Menino is set to present loan to Geekhouse Bike Co.

The Boston Globe

March 19, 2009

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, a sometime biking enthusiast, is scheduled today to present Geekhouse Bike Co. a check for a $70,000 loan from the Boston Local Development Corp., his office said.

Founded in 2004, Geekhouse is an Allston-based bicycle manufacturing business that produces bicycle frames for riders who seek a custom built product.

Geekhouse offers seven models of stock bike frames that can be customized by adding a variety of features, both mechanical and esthetic, and it sells those frames to individuals, retail stores, and international distributors, the mayor's office said in a media advisory.

"While our original frames were designed in-house and outsourced for manufacturing, our newest line of frames are now being both designed and hand-crafted by yours truly in our new work space in Allston, Mass.," Martin Walsh of Geehouse noted on the company's website.

Boston Local Development Corp. "provides loans of up to $150,000 for businesses in, orrelocating to, the City of Boston," a spokeswoman for the mayor wrote in an e-mail. "These loans can be used when buying a new business property, purchasing equipment and machinery, constructing an addition to an existing plant, making leasehold improvements, or providing working capital to grow your business."