Spectrum / home visit: A few weeks ago we visited Geero in beautiful Styria and investigated the question: Where does a Geero e-bike come from? With many other manufacturers, you would have to fly halfway around the world to find an answer; a road trip to the region around Graz is enough for Geero. Many production steps take place here, from development to assembly, logistics and service.
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Lots of attention to detail
The cradle of the Geero lies in a farm where the brothers Tomy and Michael Rath founded the Bikee e-bike company in 2010, which is still extremely popular today, especially in Austria. What does this have to do with Geero? In 2016, bikee teamed up with e-commerce specialist niceshops and together they created the Geero brand. The company grew more and more out of the farm, which still serves as a development center to this day. "Our development team is still there working on new ideas," tells us Tomy Rath, who also acts as head of development, among other things. How much heart and soul has gone into the Geero can be seen from Tomy's eyes when he talks about the countless small and large details that make the Geero frame stand out from the crowd. "We didn't want to just buy any catalog frame and write our name on it," he tells. "We wanted to turn our very own vision of the bike into reality with as few compromises as possible."
This is why more than a dozen different suppliers are involved in the Geero frame alone. The bottom bracket housing is manufactured by specialists, as is the head tube – the specially made lock is then inserted elsewhere in the down tube. Only at the very end do all the threads come together and the many individual frame components are assembled into a single unit. These production steps all take place overseas. Tomy tells us that there is currently no alternative in Europe, neither from an economic nor from a process-technical point of view. “However, we are keeping our eyes open. There are exciting developments and maybe one day we can also bring these work steps 'home' to us."
Powder coating and assembly in Styria
Immediately afterwards, however, the raw frames go on the long journey from the Far East to Styria, where an e-bike is then made. For this purpose, they work together with a local powder coating company, among others. In contrast to the classic wet painting used on the majority of bicycle frames, the powder is significantly more robust and durable - the application process is also more environmentally friendly. "We really tinkered for a long time until we found the right coating for us," tells Tomy. With almost contagious enthusiasm, he shows us the special stickers on the frame, which melt into the powder and therefore cannot be felt with the fingers. You can feel that someone here knows every single screw, every weld seam and every pipe on their "baby" - for Tomy there doesn't seem to be anything like unimportant details.
For the coated frames, it's only a few kilometers further to Wagna: Not only is the assembly for Geero located here - there is also a small sales room. Any service cases are also dealt with here. The components are now assembled on the frame at a total of 14 assembly stations and the e-bike takes shape. A handful of employees take care of it, their respective work steps vary. “We want all of our fitters to be able to carry out every work step. In addition, the work is so much more interesting and varied than if you always carry out the same work step, eight hours at a time," explains production manager Gernot Harg. We are surprised how many fully assembled bikes are waiting to be picked up, and the assembly trolleys at the workplaces are also fully stocked with components - this cannot be taken for granted in the 2021 bicycle year. "We got through the difficult last few months very well," tells Gernot. "We only had one day where we couldn't mount wheels because we were missing components." So it is not surprising that many Geero models are currently in stock, only a few have longer delivery times.
Modern logistics at niceshops
After a ready-to-ride e-bike has been created from an assembly trolley full of components, frame and fork, the journey continues: the logistics are located in the niceshops headquarters, about 40 minutes by car from production. Here we meet Anita Gsöls, Geero's shop manager at niceshops. In the parking lot, a truck with a load of sand rushes past us - a small beach with a beach volleyball court is currently being built outside. Next to it is a playground for childcare. niceshops has over 500 employees, and the warehouse was only expanded last year.
Anita leads us past modern high-bay warehouses, stocked with a wide variety of things: furniture, clothing, household goods - over 40 different shops are at home under the "roof" niceshops. One of them is Geero - and after a few minutes of walking through the warehouse labyrinth we reach a small workshop full of Geero e-bikes and the corresponding boxes. The bikes assembled in Wagna are mainly made ready for dispatch here and sent to the customer. This is also the first point of contact for submitted service cases. Minor repairs are carried out directly on site.
So we have traced the path of the Geero e-bike from the farm to the streets - but where will Geero's path as a manufacturer lead in the future? Even if Tomy doesn't really let his cards be looked at, he reveals that they are currently working with great zeal to offer customers a higher degree of customizability. What does that mean exactly? We didn't get more than a mischievous grin as an answer. So it will be interesting to see what e-bike news from Geero will be in the future.