To correspond with journalist and author Graeme Fife is pretty special, not only because of his gorgeous prose and encyclopedic knowledge of this cycling universe we live in, but also because he cares so much about the stories he tells. You might be familiar with some of his work including Rapha’s Great Road Climbs, The Tour de France: The History, The Legend, The Riders, and The Beautiful Machine, or his features for Rouleur magazine.
Lately, we have been in touch with him because he is planning on including Seven Cycles in his new book titled The Elite Bicycle, with photos by the inimitable Gerard Brown. We had Gerard here in the Spring, when we had a long, rambling conversation about what it means to make things.
Graeme told us just recently, “I love New England – I had three great rides on Cape Cod when I first came to New England in 2003 – I’d seen the beach from an aircraft flying into NY and decided that I would swim there one day. The friends in RI who loaned me bike and motor for my trip have a condo up in NH and we rode the Kanc one day, next day past where Robert Frost lived – glorious roads. First ride we did, we stopped at a cafe somewhere in the loom of Mt Washington and the guy at the counter asked me where we’d come from. I said I don’t know. So where are you going? I don’t know. It was a bit queer but expressive of the sense of complete freedom, somehow.”
Be on the lookout for The Elite Bicycle for more great writing from one of cycling’s literary legends..
We are excited to participate in the “Let’s Talk About Bikes” exhibit at the Boston Society of Architects. The exhibit opens on Tuesday, June 12, with a party at the BSA from 6-8pm.
“Let’s Talk About Bikes” was conceived by the folks at the design firm, over, under to celebrate the history of framebuilding in Boston, and to explore the role of the bicycle in an urban environment:
“The expansion of urban biking raises broader transit-related questions about the relationship of bicycles to urban and environmental public policy. The exhibition examines this theme, from the Complete Streets movement to advocacy activism to concerns raised in Boston’s larger community about roadway use. Let’s Talk About Bikes presents many stories and outlooks in order to raise awareness and questions about the role of the bicycle in cities today.”
Seven Cycles was asked to loan The Berlin Bike and Seveneer Mike Salvatore’s Elium to the exhibit. Each bike represents a specific type of riding: the Berlin Bike is a commuter bike and Mike’s Elium was build specifically for track racing. Parlee Cycles and Friefly Bicycles also have bikes in the exhibit. In addition, Rob V. conceptualized and edited a family tree of Boston bike building for the exhibit. Many Seveneers are included in various aspects of the show: Matt O’Keefe’s and Jonathan Henig’s photographs will be displayed, and bikes built by Saila, Royal H., and the SCUL gang will also be part of the show.
We hope that if you’re in or around Boston over the summer, you’ll stop by the BSA to have a look at the craftsmanship on display. “Let’s Talk About Bikes” runs from June 12-August 31, 2012.
When you love something very much, say for example a bicycle, then you spend so much time with it that eventually you stop seeing it. Or at least you stop seeing it with the fresh eyes that helped you fall in love with it in the first place.
In designing and building bikes all day, every day, day after day, year after year, for decades, it’s possible to lose sight of what you’re doing. Even when you’re achieving your stated purpose, inspiration can ebb.
Like a bike race, where you have your head down, and your entire focus is on the work of staying in the group. All you know is your legs are burning, and your chest is heaving. And if you keep your head down like that, you’ll miss the winning move.
So we build bikes all day, every day, but we also pick our heads up and look around us. There is so much there to inspire. Some of the things you see stick with you, either consciously or unconsciously, and then find their way into your design work.
Or maybe, you are so taken with an object that you look it up. You learn how it’s made, and in discovering that process you find a better way to make something you’ve been working on forever. In the best cases, this whole process leads to solutions for seemingly intractable problems. You didn’t expect this, but there it was, in a sculpture park or parked out behind a shopping center, just waiting for you to see, if you can remember to look.
Patrick Brady wrote a brief history of New England bicycle manufacturing in the latest issue of Peloton Magazine, “New England Genesis”, and Seven was lucky enough to be included in it. In his (now defunct) blog, Red Kite Prayer, Patrick elaborates on the interconnectedness of the region’s bike building companies, and created a family tree to illustrate some of the relationships.
We are honored to be a part of this thriving and expanding community, and we wanted to clarify a few aspects of Patrick’s illustration that might be confusing to readers. Here is a list of framebuilders and bike-building industry people of which we’re aware that started businesses after working with local – primarily Massachusetts – framebuilders. For example, King Cage is not a framebuilder, but Ron worked at Fat City Cycles so we included him on this list.
A Long History of Photo-Taking
Each company mentioned is a framebuilder, unless otherwise indicated:
Updated 3 June 2015
Seven Cycles
In addition to Red Kite Prayer’s list, here are some companies started by Seven Cycles employees and alumnae, and clarification regarding some of the companies relationships to Seven:
Zanconato, Mike Z. was building frames before working at Seven and continues to build frames since his tenure at Seven.
SCUL, Skunk. SCUL is more of a chopper gang than a framebuilder. Currently works with Seven.
Sketchy Cycles, Mike Salvatore. Currently works with Seven.
Banjo Cycles, Ahren Rogers.
Rack Lady, Leah Stargardter. She builds custom bike racks.
Here are some additional companies – beyond what’s mentioned on Red Kite Prayer – started by Fat City Cycles alumnae:
Independent Fabrication. See below for more details.
King Cage, Ron Andrews – he makes water bottle cages.
Igleheart, Chris Igleheart.
Bomber Cycles, Dave Blakney.
S.R.P., Jeff Federson – no longer in business; he used to make small parts for the bike industry.
Janeware, Jane Hayes. Maker of clothing for cyclists.
Merlin Metalworks
A couple of additional companies not mentioned in the Peleton article:
Arctos Machine, Gary Helfrich – no longer in business; Arctos was based on the west coast.
One-Off Titanium, Mike Augsburger – he used to make custom bicycles.
Independent Fabrication
Additional companies started by Independent Fabrication alumnae:
A.N.T., Mike Flanagan. See below for more details. Closed shop on 2015; currently works with Seven Cycles.
Sputnik Metalworks, Jeff Buckles – he makes framebuilding tooling for the bike industry.
FireflyBicycle. The cool kids!
Alternative Needs Transportation – A.N.T
Mike Flanigan closed up shop in 2015. His storied past includes teaching framebuilding classes. The most notable is:
Geekhouse, Marty Walsh. In the article, it may come across that Geekhouse was born out of Marty Walsh’s work with Seven. Marty started Geekhouse prior to working with us, ran Geekhouse while he was working with Seven, and continues to operate Geekhouse today.
Serotta Competition Cycles
Yes, we know that New York is not in New England, but Serotta and the Boston bike building scene are connected – at the very least by Whitcomb. Here are a few additional companies started by Serotta alumnae:
Kirk Frameworks, Dave Kirk-Bozeman, Montana
K. Bedford Customs, Kelly Bedford
Ellis Cycles, Dave Wages
Local Builders
Here are a few framebuilders that didn’t start at a local bike company, as far as we know:
Peter Mooney Cycles
Hot Tubes, Toby Stanton.
Circle A Cycles, Chris Bull.
Maietta Cycles, Tony Maietta.
Dave Weagle
E.thirteen
Evil
Ted Wojcik Custom Bicycles
Rhygin Cycles, Christian Jones – no longer in business.
Parlee Bicycles, Bob Parlee.
October Hand Made Bikes – no longer in business.
We’re sure we’re forgetting a bunch of people, so please let us know whom we’ve left out! We thank Patrick for including us in this terrific article. We hope that after reading Patrick’s work you’ll have a better understanding of the unique history of New England that helped launch so many amazing and innovative companies.
