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Current Lead Times: Rider-Ready Framesets: 3 weeks. Full Custom Bikes: 7 weeks.

Building Titanium and Carbon-Titanium Bikes in the USA for 28 Years

On the Road – bRad Across America

Who knows what inspires/possesses a young person (or an older one) to race a bike across America? The sheer scale of a ride like that defies understanding. It’s more like an act of faith really, hurling yourself into the void of 4,000 plus miles and a month on the road, believing that the adventure will be worth that super-human effort.

Maybe we’ll find out when our own Brad Smith gets back from the Trans Am Bike Race, which started this weekend in Astoria, OR. The Trans Am follows the route of the 4,233 mile Trans America Trail between Astoria and Yorktown, VA. This is a self-supported event, so the right bike set-up is important.

Brad's Bike ready to go
Here is Brad’s Evergreen SL, ready for travel.

 

Summit McKenzie Pass Elev 5325
McKenzie Pass, in central Oregon.

We’ll be following Brad as he rolls east. You can check his Instagram, too, for photo updates from his adventure.

This Is Why We Do This

Seven Evergreen S in a field

It was Thursday morning. We’d met at the usual spot and rolled West, crisscrossing some trails, then turned south on the road towards more trails, and eventually to Seven.

Mike said, “This is why we do what we do. This right here.” By this point, we’d been to the coffee shop down the street from the shop and were all riding one-handed up the hill to work. The sun shone. It was cool, and we’d done 15 or 20  miles of road and trail in a lazy, pre-work ramble.

We like what we do all day, building bikes, talking riders through their designs, figuring out component compatibility, researching the new cycling trends, but none of it means much without riding.

Seven Evergreen in front of colorful graffiti

Riding feeds bike-building, and riding the bikes we build tightens the feedback loop, so that we are so closely engaged with what we’re doing that the riding and building seem to be part of the same process. In some ways, they are. But the riding is why we do what we do, the nurturing of that feeling of freedom and adventure, and the hope that we can spread it to as many people as we can.

A Month with the Lake

We recently received this story from our friends at Velosmith. Two Seven riders, whose bikes we built just last year, are headed out for a month-long trip round Lake Michigan. See the story below:

Suzi and WillAsk Suzie LaBelle about her Seven and she will tell you about its geometry and handling. She understands how the weight of the bike and the material used affects her performance and feel of the ride. And she knows that it feels stable on climbs, descents, and around corners.

Sounds like a hardcore, performance-minded racer, right?

In this case, you’d be incorrect. You won’t find Suzie on the local race circuit. Rather, you’ll find her in the midst of a month-long, fully self-supported, 1,400-mile bike trip around Lake Michigan.

The Adventure

The trip around Lake Michigan began May 17 and will take 30 days in total: 25 days of riding and five rest days. Suzie and her riding partner Will – also a Seven rider – met through the Evanston Bicycle Club, a local group of cyclists who ride together several times a week.

They soon discovered they both had a taste for adventure, and started to plan this tour. It will be self-supported; both Sevens are equipped with racks and they will carry only what they need.

“Will is a stronger rider than I am so he gets to pull in the wind,” she says with a chuckle. In addition to their own personal items, they’ve compromised on who carries what on their bikes. “He gets to carry the tools and I carry the first aid kit.”

The Training

Suzie and Will are both in their 60s, but don’t let their age fool you. These are two strong and experienced riders, and preparing for the trip meant many hours in the saddle.

Their typical week consisted of a moderate ride of 40-50 miles on Tuesday, a hard 40 miles on Wednesday, a fast 50 miles on Friday, and about 60 miles on one or both days over the weekend.

“For me this is more than an athletic undertaking. This is a journey – a pilgrimage – and I want time to stop and see the sites around Lake Michigan.”

The Best (and Possible Worst)

Suzie did most of the route planning and is most looking forward to discovering what she calls the “reality under the maps.”

“I love making the routes, visualizing what it will be like. I look forward to being in that environment day after day. And when we get there, discovering hidden meadows, hills, and lakes that maps don’t always show. “

She’s most concerned about the weather, especially as they get up towards the Upper Peninsula – which can still include very cold temps and snow at this time of year.

“Through our club contacts, we’ve been able to line up emergency people along the way in case we encounter extreme weather or a mechanical issue we can’t resolve ourselves.”

For more, follow along on their Seven.

 

There Are No Bikes

Cyclists enjoying an early morning ride in the woods

There are no bikes, but only riders, more than 30,000 of them. They came to us and told us about their riding, the roads and trails they wanted to ride, and we gave them a way to get there. It’s true that, in some ways, it was the bikes that took them where they wanted to go, but without the riders, there was nothing.

This is an important distinction to make. We have never built a bike with the express purpose of convincing someone to buy it. We have only ever built the bikes that people asked us to build. The rider comes first, always.

We get somewhat regular calls from people who ask something like, “Hi, I wonder if you have a 56cm road bike in stock that I can just buy.” And we say, “Sorry, we don’t actually have any bikes in inventory,” which is true.

There are no bikes until there are riders who want them, and what they want is very specific. We wouldn’t build the same bike for you, because you are different. We have built more than 30,000 bikes, and never two the same in a row. It is a lot more fun to do it this way.