Firefly was born because we love our craft.

Our work draws on decades of experience designing, crafting, riding, and racing custom bicycles. Before Firefly, we helped shape some of the most revered small frame builders in the world, and, in the process, we helped to shape national and international cycling and bike culture. When we started Firefly, we had a clear vision of our ideal custom bicycle company, and we have maintained that vision ever since. Our focus is not only on building the best bikes in the world here in Massachusetts – a state steeped in cycling tradition – but also on fostering a deeper connection between the rider and their bike by welcoming them into the process of designing and building it. Only custom can offer that connection. We know you’ll appreciate the intelligence, passion, meticulous attention to detail and quality materials that go into every frame we make. We can’t wait to build your dream bike.

What We Do

Custom fit and frame design

Every Firefly is custom made for the owner, meaning that we will tune the fit, handling, and ride to your exact needs. Our approach to fitting is based on decades of experience and recognizes that every cyclist is unique and that no single set of rules can or should determine a frame design. Every design takes the rider’s body dimensions, riding style, previous experience, and future goals into account.

Precision manufacturing

Despite being a company of just five people, collectively we have designed and built tens of thousands of custom frames, giving us an unmatched level of experience that shows in the quality of construction, finish, fit, and ride of every bike we make. Every frame is aligned to within 10/1000”, the thickness of a Post-It, from the center-line. That level of precision applies to each step in our process, and you’ll feel it in the ride.

Focus on design

Simply put, no other company offers the range and quality of finishes and custom graphics that we do. Starting with the variety of naked titanium finishes we offer—including our signature anodized graphics—we can work with you to develop a custom graphics package that is entirely unique to your bike. We believe your bike should look as special as it feels.

Documentation

We photograph the process of every bike we build, and then photograph the finished product in our photo studio. These photos become a visual record of your bike’s creation and bring you closer to the build process. These photos are indicative of the enormous care and attention we give to every bike. For us, every bike is a show bike.

The ride

In the words of one proud Firefly owner: “I absolutely love my Firefly. I have owned 40 bikes since I started riding in 1973 and there is no doubt that the Firefly is my absolute favorite bike of all time. You really do make a bike that feels like it was meant for no one else but me.”

Customer service you can count on

From your first inquiry, through the entire order process, and for as long as you own your Firefly, you can count on prompt, patient, friendly, and thorough communication. When needed, it’s not uncommon for us to create 20+ revisions of a frame design to get the final version just right, or to exchange 100’s of emails to go over every detail. We want the experience of getting and owning your Firefly to be as fun and stress-free as riding it (well, almost as fun!).

Who we are

Tyler is a creative force with over two decades of experience as a high end frame builder. He has welded well over 10,000 custom frames, and has no plans to stop now. However, his skills go far beyond just exquisite welding. He has delved into all aspects of the design and fabrication process resulting in some of the most well designed and world-renowned high performance frames the world has ever seen.

Tyler is also an avid photographer and graphic artist. When he is not welding or riding his bike, he can be found either behind the camera or his computer. He has used his intuitive creative energy to document and write about all aspects of the building process and has presented his work internationally through advertising, blogging and the various award-winning catalogs that he has produced.

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Jamie has the eye of an artist and the heart of a craftsman. He puts his love of cycling into every frame he makes. Jamie has been handcrafting high-end bicycle frames for the last 18 years. He has worked on all aspects of the frame building process, from tool making and streamlining production processes, to developing and executing prototypes and world-renowned concept bikes. His attention to detail and knowledge of all aspects of bicycles has made him one of the foremost experts in frame design and construction. At Firefly, he works closely with innovators inside and outside of the cycling industry.

His love of bicycles goes back to high school where he first discovered the freedom of commuting by bicycle. When he first came to Boston in 1993, he became a bike messenger and stuck with it for the next four years. Since becoming a professional framebuilder, he has focused much of his own energy and personal time creating various versions of what are known as Super Commuters. Each one is more advanced than the next. In his spare time he can be found tinkering in his home workshop creating nerdy little devices that he plans to use to take over the world some day. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Jamie has the eye of an artist and the heart of a craftsman. He puts his love of cycling into every frame he makes. Jamie has been handcrafting high-end bicycle frames for the last 18 years. He has worked on all aspects of the frame building process, from tool making and streamlining production processes, to developing and executing prototypes and world-renowned concept bikes. His attention to detail and knowledge of all aspects of bicycles has made him one of the foremost experts in frame design and construction. At Firefly, he works closely with innovators inside and outside of the cycling industry.

His love of bicycles goes back to high school where he first discovered the freedom of commuting by bicycle. When he first came to Boston in 1993, he became a bike messenger and stuck with it for the next four years. Since becoming a professional framebuilder, he has focused much of his own energy and personal time creating various versions of what are known as Super Commuters. Each one is more advanced than the next. In his spare time he can be found tinkering in his home workshop creating nerdy little devices that he plans to use to take over the world some day. Be afraid, be very afraid.

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From his first memory of winning a tricycle race at age five, through a racing career that took him around North America as a Category 1 racer, to his current role at Firefly, bikes have always been a central feature of Kevin’s life. In his career as a custom frame designer, Kevin has designed thousands of custom frames.

One of Kevin’s most important skills as a racer was always his ability to recognize a rider and how that rider is feeling with a quick glance at their position, pedal stroke, and body language from across a peloton. These same instincts apply to bike fitting to this day, allowing him to accurately fit clients both in person as well as from fit specifications and photos from across the world.

His current interests extend well beyond racing. He loves the enormously varied and wonderful world of bicycles, from road racing bikes to mountain bikes to grocery getters, and everything in between.

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New to the Firefly team as of 2020 Kate Mills has worked as a professional bicycle mechanic since 2007, but finds her degree in the studio arts and background in portrait painting and cartooning particularly applicable as she helps fulfill the vision and beauty of each custom frame. Before she was raising her young family Mills spent the off seasons bike touring, including self supported tours in 7 countries including coast to coast in the US. She maintains that west coast touring is the most beautiful in the world, but seeing as she’s from the East Bay of San Francisco some biases may be involved.

Mills not only loves getting greasy and making the best bikes possible, but also working to expand the bike industry to include more faces and communities. As part of her previous work Broadway Bikes, she developed intentional spaces to teach classes like the shop’s first WTF (womxn, trans, femme) class in advanced bicycle repair and the first WTF wheel building class, and brought Femmemachic’s monthly free and open shop time and instruction for WTF folks to Broadway where she hosted the event for a few years. Mills has been a Bikes Not Bombs fundraiser, a supporter of the US National Federation of Cooperatives and a teacher of many topics in creating better worker equity and fairness such as consensus modeling, cooperative modeling, the importance of business transparency and why good policies, communications and expectations are essential to supporting a diverse workforce. Mills strongly believes in anti-racist movements and work when it comes to all our institutions including the bike industry and within herself.

She loves green tea ice cream and Arnold Palmers.

New to the Firefly team as of 2020 Kate Mills has worked as a professional bicycle mechanic since 2007, but finds her degree in the studio arts and background in portrait painting and cartooning particularly applicable as she helps fulfill the vision and beauty of each custom frame. Before she was raising her young family Mills spent the off seasons bike touring, including self supported tours in 7 countries including coast to coast in the US. She maintains that west coast touring is the most beautiful in the world, but seeing as she’s from the East Bay of San Francisco some biases may be involved.

Mills not only loves getting greasy and making the best bikes possible, but also working to expand the bike industry to include more faces and communities. As part of her previous work Broadway Bikes, she developed intentional spaces to teach classes like the shop’s first WTF (womxn, trans, femme) class in advanced bicycle repair and the first WTF wheel building class, and brought Femmemachic’s monthly free and open shop time and instruction for WTF folks to Broadway where she hosted the event for a few years. Mills has been a Bikes Not Bombs fundraiser, a supporter of the US National Federation of Cooperatives and a teacher of many topics in creating better worker equity and fairness such as consensus modeling, cooperative modeling, the importance of business transparency and why good policies, communications and expectations are essential to supporting a diverse workforce. Mills strongly believes in anti-racist movements and work when it comes to all our institutions including the bike industry and within herself.

She loves green tea ice cream and Arnold Palmers.

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Scott’s history on a bike started off much like the majority of suburban kids, riding around the neighborhood with his friends. His true love of cycling happened in his early teens when he was introduced to mountain biking. Over the years Scott has spent time racing downhill, mountain biking, and even doing a little road biking, but he always has a special smile on his face when his tire hits the dirt.

Scott came to Firefly in 2017 after having spent 18 years as a bike shop mechanic. He briefly left the industry for a stint in the corporate world as a mechanical engineer, he quickly realized his true happiness was working with bikes.

Scott’s history on a bike started off much like the majority of suburban kids, riding around the neighborhood with his friends. His true love of cycling happened in his early teens when he was introduced to mountain biking. Over the years Scott has spent time racing downhill, mountain biking, and even doing a little road biking, but he always has a special smile on his face when his tire hits the dirt.

Scott came to Firefly in 2017 after having spent 18 years as a bike shop mechanic. He briefly left the industry for a stint in the corporate world as a mechanical engineer, he quickly realized his true happiness was working with bikes.

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Today is the 2-year anniversary of the delivery of my Firefly. I wanted to let you know that I still absolutely love my bike. It’s got about 6800 miles on it and has been to Colorado, New York, and Tennessee (in addition to here in Texas of course). I’ve changed out a couple parts due to fit and wear but otherwise it might as well be brand new. I especially like how it handles rough roads. I’m not sure how or why, but it has unquestionably made me a better rider.

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