Articles – Page 44 – Seven Cycles

At the Races with The Drifters

Zen and the Art of Cyclocross Racing has not yet been written, but if it had been, Seven’s own Brad Smith and his Drifters team might well be the protagonists. Three friends with a tent and a dream, Brad, Greg Ralich and Tony Fiandaca make an art of showing up, racing hard and having fun. There is a slack grinned style to what they do, an attitude that we think bike racing might just be desperate for. We caught up with the guys for a quick end-of-season update.

Seven: What are the Drifters trying to do? What is your evil plan? What is “drifting?”

Greg: We don’t try to do anything. We just do it. What is it? Tough to say. The indescribable only manifests itself in a singular choice moment. The moment in question is when physics says no, but your body says yes. When you lose your grip, you’re out of control, but you push harder. “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose” …Mariah Carey said that. This is the best way we can describe drifting, and occupying this mindset at every possible opportunity is what makes us The Drifters.

Seven: How is your season going results-wise? Do you care at all about results?

Brad: Results are pretty cool. Scoring points, podiums, upgrades are neat too. Definitely stoked on all of that. We’re more than racing though. The Drifters love a New England gravel grinding session or even just getting out early for a couple good turns. We like to volunteer at races and do cool stuff with our friends. We’re most interested in just getting out there as much as possible and always having a blast on bikes. We’re also super grateful to our few sponsors who believed in supporting a good time.

Greg: Mostly vanity plates, we are just really into good vanity plates.

Seven: Who is the most handsome Drifter?

Tony: Rambo. He’s technically a drifter. The cops call him a drifter a lot in the movie and he absolutely rips that dual sport in the woods. And he’s just like crazy handsome. But, if you’re talking about the most handsome member of the team it’s Me. They call me “Mr. F” (in the first grade classroom where I am a teacher).

Seven: Brad, you ride a Seven. How is it? Fast?

Brad: I’ve got a Seven and Greg rides a bike I built him called a bRad (pronounced: be-RAD) and Tony has at one point in time owned pretty much every bike ever.

This is my 4th season racing cross and just this year I built up the Mudhoney SL and WOW is about all I can say. It makes me feel like a kid. It just feels fast and SO light. My steel bikes are awesome, but they feel a bit more sluggish everyday in comparison. Every time I get on it I just get super excited to rip!

Check out The Drifters here to follow their wacky hi-jinks and see ALL the vanity plates in greater New England.

On the Road: Evergreening Sedona – The Bike in Detail

Bike riding is fun, and exploring the world by bike is another order of fun, however…when you’re taking on desert terrain, bike packing, being prepared is a serious business. For our week in and around Sedona, we outfitted our Evergreen SLs with a slew of specialized componentry and accessories. The double-butted Ti frames themselves are ideal for this kind of trip, super-durable but also comfortably compliant, so they serve as the perfect platform for this kind of trip.

1. S&S Couplers – The frame’s S&S couplers allow it to be broken down and packed into a travel case that does not incur additional baggage handling fees from the major commercial airlines.

2. Mechanical disc brakes – The mechanical (i.e. cable actuated) disc brakes can incorporate cable splitters, which make packing and re-assembly easier.

3 . Prototype light mount at fork race w/ Schmidt Edelux II generator headlight.

4. Light and Motion Gobe bar mount lights (x2) – More light = better. And they’re 100% waterproof.

5. Third water bottle – More water = better…especially in the desert.

6. Porcelain Rocket saddle bag – Expanding saddle storage for tools and parts. You never know what you’ll need, except that sometimes you do.

7. Drivetrain – 44/26 front chainrings coupled to 12/32 rear cassette for long days climbing technical terrain.

8. Son 28 generator disc hub – For battery-free lighting.

9. Clement MSO X’Plor 40mm tires – Big for comfort and traction.

10. Camera, Garmin 1000 & Garmin 810 – Hands free movies and pictures, plus navigation, plus back up navigation.

11. Prototype rear compression rack w/ compression bags – This versatile rack is collapsible for easy packing, and features a Ti “web” ideal for strapping bags and other equipment to. Not yet available for purchase, this is the first iteration in what we foresee being a long design cycle. Sea to Summit Compression Bag (x2) – Adaptable storage for all your desert exploration needs.

12. Ortlieb handlebar bag – Food and other necessaries, at your fingertips.

Email us to learn more about the Sedona Evergreens and Seven’s other travel bike options.

On the Road: Evergreening Sedona

Looking Down on Sedona

As New Englanders who had ridden in the desert Southwest only a few times, I can confess that none of the plans we made prior to flying into Flagstaff were going to happen. You hit the ground in Arizona and quickly realize that nothing books or the internet could tell you would be sufficient prep for the reality of the landscape, the beauty and the wildness of the place.

Cactus Spines & Tires, Natural Enemies

For example, we thought the 65 miles from Flagstaff to Sedona would be a relatively easy roll, the prelude to a much larger adventure, but the pasture land that stretches between was hard going, rough and rutted, each step the cattle had taken in the drought parched soil was baked solid, and we wondered at the firmness of our fillings before we’d made any progress at all. Given the ground we’d hoped to cover over our week there, we approached Sedona a little discouraged and over-awed. Then came the descent into town. We came around a wide bend, our heads down, churning away at the pedals, just trying to get there, and then suddenly, there it was, Sedona. We almost cried. This is what we came to see.

A Bit Lost

Back at Seven, in the office, we had thought through this trip, a chance to field test our Evergreens, to see how the bikes worked as a platforms for bike packing, and to ride terrain we would never encounter in New England. And in as much as we took our bikes and packed supplies and traveled through the landscape it was a good experiment. But none of that was in our heads once we’d arrived in Sedona and begun working our way through the rideable trails spider webbing out from town.

We just couldn’t look in any direction and not find beauty. Towering red stone spires and hulking sedimentary plateaus vaulted skyward in every direction. At some point, we gave up on stopping to take pictures, we just took pictures when we stopped instead. The trails made for some great technical riding. Our Evergreens clung to the packed sand and clay. It was, as hoped, like nothing we’d ridden before and nothing we could hope to get to back home.

Coyote-less Camping is Good Camping

The camping brought us into contact with wildlife we didn’t expect, but probably should have. We had not seen mule deer before, great lumbering animals, twice the size of our white-tailed deer back home. Though docile enough, the sheer size of the mule deer made them intimidating. We also encountered a small pack of coyote, which we normally only see alone in New England. These were bigger than ours, too. Luckily, they didn’t come into camp, and eating and sleeping was good under the stars. We’ve been riding bikes a long time, all kinds of bikes, in all sorts of places, and we’ve seen some dramatic landscapes, but it’s safe to say Sedona and its surroundings completely blew our minds. The trip was one of those eye-opening, fall-in-love-with-the-world sort of experiences that made us particularly grateful we’ve been able to make a life for ourselves that includes cycling through deserts as part of our “jobs.”

Giving Thanks.

On a warm July day in 2004, in the conference room at Seven Cycles, I sweated through my first real job interview. I met with Jenna in sales, Zac in design, and Rob the owner, for a total of about two hours. They sifted through my babbling, disregarded my nervousness, and offered me a gig as a Customer Service Representative. I started in August.

The learning curve at Seven is pretty steep. There is a lot to know. My primary responsibility, out of the gates, was to help answer phone calls which is a good way to learn things quickly. Each question and each caller were as unique as the bikes we make. I tried to learn as much as I could so I could be prepared to answer every question that anyone had and so I could finally stop pestering my colleagues with pleas of “Can we do this?” and, “Can we do that?” All my pestering revealed a pattern, the answers for all but the most outlandish requests were, “yup,” or “of course,” or “why not?” Once I understood our philosophy, phone calls became fun, and equally important, I understood what made Seven great, for the first time I knew our tagline, “One bike. Yours.” wasn’t a marketing ploy, it was simply how the business ran, from the top, down.

Ten years later, that motto hasn’t changed, and I will bring that singular focus with me throughout each of the adventurous endeavors that lie ahead. This Friday, October 10th is my last day at Seven Cycles. The decision was my own and though I will miss my colleagues and their fun-loving spirit immensely, I am excited for my next steps. I am also excited for Seven and know that the best has yet to come, a sentiment that everyone here has relayed to me as well. Seven is a special place, full of incredible and talented people, and I am proud to have been a part of the fun. Thanks is also due to the wonderful people that make up our retailer network, and to the many thousands of cyclists who have called, emailed, or stopped by for a factory tour.

Looking forward to seeing you all down the line.

Karl

Hulking Chain Stays.

You may have noticed in a recent post about Craig Gaulzetti’s new Axiom SL, that he wanted a race bike. Craig raced as a youngster while growing up in Belgium, and has never gotten over the thrill of a stiff, speed first, comfort second-if-at-all race bike. He wanted to recreate the same excitement with his very first Seven, and we were excited to take on the challenge.

Walking around our production floor, the most memorable site is the towering wall of titanium tubing located in the machining area.

titanium tubing rack — A section of the titanium tubing wall.

Hundreds of twenty foot tall tubes tower over everything in sight. Organized by diameter, these tubes will determine how a bike will feel on the road. To over simplify, a narrow tube will bend and flex over bumps and potholes resulting in a plush ride, but all that flex means the bike won’t explode forward when you stomp on the pedals. A large tube responds oppositely, bouncing over bumps like a poorly performing suspension, but will take off like a rocket when you mash your pedals. Most people want bikes that fall somewhere between those two extremes. No matter how you want your bike to feel on the road, choosing the appropriate tube set is our specialty.

To ensure Craig’s bike was going to bring him back to his racing heyday, some of our most massive tubes were selected, including the Louisville Slugger-esque 1 3/4″ down tube, a 44mm head tube, and a 1 1/2″ top tube. For most of us, these tubes would yield a bike so harsh, we’d want off. But Craig was looking for that feeling exactly, so when it came time to select his chain stays, we reached past the traditional 7/8″ tubes, and chose our most hulking, 1″ tube stock. An additional eighth of an inch in diameter sounds minor, but in both looks and performance, the difference is obvious. We felt these stays would add the extra boost Craig was after, and his early reports confirm that they have done the trick.

For Craig’s Axiom SL, the 1″ chain stays made sense: the design mission, the size and power output of the rider, and the overall aesthetic were a perfect match. Though they worked wonderfully for Craig, the one inch stays aren’t for everyone. More often than not, they are too stout, too heavy, or too limiting in component choices to use. These large chain stays crowd the bottom bracket junction, leaving only enough room for slick, narrow tires, and are therefore only available on our road bikes. They are so large and stout, that we do not curve them as you’ll see on all of our 7/8″ stays (as I incorrectly pointed out in my response to Brian S. back in September), they get just a small tire clearance crimp but are otherwise perfectly straight.

If you are interested in discussing whether or not our one inch chain stays are right for you, give us a call!