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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
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
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
