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U.S. Built Bicycles in Titanium and Carbon-Titanium Mix

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Wasting No Time

Long wooden crates at the garage door entrance

Well, we made it through the holiday rush, getting out all those bikes that had been promised as gifts, and it was nice to get a few days off with family and friends to over-eat, dream about bike riding and then over-eat some more.

Sure enough, a truck rolled up first thing this morning with three boxes of raw Ti tubing to be crafted into the New Year’s custom bikes. Nick and Sutts loaded the first one onto the dolly and wheeled it off to machining.

Lathes and mills spun to life. The compressor to the paint booth cycled on and off. The coffee maker bubbled and spluttered.

We gathered briefly by Nick’s computer in shipping to watch the end of the World Cup cyclocross from Belgium (SPOILER ALERT: Nys won, again), before catching up on the orders sent in over the weekend, updating status on bikes in process and chatting idly about the impending winter storm.

This is the thing about doing something you love to do. It’s nice to take a break, but it’s also nice to get back to work, wasting no time, while riders here, there and everywhere dream about their new bike.

Love to Ride – The Photographers – Natalia Boltukhova

Five riders in Seven Kits ride in a meadow

You will notice right away that Russian-born photographer Natalia Boltukhova can’t sit still. With a camera slung round her neck she is all action, all energy, and that energy lights up her photos, which, coincidentally, tend to be of other folks who can’t sit still.

Upon moving to the United States in 2006, she immersed herself in New England’s gritty/beautiful cyclocross scene. She not only races cross but also keeps her hands full during the season taking beautiful photos at races. And while Cyclocross is one of her busiest times of the year behind the lens, she shoots full time for her own Tiny Russian Studios and showcases her cycling work under the Pedal Power Photography moniker.

Natalia’s photos have been featured in several magazines, newspapers, and on book covers, and she has even released her own coffee table book on New England Cyclocross titled Beer. Cupcakes. Moustache. She is currently working on a documentary project titled Woman Warrior about female fighters (MMA boxing, wrestling, etc).

We really enjoyed working with Natalia on the Love to Ride project. You will be seeing more of her work in the future. Count on it.

Dan V on a fast descent on rough trail

Red Kite Prayer: Shimano Dura-Ace 9000: A First Look (excerpt)

by Padraig622

In an unusual and forward-thinking move, Shimano had editors from a few different media outlets submit a frame set ahead of the introduction for Shimano’s techs to build with a new group. I reached out to my friends at Seven Cycles to see if they might be able to help. We’ve been discussing a review of the 622 frame for most of this year; I’ve been slow to get them my measurements for a custom frame. Fortunately for me, they had this particular 622 built for stock for Ride Studio Cafe, the studio/cafe operation Seven owns in Lexington, Mass. It’s conceivable that a custom frame will fit me better than this, but I’m so accustomed to making stock stuff work, I have no complaints with this so far.

The Weight of Experience

filing cabinets labelled 2007, 2007 cont.

We have every order that’s ever been phoned, faxed or emailed to us here at Seven. When a rider orders a second or third or eighth bike from us, we pull their archived orders and combine them so we can factor everything we know into the new build. Building one bike at a time, this one of the ways experience accrues.

We keep all the orders in manilla folders, one for each bike, in a long line of file cabinets, alphabetized and labeled by year. Each order is mirrored in our database, but we keep the paper because it helps us capture every detail and have hard back up for power outages or digital meltdowns.

There are 30 cabinets spanning our history. Pull the orders out and you’d get a pile 240 feet high. Altogether, they weigh roughly 5,000 lbs (2275kg). More than two tons.

This is the weight of our experience. We don’t know a ton about custom bike building. We know two tons.