Friends of Seven – Page 21

Cover Model

The surprise wasn’t finding the latest issue of Bicycling Magazine in the mail, that’s like clockwork, but to find a Seven on the cover has everyone at the Seven factory abuzz.

If you look hard enough on page 63, you can make out the blurred lines of our Head of Production Matt O’Keefe and his wife Susi’s Seven Sola 007 SL tandem. Susi, #547, stands in front of it.

But the surprises kept coming! Our own Brad Smith, and his chiseled legs, can be found on page 65 standing in the Green River during the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee.

Thanks to Bicycling Magazine for making our day.

Seven at the Paris-Roubaix Challenge

When we walked into Cyclefit in Covent Garden, London last week, we were greeted by this filthy Axiom SL. Closer inspection revealed it had been ridden by resident physiotherapist and fit analyst Morgan Lloyd in April’s Paris-Roubaix Challenge, a ride that takes in all of the cobbled sections of the pro race along the 170km route.

Morgan hadn’t cleaned the bike. He was keeping all that dust and grime as a sort of trophy.

He reported that the bike performed superbly with no mechanicals or punctures. He also said, “I could not wish for a better bike, everything felt solid and it gave me the confidence to ride the sections hard despite it being my first time on pave. The frame absorbed some of the vibration protecting me a little from the punishing terrain and when I got my technique and line right I felt as if I was flying along! Is there a better frame for this event or a better test for a bike?! Brilliant.”

We are, of course, grateful to him for bringing us along.

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.

Matt O’s Festive 500

On a more positive note than recent posts, we have just collected some of the photos Matt O’Keefe took during the Rapha Festive 500 at the end of the year.

When you ask Matt why he rides the Festive 500, he’ll laugh and say, “I don’t know,” but then all the reasons come tumbling out. And it’s pretty clear peer pressure got him out the door to begin with, at the end of 2012.

“I had just signed up for Strava,” he says, “and then Rapha put out the challenge, ride 500km in the week between Christmas and New Years, and I mentioned to John Bayley that it was a cool idea, but that I didn’t have a Garmin. So John gave me a Garmin, and I was out of excuses.”

Despite some untimely snow and a day off for family commitments, he managed to complete last year’s challenge and enjoyed it. This year, the weather was better. The snow held out (until just after the holiday), and Matt managed to get 7,000 miles in his legs over the 2013 season, so the kilometers piled up more easily.

“I don’t know why I do it, but it definitely ends the season with a bang,” he says.

Here are some more of his photos, and for even more of Matt’s cycling adventures, follow him on Instagram.

Fit Werx – The Active Times’ Best Bike Shop in America

Being named the Best Bike Shop in America is quite an honor. Over a period of years, our friends at Fit Werx, in both their Waitsfield, VT and Peabody, MA locations, have established themselves as destination shops for riders looking for supremely well-fitted bikes. It is not at all surprising they were awarded this honor by The Active Times, who aims to be the world’s best source of authoritative, inspiring, enlightening content for living the active, adventurous life.

In their summary on Fit Werx, they say:

Though it’s not really close to much of anything, the original small Green Mountain shop has an outsized reputation.

We know that’s because Fit Werx brings expertise, professionalism and attention to detail to every bike they fit, design and sell. Read more here.

And congratulations to Fit Werx. We’re proud to work with you.