OCHS Seniors Give Back After Monstrous Bike Sales

OCEAN CITY, NJ — A pair of Ocean City High School seniors have put together one unique looking bicycle. As a result of their innovation and sales to students at the school, they were recently able to donate $100 to the Robin Hood Foundation.

Korey Greene and Nick Oteri have been friends since they were in fifth grade, and the two friends and entrepreneurs are taking the bike industry by storm with their company, Frankencycles. They take discarded bike frames that were headed for landfills and upcycle them into creative, unique tall bikes.

Greene got the idea when he first saw a tall bike online. He thought they looked like a lot of fun to ride, and wanted to try building one.

Since late July, they have made and sold five unique custom tall bikes using different colors, including red, orange, blue, black and white. It takes about 8-10 hours to make one bike, and they work on their models twice a week.

“When you ride them around town, you see heads follow you,” said Greene, who said he likes to be unique. “People get their phones out to videotape you. You hear dads whisper to their sons things like, ‘How do you get on it?’”

They said it’s pretty simple to get on, but the question is understandable, given that the bikes are three feet higher than a normal bike. Once you’re up there, though, it feels perfectly normal, they said.

Instructions on how to get on and off were included in their first Instagram video. Riders use the outside pedal as a step and hop up. Getting off is the same, but you just have to jump a little further to reach the ground.

Oteri is the CFO and Marketing Director. He uses his wide variety of contacts to keep a valuable supply of scrapped bikes ready to be made into masterpieces. Oteri has also used branding knowledge to produce Frankencycles apparel including t-shirts and coach jackets which they use to give back to the community. A portion of their apparel sales goes to the Robin Hood Foundation which helps fight poverty in New York City.

Greene is the CEO and Designer. He is a self-taught welder and does all the chopping, sanding and stacking to make each custom bike come to life. In order to save up the money for the welder, the duo has been hard at work.

Oteri worked two jobs over the summer, busing tables at Jon & Patty's Restaurant at night and on weekends, and Surf Buggy renting bikes and surrey's on 12th Street and the Boardwalk early mornings. Greene woke up bright and early to go to work at the family business, Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery, while at the same time competing for the school’s cross country team. After saving enough money, Greene bought a welding machine, mask and tools, and he set about teaching himself how to weld by watching YouTube videos.

Oteri has been mentored by a Wall Street entrepreneur for more than two years. He was recently able to attend the JP Morgan Robin Hood NYC Investors Conference with him, where Oteri made the donation.

“He was blown away,” Oteri said of his mentor. “He loved the idea.”

Oteri and Greene have had help from friends and classmates along the way. Ocean City High School senior Tyler James made the company’s logo, and senior Matt DiMarino used his drone to make a video for them, which is attached to this post. They say that thus far, sales have been good. The cost is $250 for a basic model. They may do more complex models in the future.

Oteri intends to major in Business, Finance and Real Estate in college, and Greene will major in Electrical and Aerospace Engineering. They are both still exploring their college options.

For more on Frankencycles, visit frankencycleusa.com and follow them on Instagram @frankencycles.

The attached images were provided