U.S. Built Bicycles in Titanium and Carbon-Titanium Mix
U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix
We built this 622 SLX for our friend Adam at Get-a-Grip Cycles in Chicago last season, but he just gave it the fresh bar tape, fresh saddle treatment, so he sent us a picture. We love the Swimming Pool Blue he chose for the carbon tubing, and the Campy EPS build out turns it into something of a show bike. Fortunately, we know the Chicago winter is coming to a close, and we expect this one to leave the showroom and get back on the road shortly.
There was a time in my life when all I wanted to do was load up a massive set of panniers with a tent, sleeping bag, and camp stove then head out on a journey. In high school I participated in a few loaded touring trips, and fell in love with the freedom, and was too youthful to care about the uphills. In college, my miniscule, monthly work study check forced some down sizing in gear and equipment, so I exchanged the panniers for a backpack, and used school vacations as the perfect excuse to head out into the mountains. Into Thin Air, the book, came out my sophomore year of college, and the Imax film Everest came out the year after that. I was enthralled with the mountains, and the adventure.
Until I met Zand Martin, I had never heard of the Altai mountains. An internet search provided me with their location, “where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together,” but while clicking through the images tab, I wondered what shape my backpack was in. Zand Martin, the newest member of Team Seven Cycles, will be traveling to the Altai Mountain Range next week on a most incredible adventure that he and his partner are calling “Circling the Golden Mountains.”
Their goal is lofty, to circumnavigate the Altai using nothing but bikes and skis, all the while telling the story of the home of skiing, its people, and its landscape. Zand described it to us, “At the northern edge of the vast endoheic basins of Central Asia rises the last of the great mountain complexes radiating northeast from the Indian subcontinent: the Altai, or ‘Golden Mountains’ in Altaysk. The Altai straddles the transboundary region where Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and Russia come together, and constitute a diverse 1600 kilometer long partially-†glaciated range that reaches 15,000 feet. Skiing was invented in the Altai around 8000 BC, thousands of years before Scandinavia; thousands of years before that, the first dogs were domesticated in the range. Today, semi-Ââ€nomadic Tuvan and Kazakh herders cut and bend their own skis and attach caribou fur to them, even going so far as to race downhill and powder ski.” While on the road they plan to conduct citizen-Ââ€science initiatives through ASC and support the work of WWF Mongolia, WWF Russia, and the IUCN-Ââ€WPCA Mountain Biome Network.
The route, a mere 4,000 kilometers, will be grueling. Zand says they’ll be traveling light, but with skis, cold weather gear, and all of the necessities for a self supported trip strapped to their bikes, I can’t imagine “light” would be your first thought.
We get to meet Zand in person tomorrow, and are pretty darn excited about it. This trip is the latest in a long list of awe inspiring journeys (like the one shown above in the picture taken by Zand Martin) which you can learn more about here: http://zandmartin.com/, but will be posting about his trip as it unfolds.
The 26th annual Seattle Bike Expo is rolling through the Pacific Northwest this weekend, and bringing with it over 175 other vendors, a huge array of bikes, bike related art, and a few guest speakers. One of those guest speakers is our very own Rob Vandermark! Rob will present an interactive session at 12:30 PM on Saturday March 1st :
“Customizing Beyond Fit”
This interactive session will break down the aspects of custom bike building that go beyond the geometry of the bike, explaining how deep personalization of the riding experience can have value for any and every rider. Understanding the bike in this way will help riders evaluate their riding needs more clearly and clarify priorities as they dream of their next bike.
We keep Rob pretty busy here at home, so this is a rare chance to get see him out in the wild. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello, or better yet, participate in the discussion!
Cascade Bicycle Studio, one of our top authorized Seven retailers, will have a booth decked out with a variety of Sevens and other not to be missed bike paraphernalia, be sure to check out their display as well.
Gritty Nylox bristles whip over the titanium tube and brush off the discoloration left behind from welding. The sound isn’t deafening, but with three other frames being wheeled at the same time, it is pretty loud this afternoon. The final stage, before frames get wrapped up and shipped out, or in my case handed off, is my favorite to watch. Unlike a welder, whose hands move slowly and steadily, frame builders move about like dancers. Twirling around the stand as they flip, twist, and rotate the bike, their performance looks choreographed. Dan C. is working on my bike, but his recital isn’t a dance at all, in fact it’s one of the most arduous parts of fabrication. We call it “FINISHING.”
Before I caught up to him, Dan had already run my frame through the CNC machine where the bottom bracket was threaded, faced, and chamfered. In machining, the bottom bracket starts as a thick walled, round tube. When the down tube, seat tube, and chain stays are all welded on to it, the heat distorts the metal, microscopically, but enough that it’s no longer perfectly round. The thick tube wall is important because our CNC machine will bore through it, expanding the inner diameter to leave a perfectly round hole, which it can then thread. You can see the difference in wall thickness.
Dan had also faced and reamed the 44mm head tube so my Chris King InSet 7 headset will press in evenly. As an aside, the lathe that faces and reams head tubes is my favorite machine in the building. Who knows what it did before it came to Seven, but it looks old and tank like. I bet it weighs several tons. Head tube after head tube, it keeps working, just like new. Spin the crank and it goes round and round like a Record square taper bottom bracket. So cool.
When those two steps were finished, Dan bonded in the seat tube insert, cut the seat top binder notch, and checked the frame’s alignment, making improvements where necessary.
By the time I got back to see how it was coming along, my bike was half way through the wheeling process.
Once the main tubes have been wheeled, and the natural sheen of titanium comes through, he’ll exchange his drill for a ruddy strip of Scotch-Brite. The Scotch-Brite pad gives a uniform finish to the frame that can be replicated at home, at the end of the season, or whenever I want it to look like new.
When the frame passes Dan’s final, grueling, inspection, he’ll attach all of the small parts. The last step is to wipe down the frame with a light furniture polish.
Pretty soon my frame will be ready to build, and I will be bouncing off the walls.