Traveling Scholars: Alchemy Shop Visit

James & Alchemy Bicycle Co. were kind enough to show us around their shop on our last day in ATX. What a cool space! Marty was giddy with excitement to hear everything they had to say but the shop really spoke for itself. From a room (basically 3x the size of my office) just for working with carbon fiber to their beautiful wood-floor show room this place was radical.

Frame building operations may appear larger than they seem and we were surprised to learn that Alchemy was comprised of only a small handful of employees. Still, they are spread across a wide range of mediums from the previously mentioned carbon fiber to a custom paint shop they really had it all covered. Small shops are fun though, I find them to be much more friendly, less daunting, and full of very hard workers. The shop itself was beautiful with tons of natural light (unlike Geekhouse AKA The Hipster-Cave) and had everything they needed to keep their rugby balls straight as an arrow.

Marty, take your helmet off, stay a while.

From matching JD Squared benders to cutesy stickers and knick-knacks it made me miss being home a lot. A shop’s personality is so fun to uncover and document. For every heart shaped smiley face sticker, there is a story. It’s the small shops that get to translate this personality into frames and complete bikes making them so much more than the sum of their parts. Thanks for sharing your space with us James! We’ll be back to Austin soon (fingers crossed).

About Marty

Hi, I'm Marty and I own Geekhouse bikes. I enjoy such passtimes as donuts, fine beers, and endless bad sci-fi.
Posted on March 30, 2011 by Marty
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