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Event Report: Biketoberfest Marin

Biketoberfest booth
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.

Seven Sevens
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.

Seven Distributor: Sigma Sport UK

Sigma booth
Sigma Sport UK’s Seven Cycles Showroom

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.

Stop in and say hello to Mick and the crew.

Family Tree of Framebuilding in New England: Red Kite Prayer Addendum

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 wall of photos
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.
  • 333fab, Maxwell Kullaway and Bernard Georges.
  • Icarus Frames, Ian Sutton.
  • Royal H Cycles, Bryan Hollingsworth.  Sometimes still helps us at Seven.
  • Honey Bikes, Beekeepers.
  • Saila, Lauren Trout.
  • Bike retailers that originally worked at Seven Cycles and later started or owned bike stores and studios:

Fat City Cycles

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.
  • Firefly Bicycle.  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.

Seven Customer David N.

Dave holding his Seven at the Passo dello Stelvio Cima Coppi, m. 2760
Dave prepares to take on the Dolomites

Our good friend David traveled with his new Seven to compete in the Maritona dles Dolomites, a Gran Fondo that has been described by National Geographic as, “one of the biggest, most passionate, and most chaotic bike races on Earth.”

Before he departed for this adventure, Dave took time to sit down with us and talk about the bike Seven designed especially for this event.

What qualities of your Seven are most important to you in this particular event? I know that on my Seven I’ll be confident in what’s under me, so I can focus on the climbs, and on actually enjoying the experience! I like the idea that I can ride this unfamiliar course and I’ll almost be able to ignore the bike. Not that my Seven doesn’t have personality, but it is so light, it hasn’t weighed me down during my training rides prior to the Maratona. All built up with the couplers, the wheels, the pedals, and 2 cages, the bike is only 16 lbs.

My new Seven is able to be uncoupled and shipped without sacrificing any ride or performance quality. I know that when I get to Italy and reassemble the bike, my ride will be the same as when I am riding at home, and having that comfort, familiarity, and power is invaluable.

Continue reading “Seven Customer David N.”

Mary McConneloug + Mike Broderick = R&D Bikes

Sola SLX - Mary McConneloug's Race Bike
Mary McConneloug’s Race Bike

We had another visit last week from Mary and Mike!  Last time they visited we made some progress on mountain bike R&D for the 2012 season.  During this visit we’ve added some cross bikes, too.  This is a project that’s similar in some ways to what we’re working on with Mo Bruno!  So many prototypes happening at once.  At the moment we’ve got 12 prototype and pre-production bikes happening simultaneously –  it’s that time of year.  Stay tuned for photo glimpses – and keep an eye on Starcrossed for spy photos soon. Continue reading “Mary McConneloug + Mike Broderick = R&D Bikes”