The first weekend in December found us at Get-a-Grip’s Fulton Street Fit Studio for an evening of bike chat and wine tasting. Seven founder Rob Vandermark spoke about our customization process and fielded questions on topics ranging from steel forks – we’re working on it – to full-suspension mountain bikes – we’re working on that too. Customers brought their Sevens, and we talked about all the decisions that go into a custom bike.
While we were there we met Erick Geer Wilcox, who makes custom bike shoes, and Mike Cacciabando, who rides the most Chicago-y bike in Chicago. We drank wine. We ate cheese. It was a party.
Before the snow flies we’re trying to get out in the woods as much as we can. Wednesdays often hold the promise of a shop ride on cross bikes, if we can all remember our lights.
This time of year, our local trails are awash in dead leaves. The leaves make traction a more random event and camouflage muddier patches, all of which serves to amplify the fun. Everything that is easy fun on a mountain bike in the daytime becomes squirrely and awesome on a cross bike in the dark.
You can only ever really ride the five square feet of illuminated trail in front of you. Sections you know by heart show sides you wouldn’t have imagined.
A few nights ago we rolled single file through a trail system just a few miles from the shop, and then did a quick zig-zag over pavement to get to another small system out to the west. We finished with a spin downa nighttime bike path, only a few other hearty cyclists for company. Home in time to microwave some leftovers and put the kids to bed.
If you’ve ever been over your handlebars into a sand pit, you know that the forces that come to bear on a cyclocross bike can be both unexpected and catastrophic. You also know that trying to get all that sand out of your mouth is much more complicated than simply swishing some post-race beer around and then spitting, like you were at the outdoor dentist.
Because of the big hits a typical CX race bike takes, we think that a pure carbon frame is the wrong tool for the job. There simply isn’t enough forgiveness in that material to justify the weight savings you would get over a metal bike. That doesn’t mean carbon fiber has no place on the course though.
Carbon fiber is good at two things. First, it eats high-frequency vibration better than metal, so having some carbon in your CX frame is good when you’re flying over grass or even grinding a big gear on a paved section. You’ll be smoother and get better power transfer. The other thing carbon fiber is good at is being light. Light can be good when you’re racing, right?
But it’s not everything.
Metal is good at some things, too. Titanium, for example, will give a frame a suppleness and a maneuverability that an all-carbon fiber frame doesn’t have. In the technical section of any course, in the switchbacks or in the mud, titanium will give you the ability to use your whole body to steer with. A titanium drive train will be easier to power in chattery sections than a carbon one. Sometimes a little flex is a good thing.
At Seven, we have the ability to build an all-carbon cyclocross racer and make it every bit as customizable as any of the other bikes we build. When we set out to expand our cross line though, an all-carbon bike never even crossed our minds.Instead we built the machine that would come to be known as the Mudhoney PRO.
The 2012 Mudhoney PRO
The Mudhoney PRO aspires to wring every last advantage out of the two materials in its design. The carbon fiber top, seat, head, and down tubes form a light triangle. Matching seat stays settle your saddle. By putting titanium lugs and chainstays into the mix, we getsuppleness where we want it, plus added durability. A titanium drive train will improve tracking and traction; it will hold the ground better than a carbon one, especially in the more technical sections.
Marrying materials in this way isn’t easy; it takes advanced bonding techniques to gain all these advantages and still be able to offer a lifetime warranty. Luckily, we’ve been mixing titanium and carbonsince 1997.
We can’t guarantee you won’t go over the bars of the Mudhoney PRO. When it comes right down to it, sand is unpredictable, and we could all use more practice carrying momentum from the fast parts of the course into the technical sections. What we will say is that you won’t find a cross racer that trackstruer and holds the ground better. And there’s always that post race beer to look forward to.
We talk about customization a lot, but the word itself means so many different things to so many different people it becomes sort of meaningless, another bike industry buzz word that flies around but seldom lands. We thought it might be a good idea to explain howWE customize a bike using the Bicycling magazine test bike we built for Joe Lindsey as an example.
The truth is we didn’t want to send Joe an Axiom SL, initially. When he got in touch with us we were just putting the finishing touches on the 622 SLX, and the opportunity to put our newest creation into a big magazine was exciting.
But Joe didn’t want a purpose-built speed demon. He was more interested in versatility and timelessness, so we arrived, together,at the Axiom SL. It’s light, but not the lightest. It can race, or it can tour. And it showcases our double-butting process, one of the ways we tune ride characteristics to the rider.
Joe filled out our Custom Kit, a small pamphlet we developed to capture all the ideas a rider has about his or her new bike, and also to learn some things the rider might not mention otherwise. It starts with personal information, name, age, and weight, but also occupation and geographic location. We ask about what people do, so that we can get a sense for their everyday ergonomics. Do they sit at a desk all day or are they more active? Clues like this tell us a lot about how a rider will approach their new bike. Where they live gives us some idea about the roads they’ll ride, the hills or the flats, the quality of the surfaces.
