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Current Lead Times: Simple-Custom Framesets: 1 week. Full Custom Bikes: 7 weeks.

U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix

Mudhoney PRO: The Quest to Build the Perfect Cross Bike

Mo pro II lugs before and after
Mudhoney PRO in the prototype phase

If you’ve ever been over your handlebars into a sand pit, you know that the forces that come to bear on a cyclocross bike can be both unexpected and catastrophic. You also know that trying to get all that sand out of your mouth is much more complicated than simply swishing some post-race beer around and then spitting, like you were at the outdoor dentist.

Because of the big hits a typical CX race bike takes, we think that a pure carbon frame is the wrong tool for the job. There simply isn’t enough forgiveness in that material to justify the weight savings you would get over a metal bike. That doesn’t mean carbon fiber has no place on the course though.

Carbon fiber is good at two things. First, it eats high-frequency vibration better than metal, so having some carbon in your CX frame is good when you’re flying over grass or even grinding a big gear on a paved section. You’ll be smoother and get better power transfer. The other thing carbon fiber is good at is being light. Light can be good when you’re racing, right?

But it’s not everything.

Metal is good at some things, too. Titanium, for example, will give a frame a suppleness and a maneuverability that an all-carbon fiber frame doesn’t have. In the technical section of any course, in the switchbacks or in the mud, titanium will give you the ability to use your whole body to steer with. A titanium drive train will be easier to power in chattery sections than a carbon one. Sometimes a little flex is a good thing.

At Seven, we have the ability to build an all-carbon cyclocross racer and make it every bit as customizable as any of the other bikes we build. When we set out to expand our cross line though, an all-carbon bike never even crossed our minds.Instead we built the machine that would come to be known as the Mudhoney PRO.

Mudhoney PRO
The 2012 Mudhoney PRO

The Mudhoney PRO aspires to wring every last advantage out of the two materials in its design. The carbon fiber top, seat, head, and down tubes form a light triangle. Matching seat stays settle your saddle. By putting titanium lugs and chainstays into the mix, we getsuppleness where we want it, plus added durability. A titanium drive train will improve tracking and traction; it will hold the ground better than a carbon one, especially in the more technical sections.

Marrying materials in this way isn’t easy; it takes advanced bonding techniques to gain all these advantages and still be able to offer a lifetime warranty. Luckily, we’ve been mixing titanium and carbonsince 1997.

We can’t guarantee you won’t go over the bars of the Mudhoney PRO. When it comes right down to it, sand is unpredictable, and we could all use more practice carrying momentum from the fast parts of the course into the technical sections. What we will say is that you won’t find a cross racer that trackstruer and holds the ground better. And there’s always that post race beer to look forward to.

New Seven Cycles Cross Bike: The Mudhoney PRO

Mudhoney PRO bike
The 2012 Mudhoney PRO

We knew we could build a better cross bike, but it was a big challenge.The Mudhoney line has served us, and the riders who race them week-in and week-out, very well. What we know from years of experience though, is that the top step of the podium isn’t always the last step up you can take.

Cyclocross demands a lot from a bike frame. Finding the way forward meant balancing performance against durability. The massive torque generated by cantilever brakes made redesigning the seat stays difficult. The big impacts sustained on the fiendish obstacles race organizers throw at riders have to be absorbed somehow. We wanted to use enough carbon to make the bike light, but to incorporate enough titanium to give proper torsional stiffness and to remain supple through the pounding of race day.

We came up with the Mudhoney PRO.

The PRO’s seat stays are titanium at the top to improve braking efficiency, but carbon at the bottom, where lightness and vibration dampening are important. There is titanium in the drive train for maximum power transfer, and titanium in the lugs to absorb shocks. The Ti also leaves some finesse in the frame. It’s livelier than an all carbon bike. No other cross bike tracks so well or maintains traction quite the way the Mudhoney PRO does. Carbon top, down and seat tubes make the Mudhoney PRO our lightest cross frame and one that shrugs off the chatter of uneven ground.

This is a race bike, pure and true.