Seven Cycles – Page 78 – U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix

Cold and Dark

The sun wasn’t up when we met in the grocery store parking lot, each of us blowing great gusts of breath into cold hands. This had seemed like a good idea last night, but this was our first cold, dark shop ride of the season, and we stood there, shifting from foot to foot, trying to gather the will to roll out.

The sun filtered through the trees on the way up the first leaf-strewn climb, heat rising in our chests, until we were at the top with dumb grins on our faces. Someone said, “I must have mountain bike amnesia, because I always seem to forget how much fun this is, even though it’s ALWAYS this much fun.”

We passed a dog walker and ran into an old Seveneer, on his own pre-dawn ride. We shook hands and made small talk, and then we went on and dropped down the other side of the hill, crossing the road and the meadow and fording the brook at the wooden bridge. We’ve done this together so many times, that we know where each rock is, each overhanging branch.

Mike found a new way up to the water tower, and he promised us it wasn’t as hard as the usual way, which is a straight grind up a steep pitch. It’s a good trail to understand how fit you are. Or not fit. As the case may be.

The new way is a twisting, undulating serpent of a trail that switches back a few times, but not so dramatically that you can’t keep your front wheel on the ground. We arrived at the top huffing and puffing, but happy to have added a new section to a patch of woods we’ve all been riding for a decade or two.

From the water tower, we dropped back down, our rear wheels grabbing and sliding in the loose leaves, and snaked back through the meadow, across the road and up, and up, until we were on the verge of the last plunge back down toward the grocery store, its parking lot now morning full.

It’s hard to describe how much fun a pre-work ride like this is, except that, as a cyclist, you already know. It was cold, and it was dark, and it can be hard to get out of bed to ride a bike when it’s like that, but wow, this is Tuesday on mountain bikes in the fall. Just some guys from the shop, out for a ride. Complete perfection.

Being World Champion – Mo Bruno Roy

You don’t get to be World Champion by sitting still. You don’t stand on the top step of that podium just by being “talented” either. And certainly, it isn’t a bike that puts you there, although we couldn’t be more thrilled that it was our bike that carried Mo Bruno Roy to the Single-Speed Cyclocross World Championship this weekend in Louisville.

The SSCXWC is an irreverent event. There are costumes. The winner gets a tattoo and a legendary golden swimsuit to receive their medal in, but it’s also a fast race dominated by seasoned professionals.

There are years of work that have gone into this honor for her. So much training. So many races, big and small. Local dirt crits. Belgian World Cup events. Lots of wins, but also lots of finishes staring up the leader board and wondering what more she could have done. Some people call it paying dues, but that’s a negative way to express what Mo has done in her career. What she has done, and what we think makes her so worthy of this honor, is live the cycling life completely. There is a level of commitment there that goes beyond showing up for races year after year or cultivating sponsorships. She brings all of herself to cycling, and that’s why we’re so proud of her and why we’re honored to work with her.

When we see Mo around town, she’s on a bike. When we see her at a race, she might be giving a clinic for new riders or doing an interview, spreading the joy of cyclocross, cutting up, visiting with friends. Cycling doesn’t so much define her as she helps define cycling in the way she lives her life. These are sorts of people you want to work with as a bike builder.

Mo is not a powerhouse. She’s the type of racer who depends on long experience and superior bike handling skills to overcome stronger opposition. Make no mistake, she’s plenty strong, but that’s not what makes her so good. She is a great cyclist, fast, canny, skilled, the complete package.

And now she is a World Champion.

11 Races in 16 Days – Mo Bruno Roy’s CX Crusade

You will notice that we don’t sponsor a lot of riders. The idea that a company who makes good bikes should pay someone to say they are good somehow doesn’t make sense to us. When we have committed to a rider, it has always been because we think they deserve support and because they will give us good feedback on what we are doing. For those reasons, we have sponsored more women than men, and more local riders than distant pros. Our closest pro partnership of the last decade has been with current Single-Speed Cyclocross National Champion Mo Bruno Roy.

Here on the eve of her 39th birthday, we find ourselves admiring the way she enjoys her racing, stays competitive and gives back to the racing community by teaching clinics and giving pointers to amateur racers before big events. She’s the sort of cyclist we’re proud to work with, the kind of cyclist we all want to be.

This was supposed to be a more relaxed season for Mo. After winning the SSCX National Championship last year, a little less travel, a little more fun and a new focus on single speed races was on the docket. But the scheduling gods and a continuing drive to race her bike meant that, clustered around New England’s Holy Week of Cyclocross (GP Gloucester, Midnight Ride, Providence), she ended up doing 11 races in 16 days.

That’s a lot for an in demand massage therapist and yoga instructor, and it tells you everything you need to know about how much she loves what she does. She says of this latest bunch of events, “The level of competition has definitely been upped this season and the growth of women’s cyclocross is apparent as it is quickly becoming a sport for full-time professional athletes rather than the mixed bag of working-pros and full-timers that it has been in the past.”

Near the end of this intense period of racing, she reported “Providence weekend hosted three days of racing: single speed Friday and UCI races Saturday and Sunday. At this point my legs were pretty fatigued, but I was looking forward to the races and the opportunity to win the Golden Ticket for free entry to the Single Speed World Championships in Louisville, KY. The course was full of twists and turns and a few leg-sapping climbs, but I pushed the pace and headed into a steady lead in the single speed race, taking the win.”

Of course, we like to see sponsored riders winning races. It never hurts for people to see riders winning on our bikes, but for us there’s much more to it. The way someone like Mo conducts themselves, the way they make it look fun, the way they give back, those are the things that make us want to support racing and the people, like Mo, who dedicate themselves to going fast.

On the Road – Biketoberfest Marin with City Cycle

Fairfax, California is the birthplace of mountain biking, a sleepy little town in Marin County, north of San Francisco, in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais. Each year Fairfax hosts Biketoberfest Marin, which is exactly what it sounds like, a celebration of cycling, beer and food. Our good friends at City Cycle invited us out for the party, and being the accommodating folks we are, we showed up.

Fairfax is a special place for so many reasons. The cycling culture there is extremely rich, and the Biketoberfest scene was replete with cyclists of every imaginable stripe, roadies, mountain bikers, cruisers, bike packers, steel devotees, Ti worshipers and carbon lovers.

We spent the day doing what we love to do, which is looking at, talking about and appreciating bikes for all they give us, fun, health, transport and a way to express ourselves. The fresh, hot tamales and steadily flowing beer didn’t hurt the ambiance at all, either. A local cafe had set up their tent next to ours. It really couldn’t have been a better day.

City Cycle has two locations, one in Cow Hollow in the city, and one in Corte Madera, Marin. The SF location is one of those legendary shops, one of the first real bike studios in the country, and we have partnered with them on literally hundreds of bikes. The Corte Madera location is much newer and larger, and serves as a cycling gateway to the beautiful roads and trails of greater Marin.

It was nice, as always, to spend the day with them, and we were grateful to have been invited.

On the Road: Bespoke Cycles SF

Bespoke Cycles is a smaller, more intimate space in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, where owner Ari Bronzstein pursues singular perfection in every bike he and his team builds. Industry veteran Trystan Cobbett brings a very discerning eye and a marketer’s nous to the show. With Intelligentsia Coffee on steady brew, Bespoke specializes in making each rider feel special with lots of individual attention in an intimate setting. A growing roster of regular rides leaving from the shop make Bespoke another hub for local cyclists, who are constantly stopping in for a cup of coffee on the wide couch at the back of the shop space.

Bespoke sits in a quiet, residential neighborhood, just a few doors down from Alta Plaza Park. We spent a few hours with the guys last week, and then walked over to the park to watch the sun set over the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. It was a nice way to spend a day.

Ari has worked with us for more than a decade as well, both through Bespoke and during his time at City Cycle in Cow Hollow. The bikes he and his guys produce tend to be extremely well-fit and aesthetically unique. Just look at this Axiom SL floor bike they designed for themselves last season.