Industry speakers
Dale Brown
Dale Brown is a bike enthusiast and bike shop owner in Greensboro, NC. Originally from Yorktown VA, his dad was involved with the space program at NASA. Dale is a Vietnam vet, holds an BFA from UVa and a MFA from UNC Greensboro. He was a practicing artist & teacher before stolen away by his love of bicycles!
Dale also has made custom bicycle frames. His interest in vintage bikes led to the creation of the Classic Rendezvous web site and community. He organized the Cirque du Cyclisme in Greensboro for 10 years and then a few similar events since. He now has a large collection of fine vintage bikes and miscellany.
Gary Prange
Stephen Bilenky
Stephen Bilenky has been in the bike industry for 44 years. He began framebuilding in 1983, when he started brazing bikes together in the basement of his repair shop. Thirty years on, Bilenky Cycle Works has moved above ground to North Philadelphia with a full time staff of six. We have won numerous awards and acclaims, including rave reviews in Bicycling Magazine, Bicycle Guide, Tandem Magazine, Bicycle Quarterly and more. We won Best Road Bike (2010), Best Lugged Bike (2011), and Best Lugged Frame (2013) at NAHBS.
Since 2010, we’ve organized the annual Philly Bike Expo, bringing together makers and enthusiasts from around the country for a weekend-long celebration of everything bicycle. From 2006 to 2014 we hosted the world’s only Junkyard Cyclocross, where riders braved a course through our neighboring junkyard – over cars, through toxic puddles and around broken glass. Although wildly popular, it turned our hair grey(er) every year.
Bilenky Cycle Works is more than just a shop. It’s an enduring institution that is committed to enhancing the world of cycling, one handbuilt frame at a time.
Jim Kish
Based in the Piedmont of North Carolina, Kish Fabrication is a small framebuilding operation run by Jim Kish. Over the past 20 years, Jim has built thousands of high quality custom titanium and steel bicycle frames for enthusiastic cyclists around the world.
The story of Kish bikes begins in the early 90s with Jim logging thousands of miles as a bicycle tour leader. It was here that his passion for both cycling and engineering combined to lead him down the path of professional framebuilding. Specializing in titanium long before most current titanium bicycle suppliers even existed, Jim Kish is a true innovator of his craft. Jim handcrafts each and every frame here at Kish Fabrication using the techniques and knowledge he has gained over the years. When Jim isn’t building Kish frames he can also be found teaching as an instructor at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo’s Engineering department and at the United Bicycle Institute. Jim loves building bikes and he has taught hundreds of others how to get started in this rewarding craft.
Through these various experiences, he has been able to speak with thousands of cyclists about what they like about their bikes, their bike buying experiences — and what they’d change if they could.
Kish provides the unique opportunity to build a relationship with the person responsible for constructing your bicycle frame from start to finish. Jim keeps in touch with many of his customers after they have purchased bikes and those relationships are an important part of the Kish business.