June 09 News

Hey guys, so we’ve had quite a bit of stuff going on this past month. We’ve officially hired a full time sales/marketing/fix anything around the shop guy, the one and only Joe Boudreau. Since Joe has been here we’ve managed to fix two machines and get the powder coat end of the shop up and running. We’re calling our powder coat services ‘Sugar Coat’ and I’m really excited about some of the projects we’ll be working on shortly.

Also now residing at the shop is our web and imaging guru Dan St.Germain. Dan has been doing freelance graphic art for a while now, but decided the shop would be more fun than his home office, and this way I can get free web updates all the time, haha!

Also this past month was full of events. I just also did a giant photo upload on our flickr page. I think we put up about 17 pages or 300 pictures today alone!

First on there we have the Blue Zebra public darkroom opening in Allston. My lovely girlfriend Andrea and my sister Katty have been spending a lot of time getting that place up and running. Check out their blog here, and email them about getting some Black and White darkroom time!

Also in the same week we had the annual Geekhouse open house. This year was really awesome, I didn’t stress out too much and we had about 200 people showed up over the course of the day and we drank about 600 beers! Many thanks to Naragansett and Pretty Things breweries for donating most of that wonderful beer!

After that we went to a bunch of memorial day bbq’s and I think I gained about 10 pounds in the last two weeks because of all the food, haha! I also put up some pics up of my sweet badmitten antics.

But in addition to all this fun, we’ve still been cranking bikes out the door. We have about 5 frames at Circle A Cycles right now getting some really sweet paint jobs. There’s Brandon C’s ‘Fast Chance’, we have a sick ‘Rockcity’ triple triangle curved seat tube bike going out to Hong Kong Fixed, a ‘Woodville’  for Andrea K , Henry in the UK got what I can only call a ‘Mudcity’ which is a cross between our fixed gear and cyclocross bikes, also we have Steve J’s ‘Mudville’, and Joel K’s ‘Woodville’. We got Adam D’s bike out the door, and this week I’m building up Joe A’s MTB, and Adrian M’s sick sublimation ‘Rockcity. Oh, and last but not least we finished the Upper Crust Pizza bike! Thanks to the guys at Open for the build on this bike and for specing the sick red tires and mag wheel, haha! Wow, that’s a lot of bikes for us!

Anyway, another great month at Geekhouse. I’m looking forward to the Summer and all the cool bikes in the works!

Thanks guys!

-Marty

May 09 News

Ok, so I’m a little late putting up May news… sorry about that, it’s been really busy around here! Also, I apologize if I’ve been a little slow on emails lately, but this is the busiest time of year for us so be patient, I respond to every email I get…

Also, just a quick reminder that our annual Open House will be happening on May 16th at 4pm. We were lucky enought to get a bunch of cases of Naragansett beer! As well as a select amount of Pretty Things, which I will be mostly hording to myself because that stuff is amazing! Now, I’m just hoping the weather will hold out so we can BBQ in our front lawn! Also I think I’ll be making something for the winner of the Ghetto Drome races. The only problem is you’ll have to beat me…;)

Also I think we’ll be getting a special delivery from our new Upper Crust Pizza bike at the Open House as well. I’m building the frame and the guys at Open Bicycle are getting all the parts together. And we’re really scrambling to get this thing done by the weekend, so cross your fingers.

In other news our Geekhouse Movie which is basically me building a bike, has about 16,000 views on Vimeo. Thanks again for everyone’s great feedback about the vid as well!

Another formal announcement I’d like to make is the creation of the Geekhouse Factory Cyclocross racing team. We’re going to be selecting a handful of riders all from the Northeast to be on our great new team this fall. I’ll have more info about this in the coming weeks including sponsors, team members, and other fun facts.

So, I think that’s it for now guys. Thanks and stay tuned for more news!

-Marty

April 09 News

Check out the new website! We’ve been cranking bikes out the door lately, but I finally managed to get the new website up and running. A big thanks to Dan StG for all his help with that. Also a big thanks to Justin Keena for his help with all the studio shots of some of our bikes.

Also check out the new ‘About‘ page for our new Geekhouse build video. A few weeks ago I got to spend the day with my buddy Steve from Quarter Productions. Steve did a really amazing job on the video, which my girlfriend has dubbed ‘machine porn’. We premered this last week at the Open grand opening and I think it did pretty well. Also, thanks to the guys at ‘This Car Up‘ for letting me use their song in this video.

New Models! We have a bunch of new models on our products page now. I just finished Lenny’s new road bikes last week and I’m really excited about the new models that we have going on.

Also, our yearly Open House is coming up on May 16th from 4pm-9pm. We’re going to have free beer, veggie burgers, and pizza and all our invited. We’re probably going do some Bold Sprints at some point in the evening after a few drinks! So everybody come on out and see the shop.

-Marty

NAHBS Bikes on Ebay…

‘Uber Rockcity Fixed’ on Ebay

‘Uber Rockcity Free’ of Ebay, no not free free…

This is just my daily whip on Ebay. A nice little ride for short money…

March 09 News

Wow, so I’m doing multiple posts on the blog today, but I have a lot to cover from the past month. Check out the new Geekhouse drops which were just unveiled at NAHBS. These drops are totally unique to geekhouse and feature an integrated chain tensioner system. The drops will be available for most geekhouse models in the next few months. Full blog is here.

Other than that I’m back from NAHBS and trying to catch up on a million emails, a bunch of office work and touching base with a bunch of people I met at the show. Check out all the details from the show here. All in all the show was a huge success for geekhouse and I’m glad to have done it. But now I have to get back to getting that waiting list down and some beautiful bikes out the door.

And speaking of bikes out the door…The two of the show bikes from NAHBS are now up for sale on Ebay. You have your choice of the Uber Rockcity Fixed or the Uber Rockcity Free. I have the reserve set lower than I want to sell these bikes for, but I have a lot of projects coming up and I need those guys out the door. Also, while I’m at it I put on a bike that was briefly my daily ride, the final price on this bike will be a total deal for someone!

Other than that I have the 2009 Dealer price list all set so any retailers who are interested in carrying geekhouse please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. Thanks again guys!

-Marty

NAHBS 09

So, I’m back home from the NAHBS show and just wanted to write a re-cap. This was my first year exhibiting at the show, and I spent a lot of time and a lot of money getting ready for this thing. I built three bikes for the show and only one of them was already sold to a customer. The reason I did this is because of all the bikes I’ve built over the last couple years I haven’t really had many that let me have complete artisitic licence to do what ever I wanted. So I decided I wanted to do something a little different than my normal frames and do a lot of custom CNC parts. So I built one fixed gear, one single speed free wheel, and one single speed chain touring bike with an internal hub. Also all of these bikes have different sloping top tubs, the fixed is front sloping, the free is back sloping, and the touring internally geared is a level top tube.

Also the two bikes on the right are very bmx influenced. I made a fixed version with some shaped tubing, and a free wheel bike with discs. The free wheel bike is kind of a mix of road, fixed, mtb, and bmx. Someone at the show called it a 700cMX and I have to say if I had to ride just one bike at the moment that would be it. It looks like a fixed, but the single speed with discs is just something a little different and fun as hell!

These bikes aslo feature an internal head tubes and custom fork races that match to those. And the forks on these bikes also feature some custom 20mm thru axle drops. These drops were actually designed and made by Greg Melms. Greg is an Architectrual Fixture guy who not too long ago did some pretty sick mods to a Tonic Fab MTB frame. When I saw these drops online I knew I had to have them on some project bike in the future. I emailed Greg out of the blue, and he was kind enough to get me a couple sets. So thanks to Greg for his help with that.

All the show bikes also featured my brand new rear drops with integrated chain tensioner. I wrote a post below that describes a little bit about that project as well. A lot of stuff on these bikes is one off and just something different that I thought would be fun. Basically they are just a mix of all the styles of cycling that I’m personally into. Also, both the fixed and free are for sale on Ebay if anyone is interested in a totally unique Geekhouse.

Also I had a lot of help from some people before and at the show and I just want to say thanks to them all.

First off Charlie from MIT designed and then spent about 30 hours with me building that kick-ass tradeshow booth you see in the back ground. If anyone needs some real quality furniture check out Cinder Designs. Dude I owe you so bad!

Also, the guys at Circle A Cycles came through on beutiful but last minute paint job on the 700cMX bike. I ussually have all my frames powdercoated, but we were running out of time so this one ended up with paint. And after seeing how nice this bike came out though I think I’ll be sending some more stuff out for custom paint. Also Brian came out to NAHBS for a night and hung out with us for a bit.

The other two bikes were powdered by Mike Flanigan from ANT. Hopefully I get my own equipment up and running this month and I don’t have to bug him anymore about last minute stuff. Thanks again Mike for putting up with me!

So in addition to a last minute paint job, I also had some last minute assembly going on. I was going a little nuts early last week so some of the guys from Open and my friends Pete and Alexi talked me off a ledge and helped me assemble the show bikes. It was a little nuts for a while, but everything worked out. Also a big thanks to Pete who drove 2000 miles with me to and from the show and to Pete’s family who let us crash in a few spots along the way. Also thanks to Bryan and Ian from Seven for hanging out at my booth and forcing me to keep my new mustache.

Also I just want to say thanks for everyone who I met at the show and everyone that stoped by the booth. Just about everyone there was really nice and excited about the bikes and that means a lot to me. There’s a million other things I could talk about from NAHBS and probably a lot of people I’m forgetting to thank for their help. But I need to get back to work, so that’s it for now. Thanks again everyone, and cross your fingers for an East Coast NAHBS next year.

Thanks!

-Marty

New Geekhouse Proto Drops

So at the NAHBS show I was finally able to unveil a project that I’ve been working on for the past few months. This is the new Geekhouse drop out that I’m working on for all fixed gear, and 700c single speed bikes. The drops feature an integrated chain tensioner system that is integrated into chain stay area. With a quick turn of the knob you can have a totally tensioned chain. This system is different from others out there in that there is no external knob that can fall off or you hit your foot on while riding. Not included in this picture is another small aluminum piece that actually craddles the axle itself and helps move the whole system forward and back. Also the dropout itself is sealed off so no moisture can penetrate the chainstay. And finally my favorite part is that is looks real pretty..;)

This drop out took me about a year and a half to work out in my head before I had the idea for most of what I really wanted in a design. But I really have to thank the engineer on this project Aarn Panone. Aarn and I spent a bunch of snowy days over the past few months staring at a computer screen trying to get the design perfect. I’m looking forward to working with Aarn on some other projects coming up, so stay tuned for those too.

Thanks guys!

-Marty

Feb 09 News

So there’s one week until I leave for NAHBS. I have the 3 bikes I’m bringing just about ready to go, and I’m going to be finishing up the tradeshow booth by next week. The last few weeks has been crazy with getting some of the new machines in the shop, while trying to order everything to get the show bikes ready. But I’m really excited to get to the show, I’ll be exhibiting right next to Mike Flanigan from ANT, and I’m driving out with a few good friends, so I think it’ll be really fun.

I have a bunch of pictures of the new NAHBS frames ready to go, but I think I’m going to hold off on Flickr until NAHBS. One of the things I’m most excited about is out new Geekhouse dropout designed by yours truly. The drops feature an pretty innovative integrated chain tensioner that should hopefully go over pretty well…

Next month the plan is to get the shop all dialed and have all the new machines up an running. I’m trying to crank out some bikes in March and April and get that waiting list down to about 8 weeks. So for all those people dreaming about getting a new frame for spring, get your orders in now because things are about to get even more busy around here.

Well, thats it for now. I’ll have some more posts next week from NAHBS!

-Marty

State of the City

So I got an email on Sunday night saying that Mayor Menino was going to mention Geekhouse in his annual State of the City address which took place last night (I’m at the 8:27 section). At first I didn’t really know much about it. But then Monday I found out that the whole event would be broadcast live on Chanel 5 Boston, and that I had a reserved seat in one of the front rows at the event, which would be held in prestigious Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston.

If I haven’t mentioned this before in December I got a loan from the City of Boston to help purchase some necessary manufacturing equipment, and also provide the ability to hire 1-2 employees to help out with fabrication. This whole process involved a lot of time and effort. I sought out help from Score a division of the Boston SBA in reviewing a detailed business plan I wrote myself. And of course I had a lot of support from my amazing lawyer Joel Kinney of Goldstein and Herndon in Chestnut Hill. So after about 6 months of planning and effort I was finally approved for the loan. Also, a big thanks to Bill Nickerson and everyone from the BLDC for all their help with getting that done!

So back to the event last night. I ended up bringing my girlfriend Andrea, my Mom and two sisters Corie and Katty, and also Josh from Open Bicycle. I was told we had reserved seating, but when we walked in there were two levels, and upper and lower.  The security guard blocked us when I tried to walk into the lower section, and I told him the I was Marty Walsh and we had reserved seating. His response was, “Oh yes Mr. Walsh, someone will show you to your seats.” Now, there’s also a state rep named Marty Walsh, so my response to him was “No, I’m the other Marty Walsh, not the State Rep Marty Walsh.” And he then said. “Oh no, we know who your are, I’ll have someone show you to your seats.”

The whole thing was pretty surreal. We had 4 seats which all had Marty Walsh written of them in the front row of the right side of the room. Then there were two seats for me and Andrea only a few rows back from the front row, which included Gov Deval Patrick, and the Mayor’s wife. My thoughts through the whole thing were; holy crap why the hell am I here with all these important people? Sitting right next to me was a guy who was first on the scene to the firefighter accident last week, I believe he actually saved one of the firefighters lives. And on the other side was a guy giving away like a million dollars to the Boston public schools. So out of all the people in the city who did amazing things this past year, we were the three that the Mayor mentioned. I still feel that I don’t deserve that kind of attention, and this isn’t something that I sought out. But hey I’ll take the free press, haha!

After the event my sister Corie made me go get a picture with the Mayor, and I told him thank you. I then met the Allston Rep, who went and introduced me to the State Rep Marty Walsh. I also shook hands with Secretary Galvin and a few other respectable Bostonians. The whole thing was really pretty amazing but also a little ridiculous. A few Boston firefighters shook my hand and said nice job and thank you. My response no them was “No, thank you guys, your awesome!” haha, like I said the whole thing was just pretty surreal.

Anyway, after all that I couldn’t sleep last night and I got in the shop a little after 7am this morning and I’m anxious to just get back to business as usual. Now I just have to see if my fat head still fits in my welding helmet. Anyway, thanks for listening!

-Marty Walsh (not the State Rep)

Jan 09 News/Sheet-Rockcity

Happy New Year! Things have been crazy at the shop as usual. Thanks to the city of Boston, we’re using some of that loan money to buy some new tools. This means that I can finally set up the powder coat oven and spray booth. So this past month I had to build two new rooms inside out shop, one for the powder spray booth and oven, and one for the air compressor and sand blaster. Powder coating has been one of the most difficult things to get perfect and I’ve been working with outside vendors for the past few years each one requiring a lot of quality control. Now I finally have the ability to do this in house and that is truly huge; I can’t wait to get going on this!  So the whole shop is going through some renovations as we get all of that done and a few more necessary tools are on the way as well. It’s a ton of work, but by the spring we’ll really be able to crank out some beautiful bikes made 100% in house.

Also, next month is the NAHBS show which I’m officially attending, and I’m trying to get 3 bikes and a tradeshow booth built for that. At first I was going to have all three frames sublimated. Then I was going to have them all done here at my shop. But time is running out for everything and the shop is still in the process of getting dialed, so I decided to have all these bikes just done in some beautiful solid colors at Spectrum Powderworks. My show bikes aren’t going to be over the top ridiculous like some of the bikes I’ve built in the past. But I’m really happy with what I’ve got planned and I’m looking forward to the show.

So if I’m a little behind on emails and blog updates over the next month its because I’m busy getting the shop back up and running and getting all the bikes ready for NAHBS. But by next month I’ll have all that stuff done, and it’ll all be worth it.

Thanks guys!

-Marty