This is our friend Ricardo’s Sola S, delivered through Bikestage in Madrid. Ricardo opted for a 142×12 thru axle rear end for his bike, and the final build came out very clean and spare. The bead-blasted logo gives it that touch of class, too.
Tag: Friends of Seven
New Bike Day
New bike day is a special day, even if you spend all day, every day building bikes. Our own Bradford Smith, Drifter extraordinaire, built himself a new bike a few weeks ago, and he’s got that little kid gleam in his eye ever since.
Never one to dream small dreams, Brad’s idea was to put together a machine he could race cross country on, and by “cross country” of course we mean literally across the country. The Trans-Am Bike Race leaves June 6th from Astoria, OR and ends in Yorktown, VA.
Here he is the night of final assembly in the MM Racing service course with good friend Matt Roy, master mechanic and cross-country racing accomplice.
And here is the bike below, ready for a shake out ride, packed for travel. Stay tuned for a lot more updates on this particular adventure.
Cancer: An Endurance Event
It’s hard to know what to do or say when a friend gets cancer. Platitudes ring hollow. Too much attention can be overbearing. Our good friend Pamela (aka: The Fixie Pixie) received the bad news recently, breast cancer, an aggressive Her2 Positive form, that will require some difficult treatment. As an endurance rider, Pamela is someone we all admire, someone whose determination brings her through a lot of hard miles on the bike.
Everyone who knows her believes she will overcome this, which doesn’t make it easier for her. But, the traits that make her good at what she does on the bike will make her good at what she faces with the coming treatment. It’s hard to know what to do, other than spreading the word, so that’s what we’re doing.
Read her story in her own words here. Find her fundraising page for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation here.
Wheel Test – Paris-Roubaix Pacenti Luxe Disc Wheels
We’ve been looking for good go-to disc wheel for mixed-terrain riding. It’s a category with a number of entrants, but few products that really hit the mark. So we connected with Justin Spinelli at Luxe Wheelworks and Kirk Pacenti at Pacenti Cycle Design for a set of Pacenti’s own rims laced to White Industries hubs with Sapim bladed spokes.
They proved very durable and, at 24 hole front and rear, they manage to strike the right balance between weight and strength for us. Certainly we were impressed with them over the 54km of cobblestones at the Paris-Roubaix Challenge last weekend, not to mention the 14 hour mixed-terrain odyssey we did around Paris a few days before. We did both these rides without a broken spoke, dent or even a flat tire.
We rode them with Challenge Paris-Roubaix 27mm tires, similar to what the pros ride, to really put them through their paces. Justin had promised us that we’d have no problems, that they’d be bulletproof, but the cobbles of northern France have crushed all sorts of wheels (and spirits). We were impressed enough with them that they’ll become the default wheel for our Evergreen line in the coming months.
The Cycling Media Reacts to Mo Bruno Roy’s Retirement
It’s been a happy/sad week for Mo Bruno Roy, since she announced her retirement from Elite Cyclocross racing. New beginnings are like that. It’s a testament to all the things we said about her just a few days ago, that the cycling press has covered her retirement in a way they don’t usually mention other riders moving on.
There were kind words on VeloNews, a nice interview on Bicycling, and a photo series on The Radavist, showcasing Mo’s Mudhoney PRO race bike, all-in-all the nicest way to sign off from elite racing that we can imagine.
Stay-tuned for our own interview with Mo, and don’t think you’ll stop seeing her on her Seven or in these digital pages. She’s not racing elites next season, but, in literal terms, she can’t stop/won’t stop.