Here is an Elium SL we built for Jon with our friend Matt at The Footlab in Norwich, UK. We love the proportionality of this one, designed for a taller rider with a need for a slightly more upright position. The final build came out beautifully.
Tag: 622 SL
Formerly known as the Elium SLX, Elium SG, Elium Race, and Elium.
Robin’s Elium SL
This is one of those rider emails that makes your whole day. We built Robin’s Elium SL in 2010 with Bob Olsen at Wheel Werks in Crystal Lake, IL. You can’t tell from this photo, but it’s a beautiful bike. Five years later, she writes:
Hi Seven,
I ran across this old email and had to drop you a note. You helped me build my bike 5-years ago and I hope you’ll be happy to learn that it still is the best money I’ve ever spent. My Elium has traveled with me across the country (see it lounging in a hotel room bed below), participated in countless cycling events and logged thousands of miles, yet I never tire of it!
I appreciate the work you and the Seven team does to ensure every mm is spec’d and each detail closely tended to. I can truly say I LOVE my bike!
Continued success,
Robin
Williams Bay, WI
Robert’s Elium SL
You don’t imagine what people will do with your bikes when you build them, or if you do try and envision what life the bike will live, you don’t dare to think it will carry people as far as it sometimes does. We build lifetime bikes, but it’s the rider that gives the bike that lifetime. We got this photo and note from Robert, down in Florida where he has put his Elium SL (an Elium SG when he bought it) to very good use.
I found it timely to receive this recent newsletter from Seven Cycles. My Seven Elium just reached a milestone. As of today, it has 50,030 miles on it. Twice around the world.
This bicycle has been a joy to ride since the first day. Even at 50,000 miles, it has almost all the original Ultegra components. Shifters, brakes, crankset, derailleurs, and bottom bracket are all original. The headset is original. I have replaced the chain 4 times, the cassette twice, and the shifter cables several times.
The next 50,000 may take longer, but I hope to see this bicycle reach 100,000. Thank you for building such a fine bicycle.
Robert
Race Stays for Race Days
With road season on the horizon here in the Northern Hemisphere (they’re already racing Down Under), we are turning more of our attention to the growing list of road bikes on our build schedule. For riders who like to go fast, the go-to material of the last decade has been carbon fiber, and the reason given most is its inherent stiffness. Many of the race bikes we build incorporate carbon fiber in some way, either in the rear triangle, as in our Elium SL, or more extensively, as with our 622 SLX. Those frames can be lighter than a double-butted Ti frame, though much of that difference gets lost once the bike is completely built. Light wheels and/or components make a bigger difference to overall bike weight than the frame.
All of those bikes, the Elium SL, the 622 SLX and the double-butted Axiom SL, have titanium chain stays. We think they make for a smoother, more durable bike than carbon stays, but we have wanted to be able to make them stiffer for some time.
Now we are offering 1″ chain stays that will fit a tire as large as 28mm. These stays are more than 50% stiffer than a 7/8″ stay. That’s a big jump for a small gain in diameter. We are thinking of them as race stays for race days, for our riders who want all the stiffness and power transfer they can get out of their drivetrain, but also want the comfort and durability of a metal bike.
The Pride of Ownership
We are gratified to build bikes for everyone. Every bike presents a challenge. Every bike gives us the opportunity to get better at what we do, to think about cycling in a slightly different way. When a shop owner gets him or herself a Seven, given all the choices available to them, we take particular pride in building it. These are our most demanding customers and our most passionate supporters. Above you’ll find Terry B’s (Cascade Bicycle Studio) Sola SL 29er, and Christopher W’s (Victoria VeloTech) Elium SL.