there’s always some interesting projects at the show that are destined for dirt.

Russias Triton bicycles had a singlepeed hard tail on display. Over at Hope Tech, a U.K.-made carbon and aluminum enduro bike was hanging out. While not hand made, Shimano showed its XTR M9100 group off, including the new black crankset.

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Triton – Russia

Triton's titanium mountain bike was set up singlespeed at the show

Sliding dropouts make for an easy singlespeed conversion, though its easy to be distracted by Cane Creeks eewings titanium crankset

Triton is a Russian brand making custom titanium bikes by hand in Moscow. It had a titanium hardtail set up singlespeed in the booth, with an Endless cog and very trick Cane Creek eewing titanium cranks to match the frame.

Hope Technology – U.K.

Hope's HB 211 prototype isn't new, but it is very nice

Hope's machine aluminum rear triangle moves around a carbon fibre front triange

Hope is better known for its beautifully machined and high quality mountain bike components, but the Barnoldswick, U.K. company’s full mountain bike looks pretty spot on, too. On display in the Hope booth was the HB211 prototype, the precursor to its HB 160 enduro race bike. Hand-laid carbon front triangle matched to a machined aluminum rear triangle, all done in house in Barnoldswick.

Shimano XTR M9100

Shimano's new XTR group is shopping with a black crankset for now

The new XTR hubs

The full XTR kit hung off a unbranded Yeti frame

Shimano’s long-awaited update to XTR will be rolling out on select 2019 bikes. NAHBS was one of the first opportunities to see the new FC-MT900 crankset and non-Scylence FH-9111 hubs that the group will now ship with. The changes were announced recently, after delays and modifications from the original launch.