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.
It’s good to get out. It’s really, really good to get out to the Bay Area where we work with some of the best shops in the country. Last week we visited with our friends at Palo Alto Bicycles. PAB has been open since 1930 right on University Ave in the middle of town, a real institution in the local cycling community. It’s a big shop with plenty of natural light streaming in at the front, and we’ve been working with them since our first year in business, 1997. Since then we’ve built nearly 300 bikes together, with more coming every day.
General Manager Jeff Selzer has been a champion of our brand for a long time, and his decades in the bike business, coupled with a larger leadership role in the industry, make him a valuable partner for us. When he tells us what’s going on in the world of bikes, we try to listen.
We believe that the local bike shop is the center of cycling culture in any community, and PAB typifies that belief. We are proud to work with them.
On a warm July day in 2004, in the conference room at Seven Cycles, I sweated through my first real job interview. I met with Jenna in sales, Zac in design, and Rob the owner, for a total of about two hours. They sifted through my babbling, disregarded my nervousness, and offered me a gig as a Customer Service Representative. I started in August.
The learning curve at Seven is pretty steep. There is a lot to know. My primary responsibility, out of the gates, was to help answer phone calls which is a good way to learn things quickly. Each question and each caller were as unique as the bikes we make. I tried to learn as much as I could so I could be prepared to answer every question that anyone had and so I could finally stop pestering my colleagues with pleas of “Can we do this?” and, “Can we do that?” All my pestering revealed a pattern, the answers for all but the most outlandish requests were, “yup,” or “of course,” or “why not?” Once I understood our philosophy, phone calls became fun, and equally important, I understood what made Seven great, for the first time I knew our tagline, “One bike. Yours.” wasn’t a marketing ploy, it was simply how the business ran, from the top, down.
Ten years later, that motto hasn’t changed, and I will bring that singular focus with me throughout each of the adventurous endeavors that lie ahead. This Friday, October 10th is my last day at Seven Cycles. The decision was my own and though I will miss my colleagues and their fun-loving spirit immensely, I am excited for my next steps. I am also excited for Seven and know that the best has yet to come, a sentiment that everyone here has relayed to me as well. Seven is a special place, full of incredible and talented people, and I am proud to have been a part of the fun. Thanks is also due to the wonderful people that make up our retailer network, and to the many thousands of cyclists who have called, emailed, or stopped by for a factory tour.
You may have noticed in a recent post about Craig Gaulzetti’s new Axiom SL, that he wanted a race bike. Craig raced as a youngster while growing up in Belgium, and has never gotten over the thrill of a stiff, speed first, comfort second-if-at-all race bike. He wanted to recreate the same excitement with his very first Seven, and we were excited to take on the challenge.
Walking around our production floor, the most memorable site is the towering wall of titanium tubing located in the machining area.
A section of the titanium tubing wall.
Hundreds of twenty foot tall tubes tower over everything in sight. Organized by diameter, these tubes will determine how a bike will feel on the road. To over simplify, a narrow tube will bend and flex over bumps and potholes resulting in a plush ride, but all that flex means the bike won’t explode forward when you stomp on the pedals. A large tube responds oppositely, bouncing over bumps like a poorly performing suspension, but will take off like a rocket when you mash your pedals. Most people want bikes that fall somewhere between those two extremes. No matter how you want your bike to feel on the road, choosing the appropriate tube set is our specialty.
To ensure Craig’s bike was going to bring him back to his racing heyday, some of our most massive tubes were selected, including the Louisville Slugger-esque 1 3/4″ down tube, a 44mm head tube, and a 1 1/2″ top tube. For most of us, these tubes would yield a bike so harsh, we’d want off. But Craig was looking for that feeling exactly, so when it came time to select his chain stays, we reached past the traditional 7/8″ tubes, and chose our most hulking, 1″ tube stock. An additional eighth of an inch in diameter sounds minor, but in both looks and performance, the difference is obvious. We felt these stays would add the extra boost Craig was after, and his early reports confirm that they have done the trick.
For Craig’s Axiom SL, the 1″ chain stays made sense: the design mission, the size and power output of the rider, and the overall aesthetic were a perfect match. Though they worked wonderfully for Craig, the one inch stays aren’t for everyone. More often than not, they are too stout, too heavy, or too limiting in component choices to use. These large chain stays crowd the bottom bracket junction, leaving only enough room for slick, narrow tires, and are therefore only available on our road bikes. They are so large and stout, that we do not curve them as you’ll see on all of our 7/8″ stays (as I incorrectly pointed out in my response to Brian S. back in September), they get just a small tire clearance crimp but are otherwise perfectly straight.
If you are interested in discussing whether or not our one inch chain stays are right for you, give us a call!
We’re riding home with our lights on now, the sun’s narrow slant on the horizon hinting at colder days to come. Our New England autumns tend to be wet, so suddenly tires are getting wider and fenders are appearing. It’s a good thing. We enjoy this riding just as much as our summer spins. The woods are a different proposition in the dark.
Cyclocross season is on, Seveneers leaving early for mid-week races, coming in on Mondays with tall tales of the weekend’s exploits. To hear us tell it, we could easily finish 2 to 10 places higher in every race, but for that one guy who crashed in front of us, or the spectator who leaned too far over the course tape. Some, of course, are just hecklers. You don’t heckle a friend while they’re building a bike, but during a race?
Our customers are dreaming up winter commuters, or better still, they’re riding a different hemisphere than we are, tuning up for a road season we can hardly imagine, stuck in the bubble of our own climate.
Back on the shop floor, the heavy, summer air has slipped out the back door. The mornings are cool and quiet, and the late afternoon light is beautiful streaming through our tall, frosted windows. We are building as many bikes now as we did all summer, and that is good, too.
