Mavic at MADE 2026: A Thank You to the Builders

From August 21 to 23, Zidell Yards was filled with the work of independent framebuilders from around the world, for the fourth running of MADE, the largest handmade bicycle show anywhere. We were there. So were sixteen bikes running Mavic wheels, built by hands we're proud to call partners.

A Show Built By the People Who Build

MADE started in 2023, after the North American Handmade Bicycle Show went on hiatus following its last edition in 2019, and the pandemic had already put most bike gatherings on hold. What began as an effort to bring the framebuilding community back together has grown into the largest handmade bicycle show anywhere, with builders and brands from more than a dozen countries filling a former barge yard on the South Waterfront every August. Next year the show moves indoors to the Oregon Convention Center. Director Billy Sinkford called this year "our victory lap down in Zidell Yards," and after four years of heat, leaky roofs, and water shortages in that open-air hangar, it's easy to see why.

The Yellow Spotted Salamander

Our own Josh Saxe, who runs sales and marketing for Mavic North America, also brought a bike to MADE this year. English Cycles built it too: a gravel frame with clearance for 29 by 2.2-inch tires, a lower, more stretched-out fit, and a matching build kit, including SRAM Red XPLR AXS, Cane Creek eeWings cranks, and a custom chainring from Ogle Component Design. It rolls on our Allroad SL Carbon wheels in a custom silver finish, with decals from Slik Graphics.

Builders Choice: The English Cycles TT Mk3

The biggest news of the weekend for us belonged to Rob English of English Cycles. His own bike, the English Cycles TT Mk3, was one of three winners of the MADE's Best in Show award. Rob built it narrow and aero, with streamlined tubing throughout and a special headset assembly that keeps the front end just 22mm wide. It runs our new Comete Road Disc and Comete 85 wheels.

Two years in for us, and it won't be our last. A frame is only half of a bicycle. Long before complete bikes shipped in boxes, a builder finished a frame and went looking for wheels, and that's where Mavic started, in 1889. We sponsored the show's Builders Lounge this year, a rest stop for a weekend of walking and a platform for builders who couldn't bring their own booth to the floor. Wheels carrying our name turned up on sixteen bikes, wearing everything from Crossmax mountain wheels to our new Comete 45-55 and 55-65 aero road sets to the new Crossmax Ultimate, our cross-country race wheel that weighs 1,080 grams a pair in 29-inch. Here are a few of those bikes.

More From the Builders Lounge and Beyond

Haute Bicycles, a two-person operation out of Richmond, Virginia, brought a flat-bar travel bike built for co-founder Wilson Hale's wife, running our Crossmax alloy wheels. Hale built himself a travel bike for last year's show and wanted to give her "a little suitcase bike" of her own. Her build runs a 650b wheel size to better fit her frame, a mixed mechanical drivetrain chosen because parts are easy to find on the road, and a paint job Hale says was entirely her call.

Prova, a titanium specialist from Melbourne, has been quietly doing fully internal cable routing for years, well before most metal frame builders caught up. Their Mostro Integrale rolls on our Allroad SL Carbon wheels, a 1,550-gram set wrapped in Ultradynamico tires.

Nikas brought its No. 17, an aero all-road build made for the roads and gravel of Northern Colorado. It's a fillet-brazed steel frame with a custom aero Columbus tubeset from Metal Guru, fully internal brake routing through Enve's In-Route system, a custom aero seatstay lug, and UDH-compatible slider dropouts that shorten the chainstay for road use. It runs our Allroad SL Carbon wheels. The racecar livery-inspired paint, by Adam Blumenthal of NYF Paint, nods to the orange bars and stems of the early Wanty-Gobert team. More at Nikas Bikes.

Three Corners of the Country

Last stop before we say thank you: three more builds that rounded out the sixteen. Moots brought a custom Vamoots CRD built for the show with Campagnolo and Chris King, running our Comete 55-65 wheels finished by Slik Graphics. Montenegro Manufacturing, run by Hernan Montenegro out of Los Angeles, showed a steel full-suspension mountain bike on our Deemax Enduro SL 29 wheels, with a 3D-printed brace tying the rear triangle together. And Oddity brought a scaled-down twin to this year's official BTCHN' 32er show bike, running our Allroad SL Carbon wheels with custom Slik decals. Different corners of the country, different disciplines, same wheels underneath.

Thank You

Two years in, and it's nowhere close to our first time building wheels for people who build bikes with their own hands. We've been building wheels for bike builders with passion for a long time. What was different this year is how much of it we got to see in one place, on sixteen bikes we didn't build but were proud to be part of.

As Josh put it once the gates closed: "the builders whose bottomless creativity serves as a launch pad for the past, present, and future of cycling." We couldn't agree more. Thank you to English Cycles, Haute, Montenegro Manufacturing, Moots, Nikas, Oddity, Prova, Slik Graphics, and everyone at MADE who let us ride along. This year felt like a step above, a step forward, and the beginning of good things to come.