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APB: My Geekhouse Touring Bike

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APB: My Geekhouse Touring Bike

If you live in Los Angeles, please keep a look out for my Geekhouse touring bike. It was stolen this morning between the hours of 5 – 6:30am from my house. It doesn’t have fenders now and has a basket bag, but is very distinguishable. If you see it, throw a u-lock on it or call Golden Saddle Cyclery (323-661-1174). Leave a comment if you have any questions.

Geekhouse Bikes: Titanium Mudville Complete

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Geekhouse Bikes: Titanium Mudville Complete

Boston is no stranger to titanium. Back in the day, Merlin ruled that market, and later, Indy Fab. These days Firefly and Seven are cranking out beautiful ti frames and now, Geekhouse can be added to that material roster. We’ve seen Geekhouse work with titanium before, with that flashy, painted frame, but here’s a look at what the new Geekhouse Ti bikes look like raw, leaving the welds exposed. Geekhouse works exclusively with USA 3AL2.5V tubing and the Mudvilles feature thru-axles, and a Loco Machine head tube. These bikes look great and you can see for yourself below. If you’re interested in a Ti Geekhouse, wait time is around 3-4 months.

Peter’s Geekhouse All Road

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Peter’s Geekhouse All Road

Taking a more “mountain bike” approach to fitting in terms of reach and fit has been a successful design characteristic of bikes like the AWOL. Shorter stems mean the top tube can be longer, giving the rider less overlap and the sensation of sitting “in” the bike, rather than “on” it. When Peter first contacted Geekhouse, he wanted a straight up ‘cross bike. Then he talked to a few people and he realized he wouldn’t be racing a whole lot. Rather, he wanted to take this bike up into the mountains of Los Angeles and disappear for hours on end. The triangle would be big to fit a frame bag and the bottom bracket a little lower to make it more predictable on descents.

It’s funny how the desire for a custom race bike is quickly quelled by the necessity for a vehicle to inspire escapism.

Fast forward to the bike’s completion. It just took a leap across the country to follow its owner as he relocated from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas. Essentially he and I swapped places… His relocation came at such a moment that the frame was shipped to Los Angeles first, before being packed back up and delivered to Mellow Johnny’s, where I photographed it this afternoon on a brief visit.

It’s great seeing a bike like this alive and well in a new and exciting city for its owner to explore. Enjoy this thing, Peter!

The First Titanium Geekhouse

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The First Titanium Geekhouse

Sometimes you need a reboot and for the team at Geekhouse, that includes not only a new logo (designed by the Boston-based Monica Hargrove,) but a new material. Marty Walsh has been building with steel for what probably feels like an eternity for him and in that time, he’s made the point to express an interest in titanium frames to me. Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised when this bike rolled through my inbox yesterday…

This disc road was built for the New England Sram rep, Andy Ewas. Which is probably the reason for the extensive SRAM and Zipp kit. On this build, you’ll spot the new Sram Red eTap and Zipp 303 Wheels with a Zipp cockpit.

Paint design on the frame is from the one and only Jordan Low at Hot Tubes. It features a Metallic Graphite Grey to Raw Ti fade. This is overlapped with a Candy Red to Blue over Raw Ti, revealing the welds underneath the paint. I.e. it’s fire!

See more of this beautiful bicycle below and hopefully, we see more titanium coming out of Geekhouse in the near future!

Abbas’ Geekhouse Mudville Disc

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Abbas’ Geekhouse Mudville Disc

It’s not every day that you see a Geekhouse in Los Angeles. Especially one as unique as Abbas’ Mudville. You see, this bike started out as a cantilever cross bike and then he sent it back to Marty so disc brakes could be added, and got a new fork made. All in all, it took a little time, but now Abbas has a disc brake Mudville with a slick segmented crown fork and plenty of stopping power. He recently moved to LA from Texas where those brakes will come in handy on all the dirt frontage roads… If you see this bike rolling around town, be sure to say hello and Abbas, we’ll hit the dirt soon enough.

Geekhouse Bikes: Deb’s Woodville Rohloff Tourer

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Geekhouse Bikes: Deb’s Woodville Rohloff Tourer


Photos by Heather McGrath

Being a returning Geekhouse customer myself, I can identify with this bike. Deb wanted the ultimate city/touring bike, sparing no details. She already has a Geekhouse Mudville ‘cross bike, but wanted a dedicated tourer for the long haul and around town commuting.

This one’s got it all. Racks, fenders, generator lamps and a mean parts list. Not to mention paint designed by Adria Klora, and then painted by Rudi at Gold Coast Cycles. It’s one of the most complicated bikes I’ve ever seen come from the Geekhouse shop.

Check out the full build kit and more photos below.

Two Hot New Geekhouse Woodville Touring Bikes

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Two Hot New Geekhouse Woodville Touring Bikes

The Geekhouse Woodville is the Boston-based framebuilding outfit’s touring model. Designed for long-hauls on the road or even around-town commuting, these frames are guaranteed to see their share of miles. This pair in particular was built for Bryn and Katie in Colorado, who have been more than psyched on their new bikes.

I’ve had some of my favorite moments on a bicycle on mine and still to this day find myself tweaking little details. More on that to come next week. For now, here are a few unique specimens, documented by Heather McGrath. Check out more photos below and read up at the Geekhouse website!

Geekhouse is Hiring!

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Geekhouse is Hiring!

The team at Geekhouse are looking to expand their operations with a new position. If you meet the criteria and want to start off at a framebuilder’s operations in the Boston-area, now’s your chance. Head over to Geekhouse for more information.

Lighten Up

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Lighten Up

A few people have requested photos of the lighting setup on my Geekhouse Woodville tourer. My view on lighting is pretty simple: throw a big beam where you illuminate not just your bike but the road around you. The Portland Design Works Aether Demon USB light is mounting via the included seatpost clip, but I removed the ring and just attached the clip straight to the rack mount on my bike. Most all lights come with a seatpost mount. I’ve found this method to not only be more secure than a seat stay mount, but much more successful at lighting the surface of the road, increasing visibility.

This position puts the light low and to the inside of the road, assuming cars are driving on the right of the road. If I were in Australia or UK, the light would be on the reverse. The same goes for my Edelux front lamp, which is under my Wald basket.

Nobuhiko Tanabe’s Geekhouse Team Mudville Cross

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Nobuhiko Tanabe’s Geekhouse Team Mudville Cross

There have been a lot of awesome cross bikes in town and I’ve tried my best to document them when I could, which unfortunately hasn’t been that often. This one, however was a must!

Nobuhiko Tanabe’s internet handle is NB_Log. He’s an employee at Blue Lug in Japan, races for Geekhouse and in general, is stoked out on bikes. His 2014 team Mudville cross bike has one of my favorite color combinations to ever leave the Boston framebuilder’s shop.

NB found himself in Austin for the 2015 ‘Cross Nats, going to the parties, races and events of this past week’s schedule, as well as pedaling around a few of our local trail systems.

At Wednesday’s events, I caught up with Nobuhiko to shoot some quick photos of his bike as he enjoyed the races… See more in the Gallery!

Marty’s Geekhouse Rain-bow Camo Mudville

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Marty’s Geekhouse Rain-bow Camo Mudville

Photos by Eric Baumann

Ya know, I was going to paraphrase Marty’s copy from his email to me, but he does such a good job describing his bike, I thought I’d just paste it in. This is by far, one of the best Mudvilles I’ve seen, and you know I love some rain camo on a cross bike!

“The frame paint was done by Rudi Jung. Rudi also came up with the design. When Rudi told me about the idea, I was really excited, as it’s been a few years since I’ve had a new bike. The theme is Rain Camo, mixed with the new 2014 Geekhouse Team Colors, fading from dark teal in the front to bright orange in the rear.

At the last second we got worried it looked a little bit like your fork from Death Spray. We reached out to Death Spray, and his response was “It ain’t no thing, I copied it from the Germans.”

Components on the bike feature Sram’s new CX-1 with Hydro brakes. Enve Rims/Fork, Thomson Stem/Bars Post, and King Headset/Hubs. Wheels we custom built by Luxe Wheelworks. And tires were provided by Challenge.”

See more below!

Many Miles

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Many Miles

Three things can make all the difference on your ride: tires, bar tape and your saddle. This bike in particular is about as dialed as they get, both in aesthetics and comfort. Out of all my bikes, I gotta say, the Woodville has the most character and I’ve been enjoying each of the three aforementioned choices so far.

Easton’s bar tape, Bruce Gordon Rock n Road tires and the Brooks Cambium C15.

As a side note, I’m not sure what spawned this, other than I’m trying out a makeshift studio in my office. If anyone has experiences mixing a B1 500 TTL strobe with speedlights, I’d love to hear from you! I’m using the Air remote.

Once I get these photos dialed in, maybe I’ll post a photoset. For now, here are three detailed shots I’m stoked on.

Sated Steed: My Geekhouse Mudville

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Sated Steed: My Geekhouse Mudville

At this point, my Geekhouse Mudville is about as worn out as I am. It’s traveled the world multiple times and each trip to Australia, the build is slightly different.

Looking back, had I known this bike had clearances for up to a 42c tire, I would have ditched the 33c world a long time ago. For big, big rides, those 40c Nanos are the way to go. Surly’s Knard 41c looks like a great option as well, but I’ve yet to try them.

Over the past few years, this bike has proven itself to me time and time again. While there are a few characteristics that make a cross bike less-than-ideal for big tough dirt rides, I’d say it’s an all around, solid tool for the job. Even doing ‘road rides’ on a 40c ain’t as bad as you’d think.

Looking forward, I’m not sure what kind of bike I’d like to use for ‘dirt riding’ and travel. A road geometry with a slighly-slacker head tube angle is best suited for descending steep, rutted and sketchy fire roads, but the clearances for a larger tire make any rocky surface just kinda disappear, even on singletrack.

I’d love to make a bike with a road BB drop, a slightly slacker heat tube and enough room for a 40c tire but for now, this bike is ripping! Out of all of my bikes, it’s seen the most action and it shows, especially after a long ride like the two day Bush Blast (day 1 and day 2).

After that ride, I have had these photos on my desktop and figured I’d share them.

That Was Incredible!

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That Was Incredible!

Thanks for letting me go on another overnighter ride in the Aussie bush. It’s exactly what I (and my bike) needed. What a perfect 48 hours… oh and happy 4th of July!