Company founded
1983
Website Links
Description
Gecko Cycles was founded in 1983 in Santa Barbara, Ca. by Ken Beach ("KB"). It all began when I started racing downhill in 1979. I applied my skills as a fabricator to the bicycle industry, designing, building and repairing frames and components. I designed several products, including a long throw thumb shifter for Shimano, a chain tensioner for the Descender downhill bikes and tandems, double-ovalized stem, a one-piece bar stem combo, and a long cage front and rear derailleur. In 1981, I sold most everything I owned and gave up my drywall company of 30 employees to live on my bike. I toured all over the west coast, the Rockies, and Hawaii. While living on my bike, I had more ideas of bike geometries and bike components. Still racing MTB's I decided to settle down in Santa Barbara in 1983 and start building my innovations. The models I built at that time were the Slickrock (light, fillet brazed and beautifully finished fillets), Survival ( a world tour bike ), Camuesa (Mtn. Tandem ), and the Lightfoot (beefy road bike). All of these early bikes were meticulously filed and finished. Also in the early 1980's, I worked for Chris King of King Headsets and Richard Cunningham of Mantis Bicycle Co. I learned a tremendous amount about machining, and frame building during that time. In 1987 I rented a shop in Santa Barbara and took the bicycle business to another level. At my shop I built over 250 frames and painted well over 500. I developed several bikes, 2 of which were the Y...