Seven Cycles – Page 5 – U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix

On Framebuilding: Part Two: Welding

Six tables form the circumference of the welding area. Unlike the back and forth, on-their-feet movement of the machinists, welders work more like laboratory scientists. Instead of operating multiple, massive machines all at once, they set up shop on a broad metal desk with all of their tools within arm’s reach. A torch, argon purge hose, different lengths and widths of filler rod, metal blocks that serve as heat sinks, clamps, and of course the welding mask are all there.
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On Framebuilding: Part One – Machining

Collated in an ordinary manila folder are the details of your new bike. Body measurements, preliminary sketches, notes, revisions, and final drafts are all there, as is the signed confirmation form perched right on top. To non-cyclists, a loose sheaf of papers like this might not get the blood flowing, but it works for us, and probably does for you, too.

This paperwork, after all, is the blueprint to a bike that has never been seen before, a bike designed to make your favorite rides even better, a bike specifically for you.
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Myth vs. Material

At Seven, we adhere tightly to the philosophy that form follows function. That’s why when designing a bike, we start with its mission and work back to the frame material selection.

We believe there are no bad materials, just bad applications.

We recommend the same approach when choosing your bike. Instead of first deciding upon a frame material, consider, “What do I want from my bike? How do I ride?” Crit racing, charity rides, touring, fast club rides, randos, solo rides, mixed surface explorations, all of the above? The answer can help lead you to the right material—and it may surprise you.

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Tools of the Trade: Part One

People who tour our factory almost always comment on the brute elegance of the lathes and mills we use to build our frames. It’s a hodge-podge of heavy equipment drawn from old brick buildings like ours all over New England. Many of these machines have been working at their daily tasks for more than 50 years.

Skip Brown, who builds all our specialized fixturing, also maintains our fleet of behemoths. He shows up with the sun each morning and makes his rounds, oiling, aligning and cleaning. Skip says he can smell a well-cared for machine, just from the freshness of the oil scent wafting above it.

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The Five Elements of Customization

We are, all of us, trying to get back to that moment, when we were two, or five, or ten-years-old, of first pushing off and feeling the freedom, the joy of riding a bike. The 5 Elements are meant to get us there, to strip away the fear and focus on the idea for a new bike.

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