The promise of “no oil | no gears | no bullshit” had me intrigued by nada bikes (if only they could share that promise with vintage Vespa dealers). Marc O’Brien and his team construct unpainted fixed gear and single speed frames in Half Moon Bay, then offer them in three sizes at $100 a pop to inspire cyclists to add the wheels and components they prefer. San Francisco designer Ashley Ciecka put decals and gears on hers, the 11th frame released, and I asked O’Brien what inspired the idea:
SF: How did you conceive of such a low-priced solution? MO: Our intention is to introduce as many young people as possible to the joys of cycling as everyday transportation. In addition, we were interested in having members go through the process of building their bikes from scratch, rather than buying them off the shelf. Kind of a “Zen and the art of bicycle maintenance” thing. We felt the cost of membership should be as low as possible to include the greatest number of riders. [It's] empowerment through self-mobility.
What have customers told you about your using your frames? We shipped them out to our charter members right before Christmas. We’ve got great responses from the members–everyone can’t wait to get started on building their frames. We’ve seen some Facebook and Twitter (@nadabike) excitement as well.
Would you add paint and component options? Even though the site will be a big part of nada, members are encouraged to go out in their communities and engage in their local bike co-op, teach someone how to true a tire, or put on a bike related event around their city/town. We also are planning on partnering up with the Bamboo Bike Shop in NYC in building a bike out of this sustainable material.
What are your plans for growth? nada has big plans for expansion. As for the frames themselves, we are encouraging the members to visit their local bike co-ops for parts, slap on an old bike component laying around in their garage, or deck it out the way they see fit in expressing themselves how they want.
We are in the beginning stages [of] developing a bigger, more informative web presence. We plan on creating how-to tutorials [and] instructions for certain bike maintenance. We understand that not everyone is a bike-building expert, and so we–and hopefully the other members of the nada revolution–will share their knowledge and know-how to help people in building and maintaining a bike.
Images by nada bikes.
Hello i am writing you from salida co. Where we put on a festival called fibark .it stand for first in boating on the Arkansas river .but we do allot of bike related event in ower festival and also before for fundraisers for the event .like the cruiser crit a bike race around downtown salida . this will be ower 63rd year it is one of the oldest and boldest festivals in colorado . i saw your ad for nada bikes in a magazine and plan to get one for myself .and was thinking you guys would be great to have at the event . for more info you can go to fibark.com .hope to hear back from you guys soon thank you for your time .and keep up the good work