Bespoked

Excerpt from Four Seasons Magazine

Parcour S

Diamas S

The custom work that goes into a seven cycles bike creates a nuanced machine that minimises fatigue and maximises comfort.

When Glenn Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, cycles in Central Park or near his vacation home in Quebec, he rides a handmade bike made by seven cycles in watertown, massachusetts. To lowry, who takes 70- to 100-mile rides two or three times a week during the summer, the bike is not a status symbol, not an objet d�art (beautiful though it is), but a performance enhancer.

�I don�t notice the bike,� says Lowry of his carbon and titanium steed. �It�s just you, your legs and your heart.� That�s the highest praise a serious rider can bestow.

Seven Cycles (www.sevencycles.com) has turned the world of handmade bikes on its head by managing to lightly industrialise the production process—it produces several hundred road, competition and mountain bikes yearly and takes orders through a network of about 150 U.S. retailers and distributors in 30 other countries—without losing the essence of the product: one worker makes one bike at a time tailored to the client�s body and riding habits.

It�s a custom-made suit with wheels. And like the suit, there�s a wait (four to eight weeks) and a cost. The entry-level resolute slx costs $3,699, and other models cost four times as much.

�A handmade bike,� says Seven Cycles founder Rob Vandermark, �is not just about the look and feel of the bike. It�s about how it handles, how it fits the rider and how it performs. We focus on the rider experience rather than only artistry.�

Those three reasons�fit, performance and quality�are why you go bespoke. �My Seven Cycles machine is more comfortable over longer distances,� Lowry says. �I don�t get tired after four or five hours because the quality of the ride is so superior to a factory bike. I�m not sore at the end of a ride either, and I�m not sore the next day.�

Vandermark brings an unusual background to his passion. He worked in a bike shop while studying sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Then he spent a decade at Merlin Metalworks, a high-end frame builder, eventually heading the research and development department. In 1997, he founded Seven Cycles.

�We start with the client�s ideal riding position and design the bike underneath them from scratch,� says Vandermark. Seven Cycles does a staggering amount of research for each bike. Its retailers spend an average of two to three hours with a prospective buyer and go through a checklist of more than 100 questions. They take the measurements of your body and your current bike and delve into your riding style�do you like hills more than flats or vice versa?�and into what you like and dislike about your current bike. Every element of the bike is tailored to suit the buyer�s weight, riding style, intended use, age and favoured terrain.

�Say we had a taller-than-average rider who has shorter-than-average arms and rides in New England,� says Vandermark. �We�d bring the front end up and in a bit, and we would readjust the handling to rebalance the rider�s weight, placing it squarely between the wheels. We�d also include slightly longer chain stays for better weight distribution and to improve rear wheel tracking, and bring the bars up a bit so that the rider�s torso would be in the correct position. Since the client rides in hilly New England, we�d tend to design the position slightly more upright because wind is less of a factor. The slightly more upright and open position also facilitates breathing and overall comfort, helping reduce fatigue.�…