Seven Cycles will be displaying two bicycles at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT as part of their Bike Rides: The Exhibition, which begins on Sunday, October 4, 2009 and runs until January 3, 2010. Organized by Aldrich curators Richard Klein and Mónica RamÃrez-Montagut, with the advice of musician, artist, and bicycle advocate David Byrne, the exhibition explores the growing relevance of bicycles in contemporary art and culture.
The Veridian Bike2010 Axiom SL
The two Seven models on display are:
The Viridian Bike, previously known as the Limited Edition Earth Day bike; this model was selected to demonstrate proof of concept that carbon footprint reduction can apply not only to the bicycle rider, but to the manufacturing techniques used to create a sustainable, durable transportation option.
The 2010 Axiom SL; this model was chosen for the exhibit to showcase the aesthetics and broad performance applications of a full titanium road bike. The butted titanium tubeset allows for an unmatched range of ride characteristics, from stable all-day comfort to aggressive, race-tuned responsiveness. The Axiom SL also features a special custom paint scheme on the frameset and wheels.
Of the more than 20 world-class artists and groups taking part in the exhibition, Seven is the only company invited to display bicycles in two different categories. We feel very honored to have this distinction.
Here is an excerpt from the event program:
In the latter context, artist, designer and devoted cyclist Rob Vandermark’s Viridian Bike, a commuter bike from his company Seven Cycles summarizes several of the issues at hand. Having majored in sculpture in college, he left to pursue his two combined passions—cycling and and building sculpture. Vandermark initiated his career at Merlin Metalworks, a high-end bicycle frame builder and one of the first to work with titanium. Vandermark’s own durable titanium bicycles like this Viridian Bike are completely customized to the specific body measurements and riding habits of each commuter, affording maximum efficiency and performance. For this bike, Vandermark’s efforts have also gone into reducing the carbon footprint in the production and distribution of the bike—recycling, and, for example, using green materials such as cork for the handle grips. Curiously, the effort to reduce the use of energy during manufacturing has made it necessary in some instances to rely on more time-consuming and labor-intensive handwork, rather than high-end technology.
Fabricators of the Viridian Bike, Massachusetts based Seven Cycles is the largest custom bike manufacturer in the world and is recognized internationally in the cycling industry as one of the most innovative designers in titanium frames. Their bicycles use custom frame geometry and rider-specific tube diameters and wall thickness in order to complement the rider’s weight, riding style, intended use, age, and riding terrain. The use of titanium in bicycles such as the 2010 Axiom SL helps reduce unwanted vibration yet provides an underlying sensory connection to the environment while riding. Titanium is an ultralight, extremely strong, high fatigue endurance, and corrosion-proof metal alloy that is used in the aerospace industry. Many Seven Cycles’ bicycles have been specifically designed for world-class athletes, including Olympians, national champions, and Tour de France winners. And Seven Cycles’ President Rob Vandermark has also designed the first performance wheelchair that incorporates titanium as an integral design element.
The exhibition will include artworks or bikes from Lance Armstrong; Bamboo Bike Studio (Justin Aguinaldo, Sean Murray, and Marty Odin); Guy Ben-Ner; Jonathan Brand; David Byrne; Cai Guo-Qiang; Cannondale Bicycle Corporation; David Gelfman; Subodh Gupta; Bari Kumar; Jarbas Lopes; Miguel Luciano; Mexican Pride (Francisco Javier Ceballos, Rogelio and Braulio Martinez, and Vicente Olivares); PARLEE Cycles; Carolina Pedraza; Puerto Rico Schwinn Club (Martha Clavijo, “El Gallo,†and Orlando Rivera); Richard Sachs; Tom Sachs; Secret School and the K.I.D.S. (Colin McMullan [aka EMCEE C.M.] and Huong Ngo); Seven Cycles; David Sowerby and Danny MacAskill; Studio Tractor (Peter Kirkiles design + fabrication and Studio Tractor Architecture); and Rob Vandermark.
Optional on many Seven models, S&S Bicycle Torque Couplings™ (BTC) allow you to separate your Seven into halves (or thirds for a tandem), which pack easily and neatly into a case that travels as standard luggage aboard a plane. The couplings add just a few ounces to the frame weight and have no effect on the frame’s handling or performance.
In order to safely transport your S&S BTC Seven, we also offer the following recommended accessories for an additional charge:
For riders planning to take advantage of Shimano’s Di2 groupset, Seven Cycles offers an internal cable routing option on our frames.
Since the introduction of Di2, Seven has been building frames with standard cable routing that allows riders to use zip-ties to secure the Di2 cables. Now we offer the clean, protected look of internal routing on all road and cyclocross models.
These images show an Axiom SL frame with frame modifications for internal routing. The Internal Cable Routing option is available on new bike orders only.
More cyclists are pedaling for a cause than ever before. Now you can have the ideal bike for this year’s ride, let everyone know the importance of your cause, and raise funds to support your charity, all at the same time.
Choose your bike model, tell us your charity event and the ride date, and we will do the following:
Design a limited edition paint scheme specifically for your cause
Seven and your participating authorized retailer will commit to donating 7% of the retail value of your bike to your cause
Promote your involvement on this web page with a link to your donation page
Pricing for a complete painted bike starts at $3900, which means you will generate a minimum donation of $273 to your cause. In order to be fully accustomed to your new bike, we recommend placing your order at least twelve weeks prior to your event. However, if we receive your order at least four weeks before your scheduled ride, we guarantee to have your bike ready.
GRANBY, CO – JULY 18: Mary McConneloug of Fairfax, California races to fifth place in the Women’s Pro Cross Country at the US Mountain Bike National Championships at the Sol Vista Bike Park on July 18, 2009 in Granby, Colorado. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
Two-time Olympian Mary McConneloug, currently the top-ranked U.S. mountain biker, runs her own team with partner Michael Broderick and has no plans of retiring any time soon.
By Peggy Shinn
In early August, USA Cycling’s Pro Mountain Bike Cross-Country Tour (ProXCT) stopped at Mount Snow in southern Vermont, and the top domestic trade teams’ colorful trucks and trailers were parked at the ski resort’s main base area. Under the trailer awnings and team tents, the top American riders mingled. Olympians Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher), Todd Wells (Specialized), Georgia Gould (LUNA Chix), and Mary McConneloug (Kenda-Seven-NoTubes) were all there.
Except McConneloug’s team rig wasn’t parked with the others. The top-ranked female mountain biker in the U.S., McConneloug and her partner Michael Broderick had parked the Kenda-Seven-NoTubes van and trailer about a mile south of the main venue at Mount Snow’s Carinthia base area, the designated camping spot for this event.
Not because they aren’t welcome by the other teams but because Team Kenda-Seven-NoTubes consists only of McConneloug, 38, and Broderick, 36. Their team rig is a gray Ford van and Tail-Gator trailer that serves as their staging area and their home.
With a full kitchen and bath, large table in the middle, and a bed that descends from the ceiling, the trailer has everything they need and uncluttered, it feels bigger than it looks from the outside. A few pieces of luggage, including a 2008 Olympic team- issued suitcase emblazoned with USA, are scattered in the back.
McConneloug has been approached by the big teams that offer perks such as mechanics, massage therapists, and team managers who handle logistics. But she prefers to go it alone with Broderick, whom she said is “incredible, I wouldn’t be here without him.”
“For me, this is a lifestyle,” she said. “I want to share this with my man. Yeah, it’s more difficult, and I don’t know how much we make compared to anyone else. … But we’re free. We’re able to choose where we want to go and where we want to race. It’s amazing to be in control and not have someone tell me what to do.”
The freedom that she and Broderick have chosen has not only kept her happy and her life more balanced – if incredibly busy – but also has helped her achieve the success that she’s had, including two trips to the Olympic Games and seven World Cup podiums.
McConneloug discovered mountain bike racing relatively late in life. She was 27 in 1997 when her then-boyfriend persuaded her to race. Growing up in Fairfax, Calif., McConneloug had mountain biked for fun but didn’t even know mountain bike racing existed.
She graduated with a degree in vocal performance from Santa Clara University, and perhaps surprisingly, found that studying music was a good rehearsal for mountain bike racing. “I know if I keep practicing something enough, I can get better,” she said.
Although she does not sing regularly anymore, she sometimes speaks melodically and lyrically, and always with passion. “The pedaling, the rhythm, the cadence, the improvisation of getting out there and wondering, ‘What am I going to do here?'” she said, further describing the connection between sport and music.
Once she discovered mountain bike racing, she quickly moved up the ranks, turning pro in 1999. She also met Broderick that same year. Broderick is from Martha’s Vineyard, the island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and he was out west racing his mountain bike when friends introduced them.
“The kicker was his truck,” said McConneloug. “He had this Toyota with a homemade cap on the back. Inside was a little single bed, a refrigerator, his camp stove, toaster, espresso maker, surfboard, mountain bike, road bike, and guitar. I was like, this guy is special. He’s totally self-sufficient doing what he loves.”
With Broderick as mechanic and McConneloug as cook, they became their own self-contained team. Seven Cycles became the couple’s primary sponsor in 2002.
“We share the same commitment to authenticity and self-reliance,” said Mattison Crowe, Seven Cycle’s marketing manager, when asked why the company chose to sponsor the duo. “Mike and Mary also happen to be genuinely wonderful people. They way they conduct themselves as ambassadors of our company and the sport are traits we value.”
Kenda Tires and NoTubes.com (tubeless wheel systems) now co-sponsor McConneloug and Broderick along with Seven, but the duo still runs a lean operation, sharing the roles of manager, mechanic, cook, driver, and whatever else needs doing.
McConneloug’s first big victory came at Mount Snow at a national series race in June 2003. By November of that year, she realized that the Olympic Games were within reach.
“We read that there were two positions for [American women mountain bikers at] the Olympics and that I was the second-ranked American,” said McConneloug, who dreamed of going to the Olympic Games ever since watching gymnast Mary Lou Retton win a gold medal in 1984 but never thought someone who picked up a sport at age 27 could pursue it to that level.
Her ranking was based on UCI points. The UCI – Union Cycliste Internationale – is the sports’ governing body and awards points at sanctioned races such as World Cups and national series events. USA Cycling does not have a specific national team and usually appoints riders, who compete during the season for sponsored trade teams, to compete for the U.S. at the Olympic Games and World Championships based on their UCI ranking.
But then the news came in December 2003 that the U.S. would only be allowed to send one woman to the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. According to UCI rules, Olympic berths are awarded to countries based on their national ranking. Countries ranked ninth and lower were awarded only one spot.
The defending overall World Cup champion Alison Dunlap, who had collected most of the UCI points for the U.S. in the previous years, crashed hard in June 2003, separated her shoulder, and sat out the rest of 2003 while recovering from surgery. Without Dunlap collecting points, the U.S. fell to ninth in world ranking (thus giving the U.S. only one spot).
USA Cycling’s Olympic team selection criteria stipulated whichever female rider had the most UCI points collected between July 13, 2003, and July 12, 2004, would be named to the team.
McConneloug started the 2004 season over 150 UCI points behind Sue Haywood. Dunlap, whose shoulder had healed by then, also tried to qualify for the lone U.S. Olympic berth.
But McConneloug had something working in her favor. Without sponsorship commitments to compete in U.S. races, she and Broderick set off for Europe where McConneloug could begin racking up UCI points in early February 2004 – two weeks before Haywood’s first UCI race and five weeks before Dunlap began racing.
McConneloug and Broderick rented an RV in Munich, Germany, and their first stop was the island of Cyprus, where over five weeks, McConneloug earned 160 UCI points. Over the next three months, she competed in nine countries, won 10 races and finished in the top three in three others.
“We would go to these amazing little venues,” McConneloug recalled. “We would look at the UCI calendar, and that was our guide.”
“Mary’s approach to the points chase was brilliant,” said Dunlap in the movie, Off Road to Athens, which depicts the epic struggle these women (and men) undertook in an attempt to make the 2004 U.S. Olympic team.
“It worked very, very well,” Dunlap continued. “I think some of us were maybe a little irritated that she wasn’t racing in the U.S., that she wasn’t doing the national series. But the goal is the Olympic team, and I give her a lot of credit for figuring out what it was going to take to get on that team.”
Although Dunlap was never able to make up the points she missed in 2003 (according to USA Cycling calculations, she was still over 400 points behind by mid-May), McConneloug and Haywood went back-and-forth in the rankings.
In the thick of it, though, the women remained friends. It’s difficult to imagine McConneloug anything but friendly. Even near the end of a six-plus-hour suffer-fest called the 2004 Marathon World Championships – the very last chance she had of earning UCI points before the deadline – she encouraged another rider who struggled toward the finish.
Due to a clerical error and other misunderstandings, the final Olympic selection decision went to arbitration and then to court. In the end, McConneloug was awarded the Olympic berth, but she says the whole process was “sticky and horrible.”
On Aug. 27, 2004, she finished ninth in Athens – a result she remains proud of today.
Qualifying for the 2008 Olympic team was more straightforward but no less difficult. Thanks to several top-five World Cup finishes during 2007, McConneloug and Georgia Gould, along with an increasingly strong contingent of U.S. women including Willow Koerber and Heather Irmiger, kept the U.S. highly enough ranked in the UCI standings that two American women would qualify for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Still, McConneloug felt the pressure. “Anything can happen. You could get injured and then the next person goes. It’s a lot of pressure to commit to it and know that every single pedal stroke counts.”
Once in Beijing, she was awed by the country and the course. “When I saw [the course], I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it looks like the back of a dragon! Up and down, all around, twisting, and red dirt, and humidity heavy down upon you. Race day was so hot. You felt so alive and in the muck of it all.”
After a bad start, McConneloug fought her way from 20th to finish seventh. Gould was eighth.
A week after the 2008 Olympic race, McConneloug finished fifth in a World Cup in Australia. During the 2009 World Cup series, she has taken two more fifths.
Recently, though, she noted that the level of competition at World Cups has increased immensely in the women’s field and that making even the top 20 is hard.
“You can’t even slip a pedal stroke and not expect to get passed,” she said. “It’s intense. It’s changed.”
What does it take to consistently finish in the top five in such a heated atmosphere?
“You have to have an incredible support system, not having to worry about anything else but your training and lining up and racing,” she said.
“But for me, that’s not real,” she added. “Keeping it real is how I am and how I’m always going to be. It’s not about winning races. It’s about your journey and how you’re doing it and maybe the people you touch along the way. It’s not just about getting the gold medal.”
When asked if she will try for the London 2012 Olympic Games – when she will be 41 – she smiled.
“Maybe so, we’ll see how it is,” she said. “I take it year by year at this point. Right now, I’m definitely working toward country ranking so we can get maximum positions [at the 2012 Olympics].”
As of January 2009, the U.S. women were ranked third in UCI standings – enough for two Olympic berths in 2012 (assuming the UCI keeps the same qualification criteria as it used in 2008).
In the meantime, McConneloug and Broderick continue their journey. From Mount Snow, they pointed the van west toward Windham Mountain in New York for another ProXCT race. Then it’s off to Australia for the 2009 World Mountain Biking Championships in early September. From there, they fly to Europe for the final two World Cups. Then they fly to Las Vegas for the Interbike trade show.
After that, McConneloug isn’t sure where they will go. Perhaps Chile, where they spent the early part of 2008. Or back to northern California, where they wintered in 2009.
As McConneloug said when asked if she has plans to retire: “Life, you can’t really plan it sometimes. You just have to be open to things that come your way.”
