Tag: Axiom SL
Customer Review: Axiom SL
Our group of riders smashed through the messy roadway. The speed plummeted as riders on light carbon frames balked at the clacking and popping sounds of their gear shuddering across uneven roadway. I was keenly aware that my speed remained stable as I slid to the front to plan my endgame. Stiff enough to feel… but the suspension of titanium was all there. Goldilocks would have been impressed.
Just prior to the holiday break, we were treated to a lovely long term review of an Axiom SL, courtesy of a blog post by Andrew Kerslake. Unlike many other reviewers, Andrew bit his tongue until he logged many miles over a wide variety of terrain, and then commenced on crafting a thorough report. We are pleased that he is enjoying his new bike, but especially enjoyed reading his entertaining blog entry, which was full of insight and energy.
Before deciding which bike he wanted, Andrew did a fair share of research and soul searching,
“We take on a certain degree of ownership that extends beyond the product and into the brand. The brand’s identity often speaks to our own identity.–
However, as an avid cyclist, Andrew knew what type of outfit he was looking for,
“a titanium race bike to be agile enough for Taiwan’s roads, stiff enough in the drivetrain and stiff enough in the front and rear triangles to transfer over a fair amount of road feel to better assess my tack on the surface. I also wanted the bike to be just, and only just, comfortable enough to handle my notoriously long rides over Taiwanese roads. I also needed a bike aggressive enough for Taiwan’s yearlong bicycle event season. I wanted something that would be comparable to the carbon performance bikes, but still hold that solid metallic feel that I love with the durability of titanium. I have been known to be a bit careless or a klutz.-
We were lucky to have been chosen to turn his dream into a reality.
The results?
“After each ride, no matter the distance or amount of effort, I can get off the bike and feel fresh. I can still run around and walk normally. I might be tired, but not beat-up.–
We hope you enjoy the review as much as we did. Thanks to Andrew for the stellar report.
Axiom SL: Bicycling Magazine Dream Bike, Part Two
We talk about customization a lot, but the word itself means so many different things to so many different people it becomes sort of meaningless, another bike industry buzz word that flies around but seldom lands. We thought it might be a good idea to explain howWE customize a bike using the Bicycling magazine test bike we built for Joe Lindsey as an example.
The truth is we didn’t want to send Joe an Axiom SL, initially. When he got in touch with us we were just putting the finishing touches on the 622 SLX, and the opportunity to put our newest creation into a big magazine was exciting.
But Joe didn’t want a purpose-built speed demon. He was more interested in versatility and timelessness, so we arrived, together,at the Axiom SL. It’s light, but not the lightest. It can race, or it can tour. And it showcases our double-butting process, one of the ways we tune ride characteristics to the rider.
Joe filled out our Custom Kit, a small pamphlet we developed to capture all the ideas a rider has about his or her new bike, and also to learn some things the rider might not mention otherwise. It starts with personal information, name, age, and weight, but also occupation and geographic location. We ask about what people do, so that we can get a sense for their everyday ergonomics. Do they sit at a desk all day or are they more active? Clues like this tell us a lot about how a rider will approach their new bike. Where they live gives us some idea about the roads they’ll ride, the hills or the flats, the quality of the surfaces.
Continue reading “Axiom SL: Bicycling Magazine Dream Bike, Part Two”
roadbikereview.com: Seven Axiom SG Wins Choice Award
By Robert Millar
Seven is pleased to announce that the Axiom SG road model is the recipient of the 2006 roadbikereview.com Choice Award in the Frame category. Awarded at Interbike to companies whose products earned “Best Of” recognition, these are the highest rated products on the roadbikereview.com site. Winners are selected according to the highest rated products that met a minimum number of reviews for each category.
The Seven Axiom SG garnered “Best Of” status by earning a total rating of 5 out of 5, the highest possible rating. What makes this all the more impressive is that the Axiom was one of the most frequently reviewed products to earn this rating.
Here is just a sampling of the praise for the Axiom SG
“Super-stable at high-speed, lively feel to the frame, visually gorgeous, silky smooth (never chattery), superb frame craftsmanship, constant admiring compliments from other riders (the bike, not the rider…).”
“A joy to ride. Silk on the road, really. Makes me want to ride all day. Everything good about a bike, nothing bad. Any harshness or spookiness has vanished.”
“Awesome bike!!!! The whole Seven experience was a blast and the frame came out PERFECT!! I am able to ride longer, harder and faster and most importantly comfortably.”
“An excellent investment. I smile a lot when I am out on this bike. And I’m out on it a lot (for me). I no longer look for excuses to not ride and am looking for reasons to go for a ride. That seems to be the best thing you can say about any bike: it makes you want to ride.”
“The ride characteristics: Silky smooth, lively. I test-rode high-end aluminum and carbon frames and found them either harsh or dead feeling.”
Cycle Sport Magazine: Material Worlds
Story, Phil Cavell, Photos
Gerard Brown
Last month we examined the virtues of steel and aluminum. This month, Cycle Sport casts an expert eye over those rarer and more exotic options, titanium and carbon-fiber.
Titanium: Seven Axiom
In an ideal world, every country would have at least one bike company steeped in geeky cooldom and armed with an unashamed ‘price is no object’ philosophy. And in this regard the US’s East Coast has rather hogged the scene of late: Fat Chance, Independent Fabrications, Serotta, Merlin and now Seven have all vied for most hip status.
Seven’s torches spluttered into life five years ago when a handful of Merlin’s senior creative staff set up office in Boston, Massachusetts with the lofty notion of only making frames specially to order: Today the company employs 28 people and is one of the USA’s largest fabricators of high-end bespoke excellence, specializing in bike frames for all disciplines, in either steel or titanium.
Frame
The Axiom is Seven’s uncompromising outfit for people who want to live—or look like they live—the racer role to the extreme. It is available as a custom build at no extra cost, although our test bike was specially made for a customer using Seven’s own ‘Signature’ geometry. The Axiom is constructed from Seven’s own seamless Argen 3AI-2.5V titanium tubeset, which is painstakingly externally butted to a tolerance of O.OO1in, or the width of a human hair; whichever seems most appropriate on the day.
The Axiom’s snaked seat stays and chain-stays are unsurprisingly reminiscent of Merlin’s own, and are executed to a comparably high standard as anything crafted by Tom Kellogg (Merlin’s master builder).
Interestingly, Seven eschews shaped tubes in vogue with other manufacturers at the moment, believing the traditional round shape offers a better stiffness to weight ratio, as well as maintaining greater strength integrity compared to ovalized alternatives. The resulting frame looks classical.
A plethora of choices await you when you order your frame, and most won’t cost you a penny more than the ‘basic’ $2,595 frame cost: bosses, tubing, decals, mudguard mounts, geometry sloping top tube—you’ll be at it all day.
Our 56cm bike measured 56.8cm along the top tube and 59.5cm to the top of the seat collar (56cm center-center of the top tube). The 15cm head tube follows the current US trend by being slightly longer and utilizing a 2cm extension above the top tube (also available with 4cm at no extra cost), while the seat and head angles measure 73.5 degrees apiece.
Seven is one of America’s select few art house builders whose construction processes and presentation are among some of the world’s finest—this kind of work is effectively beyond criticism, and only really available for appreciation.
Fork
Seven collaborated with Salt Lake City’s Wound Up Composites to produce a genuine 450-gram fork, which is based around filament-wound carbon legs and 1 1/8in carbon steerer; bonded into a CNC-machined polished aluminum crown and finished off with aluminum dropouts. The cost is a cool $475, but you get a sub-four-pound frame and fork figure to boast about in combination with the Axiom’s 2.981b (1.35kg) frame weight.
Components
Our test bike was prepared by Sigma Sport in Kingston for a very discerning customer with taste and style (not us). It is not often that such a list of rare and desirable parts finds its way onto one frame: Campagnolo Record groupset, Mavic Ksyrium wheels, Chris King headset, etc. Even the headset spacers are titanium and cost $22 a set. Ready to spin on Continental GP3000 tires, the whole rig costs a once-in-a-lifetime $5,049 and weighs a toenail under 16.8lb (16kg).
Ride
My first thought was that the Seven felt a little big for a stock 56cm, partly due to the long seat and top tube, and partly, if I’m honest, because my legs belong to another much shorter person. Hence I would probably choose a 54cm bike for myself and make a necessary change with the stem size. My second thoughts were aesthetic—I felt the Wound Up fork looked a bit too Mtb for the rest of the classic lines of the Axiom. But then I rode the bike and found the front end of the bike to be a total revelation—I have never ridden a bike that steers so quickly and with so little effort. The balance and confidence coming back from the fork, bar and stem combination is astounding, and it took me a couple of hours to stop hitting imaginary apexes four feet too early.
Elsewhere the ride fluctuates between outstanding and excellent. The frame itself feels stiffer than most titanium bikes I have ridden, as there is much more pick-up from the rear triangle than one would expect. The trade-off is that the Seven doesn’t quite have the type of springy, absorbent ride that you look forward to in advancing years for pootling around the country lanes. Maybe the Mavic Ksyriums played their part in giving the Axiom this unexpected aggression, as they are certainly one of the stiffer wheel packages that we’ve tested, as well as being one of the fastest turning. Don’t get me wrong, the bike is still all-day comfortable and satisfying, isolating an estimated one-third more road buzz compared to an all-aluminum frame. The one little problem we had was that the gorgeous looking seat clamp seemed unwilling to get any real bite on the carbon-fiber seatpost—we were constantly stopping to reset the saddle height and retighten the clamp.
Climbing onto any light bike is a delight, but the Seven bestows that something extra to the experience—the bike itself is so classy that you naturally fall into the smooth-as-you-like groove; stay seated in the saddle using languid, powerful pedal strokes as the road kicks right up in front of your face. Or feel the front go stupidly light in your hands—it’s an excellent package.
If you have decided that It is about time that you treated yourself to that once-in-a-lifetime frame purchase, then Seven certainly offers you just about as much scope, and as many options to ‘fill your boots,’ as any other company out there. It is part of that select group of frame-builders who don’t aspire to anything other than passion-infused excellence for people who care about such things.
The Seven Axiom does everything any headbanger race bike will; but with a lot less fuss and drama, and actually encourages you to do the same. It is a race bike for a gentleman and not a hooligan; sure, it is fast and capable, but the expression of its class and ability is an exercise in pure Bostonian understatement.