Seven Cycles – Page 28 – U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix

Julie Wright Bursts Onto the National CX Scene

Julie kicks up the dirt on the corner at CX nationals — Image: Jon Nable

Julie Wright is disarmingly nice and alarmingly fast. We built her a Mudhoney PRO cyclocross race bike last year and watched as she got faster and faster and faster, culiminating in a 12th place finish at Cyclocross Nationals recently.

She wrote us this note, when we asked her to tell her how it went:

Looking back on this past season, it’s a bit of an out of body experience when I think of what I’ve accomplished. I started cross racing when I lived in Phildelphia and had a job that kept me up in New England on weekends in the fall. Coming off of a year of “road racing” where I fell off the back of every single cat 4 race, I never in a million years would have thought I’d race in a UCI field. Somehow, many years later, I made it there, and this past season, in my second full UCI season, I got points in almost every race weekend. I got a few top 5s in C2 races, a few top 15s in C1 races and ended up 12^th at nationals. It blows my mind.

Jule Wright races on a grassy cyclocross course at Nationals — Image: David Foley

I started my list of goals for the CX season before the 2015/2016 season was over. I tweaked my goals and tiered them throughout the year and finalized them right before the start of cross. Most of them made my palms sweat, so I knew they were goals I had to work for, which meant staying mentally engaged through the season. Staying engaged for me equals staying honest and listening to my body. It’s funny how the things I learn through bikes run parallel to the non-cycling aspects in my life.

Julie Wright speeds away on a snow covered cyclocross track on a bight winter raceday — Image: Jon Knable

One of my favorite things about cross is that it seems like an individual sport at face value, and for my first few years, that was my experience. But as my results have improved, so has my community of support. There’s no doubt in my mind that the community came first. It’s hard to show up to a race, or even a workout, and not give it your all when there are people who’ve worked just as hard beside you to help you achieve your goals. Or when people are genuinely excited and supportive of your improvements. When you’re on an inspiring team of driven and hardworking individuals, when you have a coach who encourages you to push your limits, when you have Seven Cycles fix a bike post crash, within three days, and then hand deliver it to your house. I feel so fortunate. This season has been a dream in so many ways.

Thankfully, it isn’t over yet! My Seven Mudhoney PRO and my persistent stutter step are heading to Europe to try out Belgian racing, along with one of my teammates, Erin, and our team mechanic, Gary.

If you want to follow along with Julie, Team Averica will be keeping everyone updated on IG: @team_averica and on twitter: @teamaverica.

Her 2016/2017 Season by the numbers

22 races in the US, 5 races (still to happen!) in Belgium
19 US UCI races, 24 UCI races overall
69 UCI points
12^th 2017 USA Cycling Elite Nationals
18^th USA Cycling Pro Cx Standings
6 vacation days used, pre Belgium trip
8 US states, 3 countries
2 awesome teammates and 1 incredible NECX community

The REAL Ride Gets Real(er)

The Boston Globe ran a feature on The REAL Ride this week, bringing even more local attention to this ambitious event, which will raise money for school kids who are struggling to stay on track.

Caracture of Cris Rothfuss

Our friend Cris (caricatured here) told The Globe, “Many people ride across the country on pavement, but we’re going to do it in an alternative way that will challenge ourselves like these students are challenged,” said Rothfuss. “These kids are off-track in the sense that they’ve wandered from a traditional educational path, but they’re making their way to a diploma, and their route is rigorous.”

The REAL Ride will cross the country, from Seattle to Boston using dirt roads and farm paths to the greatest extent possible, stretching the distance from 3,000 to 5,000 miles. The team will ride mainly Seven’s Evergreen line of adventure bikes.

Art: CHRIS MORRIS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Kevin’s Evergreen SL

This is Kevin’s Evergreen SL, a bike we built with the good folks at Spin City Cycles in Decatur, IL. We had built him and his wife a tandem previously.

This bike features a red, black and bare Ti Dart paint scheme and matching silver Chris King headset and Alloy Ride wheelset.

Kevin sent this, and the following note, below, just this week:

A Seven Evergree SL with a sporty dart scheme in gloss black and remedios red

Seven,

The bike is here and it is gorgeous. I went for my first ride this morning and I wanted to tell you it feels EXACTLY right. You absolutely achieved my somewhat paradoxical request for a fast efficient bike fitting wide tires with fenders, kickstand too! It’s amazing just how lively it is, I’m definitely another happy customer. Some gratuitous pictures attached.

Thanks again,

Kevin

Snowbeard: The Legend of CX Nationals

Brad cracks the ice on his beard cracking a smile at CX Nationals

Brad smiles a lot. He’s a good natured guy. So the snow and bitter cold that visited Cyclocross Nationals in Hartford last weekend didn’t dampen his spirit. It only excited him.

“On race day,” he says, “I got to the course around 10:45am. It was 20 degrees out, with clear skies. By 11 am, it had dropped to 18 degrees with snow flying, but it was so cold that the flakes just fell and didn’t stick to anything.”

“I got three pre-ride laps in,” he continues, “with each one being 100% different than the last time I’d been through. It was a variable I had no control over, but nobody else did either, so I was getting stoked! I pretty much had a smile on my face from 11am until…well, I still have it.”

“At 2pm, it’s still 18 degrees. It’s still snowing. I kept warm and loose until the call ups. I didn’t know where I’d be in a national field, but I landed in the 4th row out of 146 starters. Looking around me I could see maybe four people I have raced against all season. Everyone else was new to me.”

A snow covered and bearded Bradford Smith plows up a snowy track at CX Nationals

“The excitement kept me warm until the race was on, and then it was basically mayhem for the first part of lap one. The snow covered up the frozen icy ruts that had formed throughout the week. Any line you wanted to take, you couldn’t get to. The snow never got worse nor let up, so each lap you’d search for the lines everyone else was taking, but they were covered by fresh snow.”

“Everything was a gamble and a scramble. “Every time you had to turn or ride an off camber, you wouldn’t know where you were entering or where you’d exit,” he laughs.

It’s hard to explain what keeps a racer’s mind off the pain in his or her legs, what keeps them going when they’re exhausted, but cyclocrosses heckling tradition might be part of it.

“After a few laps I honed in on people yelling something about my beard,” Brad says, “but I was moving just fast enough not to really understand it. It just kept resonating in my head that something was getting people talking.”

At the line, he finally put it all together, saying, “After 45 minutes of slip sliding and scrambling I crossed the finish line in 21st with my eyelids frozen open, eyebrows caked with ice, and my beard as white as Santa’s. The smile was frozen too.”

Bradford Smith is a full-time bike builder at Seven, and erstwhile leader of the Drifters.

In the Korean Snow

It is hard to overstate the relationship we have with our friends at ES Korea, who approached us at Interbike nearly two decades ago and have become key collaborators over the years, delivering hundreds of bikes and pushing us daily to be better at what we do.

Here is a project we worked on with them recently, a Treeline SL for Y.K.R., who wanted his bike to look great, but also to be set up for serious, year-round riding. Check out the way the chain matches the paint. Y.K.R. is our kinda guy.

Seven Treeline SL with black, red and gray resolute paint scheme