Mountain Bikes – Seven Cycles

The Long Story of the Introduction of the Balance Control System and the Mobius SL and KellCat SL Dual-Suspension Mountain Bikes

Seven in the mountains

Mike Bybee – From Above Payson

It’s always good to see Mike Bybee‘s name in the Seven inbox. It means we have good tidings (and great photos) from one of our favorite Seven riders out in the expansive American Southwest.

Seven Sola with custom racks on a rugged mountain road

Mike says:

Rode out from Payson AZ and up a mix of trails to a ridgeline and a summit about 5k’ that overlooked Tonto National Forest and Mazatzal Peak (in the back there).

Cleaned up some trail trash on the way back, and found a buddy with a pickup truck who’s going to come help me remove a couch and a CRT someone chucked along the way. The ride down from the little summit was a blast, with a couple 3′ + dropoffs and lots of stuff that was more fun to go *down* than *up*.

He also sent along this summit panorama.

Mike rides a Sola SL 29er.

A Study in Contrast

It was 13F at ride time this morning. Small flakes darted around on the wind. As the morning progressed, they got fatter, drifting and chasing each other into small cottony piles. We rode, and it was nice. We like pushing ourselves through the falling snow, and there are usually fewer cars on the road.

It’s hard not to think of warmer days too, though.

Here’s a photo from FOS (Friend of Seven) Mike Bybee who was kind of us to put us in his new Sights of the Southwest 2018 calendar. Mike is an ardent explorer, bikepacker, and photographer. We built him this Sola SL 29er adventure rig a few years ago, and so he’s taken us on some incredible adventures.

A Seven mountain bike leans against a desert dirt ridge

With Summer Receding

Seven in the sun

A Message from the Mountains

We’ve said it a thousand times, one of the very best things about building custom bikes is that we get to know our customers. This message came in the other day from Len, a longtime Seven rider. You can find more of Len’s photography here.

the silhouette of a Seven head badge key chain hangs on the rear view mirror of a truck driving down a lonely road

Hi 7 team,

I bought my Seven Verve mountain frame back in ’03, and it has been a faithful ride. The first year I bought it I took it out to Moab to break it in…. On the drive to Moab I photographed the “7” head badge hanging from my rear view mirror and sent it to you.

Here is another image on the same topic – taken many years later. The scene is looking out the windscreen of my Land Rover Defender over a dry and harsh mountainscape at a little over 11,000 ft in elevation. The image was taken in the White Mountains east of the Sierra Nevada. When you spend a week or so between 11,000 and 13,000 ft even the air molecules in the mineral oil filled compass precipitated out of the oil solution to form an air bubble. The “7” frame performs flawlessly at high altitudes!!!

regards,

Len