Seven Cycles – Page 65 – U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix

Sweet Eighteen

We were so busy building bikes (and shoveling snow) in January that we failed to remember that we turned 18. It was January of 1997 that saw Seven, in its first incarnation, 1000sf of machinery, desks, and bike builders all jumbled together, putting out the first all-custom frames from our original location in Topsfield.

Eighteen years later, 30,000+ frames, 17,000sf and a team of 30, we’re all grown up and still growing. Like so many milestones, you don’t see them coming. They creep up on you, you reflect on what they mean, and you move on. When we set out, we believed the world’s cyclists would respond to the idea of a fully-custom bike, built on a short timeline, but you can never see the future. It’s nice to be here now, and see it working out.

Mike’s Sola S 29er

We have recently found a good partner to work with in New Zealand, Mark Rose of Bespoke Cycles of Hamilton, which is pretty great, because riding bikes there is a unique pleasure we can recommend highly. Anyway, this is one of the first bikes we built for our Kiwi friends, Mike’s Sola S 29er.

Mike says:

This is my Sola S 29, purchased through Bespoke Cycles in New Zealand, and very recently built up. I’m the first customer of theirs, and I am thoroughly pleased with this bicycle. It fits me like a glove, and the workmanship reminds me of my previous hardtail, a 1992 Merlin. I never thought I would end up owning another titanium hardtail, but the pull was too strong.

I can’t wait to get it out on the trail, and enjoy the benefits that titanium and custom geometry have to offer.

Regards,

Mike

The Overlooked Awesome, Part III

In the last installment of The Overlooked Awesome we talked about options, paint being just one of them. But paint deserves more than that. As one of the most powerful ways to personalize your bike, paint (and custom decals) can motivate and inspire. Cursory research suggest a good looking bike will motivate you to ride more and will spark more stop light conversations than an off the shelf bike.

We became known for our polished Ti bikes, and that was an aesthetic that served (and continues to serve) us well. It’s classic. But as custom builders we are always looking for new ways to add more value to the process of building a bike just for you, and paint has become a big part of that. Each year, we paint more bikes than the year before.

We offer a lot of stock paint options, each of which can be personalized with different color choices. There are 23 stock colors in our palette and another 23 in our legacy color archive. We offer 17 different stock paint schemes as well. By the time you pick your colors, your scheme, and your decal, you can see the opportunity to create something special is strong. We can also mix custom colors for you, and we provide color matching services if you know what you want but are having trouble identifying it.

It’s probably not a great idea to talk too much about beautiful paint though. It’s better to just show some of what’s possible.

Matt and Mo Bruno Roy’s MMRacing Season Wrap

Matt and Mo do a great job of documenting the fun they have on the race course and on the road, and they’ve just posted their 2014/15 Cyclocross Season Wrap Up.

Here is a quick excerpt:

Wednesday was race day #1 and I was feeling ready to go in a competitive field. The number of single speed women had doubled from the year before and as the defending champion, I was going to have a hard race on my hands.

Bounce over to MMRacing and read it all.

The Anatomy of a Race Bike

When our own Craig Gaulzetti built himself a new road bike, he knew just what he wanted. This is his Axiom SL race machine with oversized headtube/tapered fork, long stem (painted to match), short chainstays, 1″ in diameter, and an aggressive race geometry.

As a rule, we don’t pay much attention to the the professional cyclists competing at the Pro Tour level. We don’t believe what happens at that level is particularly relevant to even the most serious cycling enthusiast, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t love and build race bikes every single day. We build a lot of race bikes here at Seven. To us, when built specifically for the individual, this type of bike is the most efficient, fun and amazing form of transportation on the road. Our race bikes are built with none of the compromises inherent in large scale batch manufacturing. Our processes allow us to build a perfect bike for the intended rider each and every time. We take into account over 100 distinct data points and call upon our collective experience of having designed and built over 30,000 custom bikes with every bike we build.

A race bike is, in many ways, the ultimate sporting good. With a moderate amount of fitness, anyone can ride it for hours without pain or discomfort. The skill set required to operate a racing bike is, despite what a lot of magazines might tell you, rather minimal. Crochet or SCUBA diving or tennis or skateboarding all require far greater diligence, coordination and skill. As a tool, it can bring the casual user fitness and fun or the professional victories and wealth.

In a world where even the best cyclists in the world are racing on machines designed first and foremost as commodities, we try to do more with our bikes. Each and every one is purpose-built for the needs and desires of the person who will ride it.

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