Indy Fab moving to New Hampshire

Custom bike builder Independent Fabrications, a long-time Massachusets icon, has announced it will move its operations to New Hampshire in the coming months.

Its new facility is a 200-year-old mill in Newmarket, N.H., about an hour north of Boston. The space will allow the company to include a showroom and a fitting area, said IF President Gary Smith in a press release.

The old facility in Somerville, Mass., was growing cramped and the neighborhood was changing. Smith, who owns 80 percent of the company, gave employees a six-month notice and invited them to come along with, but how many will remains unclear.

The move seems a double-edge sword for IF: the new space will undoubtably be better for business, but will mean severing ties with the Sommerville commuinity it has called home since its founding in 1995. It spawned from the ashes of Fat City Bikes, which were produced in the same facility from 1982-1994.