diff --git a/cmd/helm/init.go b/cmd/helm/init.go
index 2b5e90d94..1aaf8c7f9 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/init.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/init.go
@@ -15,10 +15,12 @@ Kubernetes Cluster and sets up local configuration in $HELM_HOME (default: ~/.he
 `
 
 var (
-	tillerImg         string
-	tillerNamespace   string
-	clientOnly        bool
-	initSkipNamespace bool
+	tillerImg            string
+	tillerNamespace      string
+	clientOnly           bool
+	initSkipNamespace    bool
+	defaultRepository    = "kubernetes-charts"
+	defaultRepositoryURL = "http://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-charts"
 )
 
 func init() {
@@ -96,7 +98,7 @@ func ensureHome() error {
 		if _, err := os.Create(repoFile); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-		if err := insertRepoLine("local", "http://localhost:8879/charts"); err != nil {
+		if err := addRepository(defaultRepository, defaultRepositoryURL); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 	} else if fi.IsDir() {
diff --git a/cmd/helm/repo.go b/cmd/helm/repo.go
index 6c0119da0..eee3b9a71 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/repo.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/repo.go
@@ -55,15 +55,10 @@ func runRepoAdd(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	}
 	name, url := args[0], args[1]
 
-	if err := repo.DownloadIndexFile(name, url, cacheDirectory(name, "-index.yaml")); err != nil {
-		return errors.New("Oops! Looks like " + url + " is not a valid chart repository or cannot be reached\n")
-	}
-
-	if err := insertRepoLine(name, url); err != nil {
+	if err := addRepository(name, url); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-
-	fmt.Println(args[0] + " has been added to your repositories")
+	fmt.Println(name + " has been added to your repositories")
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -114,6 +109,14 @@ func index(dir, url string) error {
 	return chartRepo.Index()
 }
 
+func addRepository(name, url string) error {
+	if err := repo.DownloadIndexFile(name, url, cacheDirectory(name, "-index.yaml")); err != nil {
+		return errors.New("Looks like " + url + " is not a valid chart repository or cannot be reached\n")
+	}
+
+	return insertRepoLine(name, url)
+}
+
 func removeRepoLine(name string) error {
 	r, err := repo.LoadRepositoriesFile(repositoriesFile())
 	if err != nil {