Just like that, the 2026 MADE bike show is upon us! Neil, Nic, and I are out capturing what we believe are some of the show’s most interesting bikes, and although load-in day always starts slow, we hit the ground running.

It’s truly amazing what the framebuilders make happen for the show. Between the travel, preparation, shipping logistics, time away from family and friends, and the design and fabrication of a show-worthy bicycle, we’re honored to play a small role in sharing their craft with our readers and anyone who can’t make it to the show in person. This year feels slightly bittersweet, as we mentioned in yesterday’s interview with MADE’s Director of Show, Billy Sinkford, this year will be the last year hosted at Zidell Yards.

Without further ado, I’m pleased to present our first roundup of bikes and builders from the 2026 MADE bike show. You’ll find stunning hand-built creations from Frances Cycles, SimWorks, Kyoot, Woodpecker Cycle Co., and Rare Earth.

Frances Cycleslink

Santa Cruz, California

Joshua Muir of Frances Cycles has been building custom bicycles and other things out of the same small shop in Santa Cruz, California, for two decades. He has attended three of the last four MADE bike shows, and it’s always a pleasure to see what new kid/gear/grocery-hauling rig he shows up with.

In 2023, Joshua showed off a Platypus “mid-gravity bike” equipped with a Farfarer trailer. The next year, he brought his daily-rider, carry-everything Mixte Hauler, and although we missed him at last year’s show, we’re happy to see him return for 2026.

The Frances Trishaw, a Malaysian-inspired cargo rickshaw on display at this year’s MADE bike show, is yet another example of Joshua’s interest in car-free living and bike-powered cargo hauling. Like the Malaysian rickshaw, the Trishaw has a forward-sloping head tube, so as you steer, the load rises, and as you let go, it straightens out. They can weigh over 350 pounds, but the Frances Trishaw weighs under 70 pounds.

Joshua explained, “It gets a little rad and tippy and fun, but yeah, once you put the load in it, then you can feel the benefit of the steering design.” He rides it several times a week to get around town and meet up with friends, but it also works well for toting friends and family, like when his mother visits him. Joshua works for the local farmers market, and he uses the Trishaw to put out road signs every morning. The bike he has at the show will be the market’s new bike.

The Trishaw is loaded with clever details, including two dynamo front lights with tiny roll cages, sheet-metal fenders laser-cut by SendCutSend and then bent by Joshua, quick-release wheelchair wheels, and a beautiful cargo platform made from salvaged wood. Joshua said that one of his most memorable moments on the Trishaw was hauling a massive galvanized container full of water, with his kid riding naked inside, water sloshing all over the place. What a sight that would have been!

Joshua also has a full fleet of Farfarer trailers at the show, available for purchase. We’ve showcased the Farfarer trailer several times here on site, including Cass’ long-term review, but in short, it’s a one-wheeled cargo trailer that is designed to fit most any bike.

It comes in four hitch sizes, and Joshua only recommends the fat-tire version for riding in snow or sand, because the standard version is nice and light, and the tires are plenty big for most types of riding. There’s no definitive weight limit, but it can easily support 50 pounds of cargo, and it handles it best when the weight is positioned nice and low. If it’s high, the entire trailer will swing back and forth, and it won’t feel good. The Farfarer trailers start at $650 and can be ordered online here.

Kyootlink

Austin, Texas

During my visit to La Marche, I was pulled aside by our friends at SimWorks for an early look at some of the bikes they were displaying at MADE. The soft purple Kyoot Rolly Polly was built in collaboration with SimWorks, and it will be auctioned off at the Ramen and Gyoza party on Saturday at the SimWorks showroom, inside the Chris King factory.

The Rolly Polly is a fun-filled 20-inch mini-velo designed around a 4130 Chromoly steel frame, thru-axles, clearance for 20 x 2.4″ tires, and a SRAM UDH rear dropout. The special MADE show build comes with a custom handmade frame bag, a Microshift drivetrain, Paul Klampers, and a cute little RC car strapped onto the front rack.

Anyone in Portland can see the Kyoot in person this Saturday at the SimWorks showroom from 5 to 8 p.m. They brought friends all the way over from Japan to chef up some ramen and gyoza, and we hear there will be beer, music, RC cars, and more.

SimWorkslink

Japan

During my visit to the SimWorks showroom, I also got an early look at some fresh colors coming down the pipeline. The first is a stunning sparkly deep-green paint option for their Doppo Ronin, a mixed-terrain adventure bike with clearance for 27.5 x 2.22″ tires and plenty of mounting points. It was difficult to capture the paint job, but it gave off sparkly bass-boat green vibes.

SimWorks is also using the MADE bike show to unveil its latest limited-edition colorway: mango! The Ronin was kitted out with a mango stem face plate, top cap, and seatpost. The mango Taco Pedals are a smaller version of the standard model, which the team referred to as the “taquitos pedals.” The idea is that they use the same shape and style but are smaller for those with smaller feet or who prefer smaller pedals.

Woodpecker Cycle Co.link

Lacey, Washington

Daren Beenen is the mind behind Woodpecker Cycle Co. and has shown up to this year’s MADE with some incredible handmade bikes. The showstopper is undoubtedly his mini velo. Dubbed the Thick Mini, Daren said it was inspired by bikes he’d seen at Bespoked. “There’s a lot of fun stuff at Bespoked, and then I presented at last year’s MADE and felt inspired. So, I wanted to get in on the good times,” he added. Originally intent on making his own electric mini velo that cleared 20 x 2.8” tires, Jeremy from Teravail convinced him to drop that idea. Daren eventually landed on this homage to the Schwinn Stingray with a Pinion gearbox and a belt drive.

The bike features a twin top tube and stick shifter, and it maintains clearance for massive tires, but the hardest part of the build was the shifter. He had to take a Pinion grip shift and reverse-engineer the stick shifter housing to make it work. Using modeling and 3D-printing, he made roughly 20 test prints to get it just right. He also used the same technology for each of the bike’s junctions, and machined the insert for the Pinion system himself because he was unhappy with the overall look and feel of the supplied insert. The Thick Mini has a completely silent drivetrain, thanks to Onyx hubs and the belt drive system, making it super smooth.

The bike also features the first-ever fork Daren has made for a bike, made possible with help from Corey Thompson of Thompson Cycles, and it uses a crown provided by Crust Bikes. While cool-looking, the truss fork element on the front end is purely aesthetic and doesn’t function as actual support. Daren says it’s actually somewhat similar to how Schwinn used to do it. Finished with Paul Klampers, North Shore Billet cranks, a Teravail dropper post and handlebars, it’s a subtle yet blingy build for an already eye-catching bike. Finally, it’s topped off with a matte, rustic-texture colorway.

Rare Earth Cyclelink

River Falls, Wisconsin

Last, but certainly not least, is Brian Hall of Rare Earth Cycle. Every year, Brian dazzles us with his wildly creative details, otherworldly finishes, and unmatchable commitment to his craft. The most surprising part? He only started building bikes for himself four years ago as a creative outlet. The level of ambition he has for framebuilding is unmatched at the MADE bike show. Brian is an overachiever and continues to surprise us. He had three 32-inch bikes on display at the show.

Rare Earth Rare Berd

Although we’re early in the show and there’s a lot more to see, the Rare Berd might be the most impressive one yet. At first glance, you might assume some of the more intricate shapes are carbon or 3D-printed, but Brian created an interior skeleton of 3/8″ tubing that’s covered in 4130 sheet metal, encasing the structure within. The top tube, chainstays, and fork are all constructed this way.

In the case of the Rare Berd, this construction method allowed Brian to hone the bike’s aerodynamics in a way that wouldn’t be possible with round tubes. He hasn’t ridden the bike much yet, so the only thing he isn’t sure about is how much the fork will flex. He said it didn’t feel especially wobbly on a quick ride before the show, but this is more of a prototype that he’ll be testing thoroughly before using these methods on any customer’s bike.

Brian isn’t a weight weenie, but he went with a really weight-weenie build kit to try out some amazing components from awesome brands. He enjoyed the process of diving into all the details, picking out the perfect pieces, and pulling it all together.

“One of my favorite vendors who I haven’t really worked with yet but was really excited to work with me on this project is a company out of Eastern Europe called Bjorn. They make really lightweight carbon parts and provided the seatpost, 3D-printed saddle, handlebars, and bottle cages,” he said. Brian’s favorite piece of the build is the crankset from WERT, a small boutique titanium crank company out of the Netherlands. The cranks weigh only 320 grams but are still incredibly strong.

Rare Earth Crazy Cloud

Brian’s Crazy Cloud was the first 32-inch bike he made. He wanted to ride the Doom bikepacking race in Arkansas this spring, so he built up the bike specifically for that event. It ended up being more of a mountain bike race than a gravel event, so it’s more of a short-travel 32-inch cross-country mountain bike, and he loves it.

Since building the Crazy Cloud, Brian hasn’t ridden a 29er. Even though Doom didn’t go exactly as planned, he has been riding it non-stop ever since and still has his little Doom bell hanging from the downtube to keep the spirits and bad luck at bay. Brian explained that although the seat tube angle looks quite steep, it rides more like 76°; in reality, it’s a few degrees steeper. He had to offset the seat tubes off of the bottom bracket to get the clearance needed for 32-inch wheels.

The bike is finished with a custom integrated handlebar and stem that Brian made, an Intend inverted fork, and steel cranks from Cyber Cycles in Germany. The complete bike weighs just 30 pounds, which is impressive for a steel full-suspension mountain bike.

Rare Earth Gunni Flyer

One of Brian’s show bikes is near and dear to our hearts here at BIKEPACKING.com as it belongs to our very own Neil Beltchenko. Dubbed the Gunni Flyer, it’s a 32” bike that started to come together at the 2025 MADE show. As Neil admired the incredible craftsmanship of the Holy Mountain full-suspension bike Brian built last year, the wheels started to turn on Neil’s next custom bike. Originally conceived as a super mullet, the Gunni Flyer was born when Brian convinced Neil to take the plunge on the hot new tech.

The bike features a host of eccentricities that balance Neil’s love for efficiency and speed with the challenges of building a bike around 32” wheels, even as the technology is still getting there. According to Brian, no rigid fork on the market for 32” wheels fits his needs. So, he created a Rare Earth classic semi-truss fork that let him use lighter tubing, albeit with more material, to achieve the same strength.

He also had to attach the chainstays to the seat tube to keep them the right length while accommodating the larger wheel size. The top tube is also a typical Rare Earth design, with parallel tubes that host his custom bolt-on attachments, allowing the rider to easily commission a seamless custom frame bag. Borrowing from one of his other show bikes this year, the seat tube junction features a 4130 sheet-metal sheath for better aesthetics and aerodynamics.

Neil will dive into the build in more detail in a future post, but the bike features a custom San Util bag and a new production option on the top tube called the Fault Line.

That’s part one of our 2026 MADE bike show coverage! The event opens to the public today at 9 a.m., and we’ll be back at it tracking down more awesome bikes. Let us know what you’d like us to check out in the Conversation below!

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