A JOURNEY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS

Soaking. Fucking. Wet.

After working 7 days a week for 6 months, a couple of fucked up shipments, holes punched in the wall, bad spoke measurements, several unnecessary trips to Harris Cyclery, tons of bottled water, more driving than I prefer to do, several long conversations, and a good chunk of money.....I finally have my GEEKHOUSE bike. Apparently, in the bike industry, nothing goes right. At least not the first time around. I don't think there is a single aspect of this bike that was right the first time. It was a pretty stressful process for all involved. And were it not for the friendship, patience, creativity, and passion of a slew of people, I would not have a story to tell. So thanks Tom, Jason, Josh, Wei Wei, Steph, Nao, Marty, Brad, and Greggles.

VEGAN DOUBLE STRAPS! Thanks to Joshua at OPEN.

I talked about this beast a little bit in my last post. But let me get in to some of the nitty gritty details of what I was looking for with this bike. First off, Marty is one of my best friends, and a truly great talent in the frame building business. He might not be the most punctual. But he fucking nails it every single time. If you haven't seen his bikes yet, definitely check out his FLICKR. While many other builders are trying to be the next Sascha White, Marty stands firm in his belief that you have to pave your own road, and define your own style. (For the record, both Marty and I LOVE what Sascha/Vanilla has done and are doing.) And Marty has done just that with GEEKHOUSE. His bikes are a wonderful combination of class and off-the-wall-ness.

Braze-on cursive Geekhouse logo. The clear coat over this bike just makes it look incredible. (You'll have to wait for complete build shots to see the sick placement of this logo.)

Anyhow, I went to Marty with an idea to build a bike that I had been designing in my head for nearly a year. I was envisioning something classy and crisp. But with slightly relaxed geometry. No toe overlap, and putting me a bit more upright in the saddle. My daily whip is a Bridgestone keirin bike that is basically super twitchy, responsive, tight and racy. So I wanted something different. But the zinger was that I didn't want curved tubes or for the bike to look like it was all loosey-goosey. I wanted a bike the looked different than it rode. And since I was getting a custom bike, I wanted it to be obviously custom. So I went with an integrated seat mast, as well as a custom one-piece bar/stem combo, something Marty had not done before. Luckily, he was up for the challenge. (And a challenge this bike was!)

The seat post mast. Custom! Machined in Cambridge! SICK.

Top view.

The beginnings of the bar/stem. One of the many headaches that my bike gave Marty.

The result is simply stunning. It literally is the realization of exactly what was in my head. Only now I can ride it. There will be full pictures to come later. But here are a few from my phone of the process, and the finished product. I want to thank GEEKHOUSE, SUPERB, and quite frankly, MYSELF for making this bike happen. It's a real piece of legit artistry.

OH. And I went to NYC for the 10th Anniversary of the Bicycle Film Festival this past weekend. What a fucking adventure: Emergency Rooms, stolen bikes, 3 am after parties at strange Chinese restaurant/shopping mall/karaoke bars, miles and miles on the bike, tons of vegan treats, record shopping, and almost ZERO sleep.