Seven Cycles – Page 85 – U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix

Seven in Flanders

This is Phil Cavell from Cyclefit in London. Phil is on our 622 SLX on the cobbles in Flanders, and this picture was taken on a trip to Belgium in advance of this year’s Tour of Flanders.

Phil, and his partner Julian Wall, do the fits for all of Trek Factory Racing, the team of this year’s Flanders winner, Fabian Cancellara. So, safe to say Phil knows of what he speaks, when he’s speaking about bikes.

He wrote a review of his experience on this bike for the Cyclefit site.

Here are a couple choice quotes from that review:

“Look closely at the dropouts or welds, or brake-bridge. Rob Vandermark has made Seven his life’s work and project. It is his entry into The Great Ledger. This is not a product or model or something stamped out of a mould in China. It is a mission that he judges himself upon every day.”

and…

“The ride is flawless and so it should be. Taut, responsive, nuanced and brimming with undertones of distinction.”

Thanks to Phil for bringing us along on your Flandrien escapade, for putting us through our paces, and also for making us look so good.

Photo Friday – Evergreen SL in New Zealand

This

bike, this country.

The Ever Changing Evergreen

The Evergreen is a bit of a chameleon by nature, adapting and changing to best suit the terrain itâ€™s tackling. Day or night, loaded or unloaded, technical or rolling, with a few pre-ride modifications the Evergreen can be perfectly suited to handle it all. Below is a photo essay that demonstrates how a few modifications can transform the bike from a road worthy rig, to a loaded expedition bike.

Exhibit A:

Model

: Seven Cycles Evergreen SL
Purpose: Fast road rides. Keep up with any pure road bike and still be able to roll in the woods
How: Schwalbe One tires. Full on road performance â€“ and Iâ€™d still ride these on any mountain trail.

Exhibit B:

Model

: Seven Cycles Evergreen SL
Purpose: Mostly paved conditions with some dirt road sections.
How: Ruffy Tuffy 28c slick tire. As an aside, this tire and the Roll-y Pol-y are some of our favorite off road tires.

Exhibit C:

Model

: Seven Cycles Evergreen SL
Purpose: Fast wet or dry conditions in mixed terrain; more paved than dirt. Cyclocross style; fast handling for tight terrain. Works great with 45mm fenders for those fun wet rides.
How: Clement MSO 32 knobby with center ridge

Exhibit D:

Model

: Seven Cycles Evergreen SL
Purpose: Fast dry conditions in mixed terrain; equal parts paved and dirt
How: Clement LAS 33c filetread tires

Exhibit E:

Model

: Seven Cycles Evergreen SL
Purpose: Mixed terrain exploration; wet conditions; more dirt than paved
How: Clement MSO 40c tires

Exhibit F:

Model

: Seven Cycles Evergreen SL
Purpose: Night riding mixed terrain exploration; wet conditions; more dirt than paved
How: Son28 generator hub, Edelux II headlight, Clement MSO 40c tires

Exhibit G:

Model

: Seven Cycles Evergreen SL
Purpose: All day â€“ and night â€“ riding in all conditions and all terrain; worldwide travel.
How: BTC couplers, PDX City fenders, Revelate Viscacha saddle bag, Revelate Mountain Feedbag, Ortlieb Ultimate 6 handlebar bag, Son28 generator hub, Edelux II headlight, Clement MSO 40c tires

This photo essay might make for a fun flip book.

David K’s Sola Pro

We received an email over the weekend from David K, who gave us an early review of his new bike.

He writes, “So, the day came in my life (I am 41 years old) when I started to think about yet another new bike. I bought my first mountain bike in 1986 and have had roughly 15 different mountain bikes. With each new bike comes anticipation that certain things will be differently better than the last bike. Hopefully it will corner better, track better, downhill with more confidence, be a little bit better at each task than the last bike. Some bikes live up to the expectation better than others. I started to look online for my new dream bike. I decided I would go with a titanium hard tail 29er. I saw a lot of companies out there making high quality cycles. I researched and researched, and researched some more and then came across Seven. I remembered that there was a local dealer right by me. I never gave much thought to Seven. I didn’t know a thing about them. All I knew at this point is that they build custom bikes. I liked that idea a lot. I went to my dealer and upon further inspection realized that these guys really know what they are doing. I started reading review after review and decided I was going to do it.

It was a high price to pay but, not much more, and custom! I was on the fence because I had never bought a bike I hadn’t ridden. I had to take a massive leap of faith and just go for it. I scheduled my fit and came back a few days later. I was blown away with the amount of information that I provided about what kind of riding experience I was looking for in a bike. The bike fit process was amazing as well. Measuring everything twice and checking angles over and over and then re tweaking and measuring again and checking comfort levels along the way.

Then, the 8 week wait started. I tried to keep it out of my mind. ‘It will be here when it gets here’ I tell myself daily. I research parts and read up on past Seven customer’s reviews. I can’t wait. I felt like a 7 year old boy waiting for Santa to bring me my very first bike. The bike shop called and it was finally here. I opened the box and then saw what was a true work of machined art. The bike was all I had hoped for. The attention to detail and craftsmanship was beautiful. I could hardly believe my eyes.

Then I rushed home and started the build. Once everything was finished, I dropped her out of the stand and took a look. Everything looked right. I was afraid to get on just in case something wasn’t going to fit right. I threw a leg over and hopped on. It felt RIGHT. It disappeared under me. It was part of me. I couldn’t dream of a better fit. Then I rode around the neighborhood to get everything dialed in. The cornering was magical. I had read someone saying their Seven was ‘telepathic’ and thought how right they were. I had never ridden a bike that felt like this. I couldn’t quit smiling. I knew I had found my soul mate.

Before I wrote a review or even gave Seven my feedback, I wanted to ride her for a month. So the rides started. Each one as enjoyable as the last. I didn’t want the rides to end. I wanted to keep riding. I didn’t have any adjustment period or any need to dial in the bike. It was perfect from the first pedal stroke. I messed with stem height and ended right back where it was at the start, where my fitter said it was supposed to be. This ‘Sola pro‘ had many characteristics that I wasn’t used to. It sucked up bumps but was still stiff at the bottom bracket. It tracked absolutely straight as an arrow. It dampened the chatter beautifully. It downhilled like it was built to do just that. Never feeling sketchy or uneasy in the corners. Always feeling great and wanting more. The ride quality that this bike has is unlike any other bike I have ever ridden.

If you can get your equipment to ‘disappear’ from the experience, then it’s doing its job. If it disappears, then it’s working perfectly. If nothing is going wrong then you don’t notice the gear, what ever it may be. This bike does just that.

Thanks Seven for making my biking dream a reality.

David K”

Thanks David, we’re happy to hear it! Thanks also to the team at Millcreek Bicycles in Salt Lake for designing the bike.

Some Deserved Time Off

When Seven began, back in 1997, Rob Vandermark‘s vacation days started to accrue at the rate of about a day a month. When the first year of operation came to a close, he had twelve days saved up. Seven had a busy year in 1998, including a move from Topsfield to Watertown, so there was no time for a vacation, and those twelve vacation days were added to the original twelve to make twenty four. The company was growing steadily, in numbers and in employees. There was so much to do.

Twenty four became thirty six, and this pattern continued, year after year. The vacation days kept adding up. No one knows for sure, but a reasonable estimate to the number of days accrued would be one hundred ninety six.

A few weeks ago, for the first time in Rob’s seventeen years at Seven Cycles, he asked for time off. We were puzzled. Was there an event we didn’t know about? A presentation somewhere? Was he off to work on a secret new project? No one was sure, though as it turns out, the answer was quite simple. Rob wanted to take a vacation.

When you take one vacation in seventeen years, everyone wants to know where you are going? In Rob’s case, the answer was a cycling trip to New Zealand. As the trip grew near, Rob became almost giddy. He outfitted his coupled Evergreen SL specifically for the journey with: a generator front hub and powerful headlight, full fender coverage in case the going gets wet, reflective decals for high visibility, wide tires with some tread in case the pavement came to an end. We won’t know all of the details of the trip until he gets back, but we know his bike is ready for anything, and that his vacation is well deserved.

Have fun Rob. We’ll hold down the fort.