Mo Bruno Roy before the mudfest that was Gloucester
Seven was out in force at the Grand Prix of Gloucester over the weekend, basking in the mud and gratuitous suffering. Bob’s Red Mill and Seven-sponsored rider Mo Bruno Roy finished top ten both days in the elite women’s race, and Andrea Smith from Team Ladies First rode her Seven to a podium spot – second overall – on Day 1, bagging a solid 5th place finish on Day 2.
Carl Ring from the Seven Development Squad was in action, and the guys from the Seven office: Keith Cardoza, Jake Bridge, and Joe Wignall all flew the colors in the mud at Stage Fort Park, too.
Seven employee Keith Cardoza on his Mudhoney
New England has turned cool, wet and rainy: ideal cross weather. At Gloucester this weekend, Richard Fries’ bombastic ranting ringing from the PA was a perfect accompaniment to the race’s mayhem and conditions.
The New England cross season is in full swing, with races almost every week from now through December. It’s not too late to register for The Night Weasels Cometh in Shrewsbury, MA Wednesday night. You can warm up on Tuesday night at the pre-race party at Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington, too. And who is excited for Providence next weekend?
Any of you Seven owners out there who raced at Gloucester, write to us in the comment section below and let us know how you did!
Seven is a proud to sponsor champion Cyclocross racer Mo Bruno Roy. Here are some of her upcoming races this fall—if you’re in any of the cities where Mo will be racing, come out and cheer her on to victory!
East Coast-West Coast Harmony: Seven and City Cycle at Biketoberfest
We spent last weekend at Biketoberfest in Marin, California with our City Cycle San Anselmo friends Cory, Tim, and Mitch.
Lots of Sevens at Biketoberfest
There was beer. There was food. There were bikes. It’s good to be in the bike business on a day like that. Big thanks to Cory and his guys for hosting us and showing us why Marin is such a legendary destination for cyclists of every stripe.
There’s something amazing about getting pictures like this one of the Seven Cycles showroom at Sigma Sport in London. When you work with people who believe in what you do as much as you do, it comes out in the way they choose to display your bikes.
Sigma Sport has Sevens, plus a whole lot more, at the Cycle Show in Birmingham from this Friday, September 30th, through Sunday, October 2nd.
Patrick Brady wrote a brief history of New England bicycle manufacturing in the latest issue of Peloton Magazine, “New England Genesis”, and Seven was lucky enough to be included in it. In his (now defunct) blog, Red Kite Prayer, Patrick elaborates on the interconnectedness of the region’s bike building companies, and created a family tree to illustrate some of the relationships.
We are honored to be a part of this thriving and expanding community, and we wanted to clarify a few aspects of Patrick’s illustration that might be confusing to readers. Here is a list of framebuilders and bike-building industry people of which we’re aware that started businesses after working with local – primarily Massachusetts – framebuilders. For example, King Cage is not a framebuilder, but Ron worked at Fat City Cycles so we included him on this list.
A Long History of Photo-Taking
Each company mentioned is a framebuilder, unless otherwise indicated:
Updated 3 June 2015
Seven Cycles
In addition to Red Kite Prayer’s list, here are some companies started by Seven Cycles employees and alumnae, and clarification regarding some of the companies relationships to Seven:
Zanconato, Mike Z. was building frames before working at Seven and continues to build frames since his tenure at Seven.
SCUL, Skunk. SCUL is more of a chopper gang than a framebuilder. Currently works with Seven.
Sketchy Cycles, Mike Salvatore. Currently works with Seven.
Banjo Cycles, Ahren Rogers.
Rack Lady, Leah Stargardter. She builds custom bike racks.
Here are some additional companies – beyond what’s mentioned on Red Kite Prayer – started by Fat City Cycles alumnae:
Independent Fabrication. See below for more details.
King Cage, Ron Andrews – he makes water bottle cages.
Igleheart, Chris Igleheart.
Bomber Cycles, Dave Blakney.
S.R.P., Jeff Federson – no longer in business; he used to make small parts for the bike industry.
Janeware, Jane Hayes. Maker of clothing for cyclists.
Merlin Metalworks
A couple of additional companies not mentioned in the Peleton article:
Arctos Machine, Gary Helfrich – no longer in business; Arctos was based on the west coast.
One-Off Titanium, Mike Augsburger – he used to make custom bicycles.
Independent Fabrication
Additional companies started by Independent Fabrication alumnae:
A.N.T., Mike Flanagan. See below for more details. Closed shop on 2015; currently works with Seven Cycles.
Sputnik Metalworks, Jeff Buckles – he makes framebuilding tooling for the bike industry.
FireflyBicycle. The cool kids!
Alternative Needs Transportation – A.N.T
Mike Flanigan closed up shop in 2015. His storied past includes teaching framebuilding classes. The most notable is:
Geekhouse, Marty Walsh. In the article, it may come across that Geekhouse was born out of Marty Walsh’s work with Seven. Marty started Geekhouse prior to working with us, ran Geekhouse while he was working with Seven, and continues to operate Geekhouse today.
Serotta Competition Cycles
Yes, we know that New York is not in New England, but Serotta and the Boston bike building scene are connected – at the very least by Whitcomb. Here are a few additional companies started by Serotta alumnae:
Kirk Frameworks, Dave Kirk-Bozeman, Montana
K. Bedford Customs, Kelly Bedford
Ellis Cycles, Dave Wages
Local Builders
Here are a few framebuilders that didn’t start at a local bike company, as far as we know:
Peter Mooney Cycles
Hot Tubes, Toby Stanton.
Circle A Cycles, Chris Bull.
Maietta Cycles, Tony Maietta.
Dave Weagle
E.thirteen
Evil
Ted Wojcik Custom Bicycles
Rhygin Cycles, Christian Jones – no longer in business.
Parlee Bicycles, Bob Parlee.
October Hand Made Bikes – no longer in business.
We’re sure we’re forgetting a bunch of people, so please let us know whom we’ve left out! We thank Patrick for including us in this terrific article. We hope that after reading Patrick’s work you’ll have a better understanding of the unique history of New England that helped launch so many amazing and innovative companies.
