NAHBS is just starting down in sunny Austin Texas, and I am sitting here in Boston still damp from the ride into work in the cold rain. Tom, our Mechanic, will be down in Texas representing the shop this year so if you are down there keep a look out, he has some Superb caps that he will probably hook you up with if you ask nicely. But anyway, this week is gonna be full of Bike Porn all over the internet so why not get it started with some preview shots of what local boys GEEKHOUSE have up their sleeves. Check out way more shots on the Geekhouse Flickr.
I finally made it down south for the second half of day 1 of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. We hit some pretty crazy snow/rain/wind on the way down, but apparently made it through before it got really bad. We lost about a half hour due to the weather but the Geekhouse bus mobile lost over 2 hours. That aside it was a pretty easy trip. My road trip tip number one: download a mp3 book for the journey. On this trip we are listening to Jules Verne’s “The Mysterious Island” and other than the fact that we are on chapter 20 and this Island is yet to be very mysterious, it is quite an interesting read (or listen), especially if you like entire chapters dedicated to how to make nitroglycerin. But I digress, I was talking about NAHBS right? The show is amazing, the amount of talent jammed into one room is almost too much to take in. It is very easy to be overwhelmed with all the amazing bikes on display and all the best builders just hanging out ready to chat it up. Well lets get to the photos, that is what you wanted to see anyway right?
First up from Boston, one of Mike Flanigan’s Bikes from ANT. His stuff was looking really good, I am gonna try to get more shots tomorrow, his booth was busy, but I did notice he had custom Pedal’s with “ANT” cut out of them
Chris Igleheart also of Boston, had a nice selection including this very nice, stainless 29er MTB frame. If you look closely you can see the stainless caps on the top of the fork legs. We have some Igleheart track/singlespeed frames in the shop, priced significantly under the price of a full custom, stop by and check them out!
Ian of Icarus was around, mainly at the geekhouse booth, but making trips back to the bike check room to show off his new bike. This seattubeless pursuit bike was downright amazing and I could easily say it was way nicer than a lot of the bikes actually in the show room.
Speaking of the geekhouse booth, here it is. My new bike is sitting pretty in the middle (more on that later) with Matt’s Cross bike to the right and Bianca’s Touring bike to the left. The bikes were getting a lot of attention, I hope you are ready for the increase in sales Marty!
Better shot of Bianca Touring Bike. This bike will be touring the US in a matter of months, follow Bianca and Greg’s Journey HERE
A collection of Lugs from the Richard Sachs booth, his bikes look the same as they always do (that’s a good thing).
I was really into all of the Villin Bikes. The lug work and paint job on every single one was amazing.
This Yipsan was nice, I am a sucker for internal cable routing.
Vanilla’s Bikes were nice as usual, and their booth was at least 4 times bigger than the others. They really took the presentation to the next level.
This Cherubim was insane, all the way to the saddle custom made from two steel rails. I’m not sure how comfortable that would be though.
I spotted these 1 finger leather gloves at the CCP booth, they were quite interesting, would anybody wear these?
Well I am heading back to the show for day 2, hopefully grabbing more photos and meeting more people.
I am currently on my way south for this years NAHBS in Richmond Virginia. If you would like to follow along with the Superb exploits, make sure you are following the Superb Twitter. I will be updating the twitter feed with tons of great stuff from the show as well as whatever other awesome stuff is going on. I will try to keep the blog up to date as well, but it will obviously be lagging behind the twitter.
I have known Marty of Geekhouse bikes for many years now, and have been a big fan of his creations. I have had many different track frames over the years but never had a custom hand built one. I think it was sometime last summer that I came to the realization that I spend a good amount of money on my bikes, so why aren’t I spending that money on something built specifically for me, and in the process help support a local friend and frame builder. Sure a frame built in taiwan is cheaper, but isn’t it worth the difference to meet the person who built your bike, and have some input into how it is built?
In my opinion the best part about getting a locally hand built frame is having the ability to customize it to your own design or preference (within reason of course). To some people this is picking the color or geometry, but for myself I had something entirely different in mind. When I first ran the idea by Marty he seemed really excited and we both got to work on refining it and getting it to the point it is at now. I can’t go into too much detail yet because this bike will be one of 3 bikes Geekhouse will be displaying at the 2010 North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Richmond Virginia at the end of this month, so for now the details are top secret. Marty leaked this photo in his most recent newsletter, so here it is for you. Look forward to a lot more info on the design/planning/construction aspects as well as an interview with Marty himself once we unveil this bike at the end of the month. We also have a Geekhouse frame being built to sell in the shop that should be ready early this spring.
