Tag: Bike Design
Introducing Project RedSky
A red morning sky tells sailors that bad weather lies ahead. Project RedSky is our way of making all the bad weather days rideable, no, not just rideable, maximally rideable, lovable, to turn those rainy, snowy, off days into your favorite days to be out on the bike.
Here’s how we did it:
- Lightweight: A typical RedSky builds up at 1.5 to 2.0 lbs lighter than an equivalent disc brake bike. The bike is the same weight as any lightweight road bike; the mid-reach brake calipers are only about 30 grams heavier than most lightweight short reach brakes. The bike pictured tips the scales at 16.2 lbs with the MSO 32c tires; without pedals.
- Tire Choices: From a 23c road slick to a 33c knobby and everything in between, the RedSky is even more versatile than a true cyclocross bike. On 33c tires, clearance is limited, but tire option versatility will be appreciated in some riding conditions. True tire clearance depends on measured tire width, rim width, and brake caliper choice. Perhaps most importantly, the RedSky can also fit studded tires.
- All Weather: Designed to fit fenders with up to 28c tires.
- High Performance: This design sacrifices nothing compared to any performance road bike. It’s fast, agile, and accelerates with the best of bikes.
- Optimal Handling: Seven’s 5E fork allows for matching the fork rake to the frame geometry so there’s no compromise to the bike’s front end handling.
- Hidden Fender Mounts: At dropouts and chainstay bridge. The mounts are there when you want them, but hidden when you don’t.
- Travel Bike: Simple brake system makes for fast, easy, and lightweight bike travel.
Overall, the Redsky provides you most of the benefits of an Evergreen — a versatile mixed-terrain disc brake bike — while being as light as a pure performance road bike. Designed specifically for harsh environments, the RedSky loves the rain, sleet, and even snow and ice. Boston sees an average of 80 rain days a year; why miss that many days of riding?
The RedSky will make everyday a riding day.
What defines RedSky is its versatility. No other rim brake bike offers the same breadth of tire choices, rack and fender options, lighting possibilities. We’ll show you, in the coming days, just a few of the ways you can build your Seven RedSky.
Seven in Chicago Magazine
We were fortunate to be featured in Chicago Magazine this last month, with a little help from our friends at Get-a-Grip Cycles. With a two-page spread of our (actually rider Shawn Briggs’) 622 SLX, the piece does a nice job of quickly dissecting what goes into a bike customized to the nines. Many potential riders can by put off by a price tag, without considering all the components that go into it, and the long term value you get from designing and building the right thing the first time.
The Future of Clean
One of the best compliments we get about our bikes is that they look clean, which is not to say “not dirty” but that their lines are clean and true and simple. The recent release of SRAM’s eTap components suggests builds are going to get even cleaner. Check out these two very different builds from our friends at Cascade Bicycle Studio, the first an Axiom SL, a straight-ahead road bike with a little bit of Chris King bling to set off the single-color paint job.
The second one is a refined 650b Airheart SL travel bike. Matching Brooks leather saddle and bar tape are classy finishing touches, and the travel readiness only begins with the S&S couplers. Check out the split, hammered fender, too. This is a high example of the intersection of form and function. eTap only makes this one easier to pack.
The Headbadge
This is our headbadge. It’s one of the very last things to go on a Seven before it leaves our door. Laser-cut and bead-blasted, we think it adds a classy touch to hand-polished titanium, filament-wound carbon fiber and painted steel alike.
It starts flat, like this. Then we clean it up the bead blaster, and we bend it in a hand press depending on the diameter of the bike’s headtube, either 1-1/8″ or 44mm. There is a long and rich tradition of headbadges on handmade frames that goes back more than a century, and it’s one of the small things that we think makes a Seven a Seven.
