Our Mudhoney PRO in a custom blue, painted to match a ’72 Chrysler Baracuda
Tag: Mudhoney PRO
Ready for CX?
Cross season is upon us. When you have your head down, building bikes all day, you sometimes lose track of time, but then all of a sudden, you’re building Mudhoneys, and you realize, “It’s coming.” A very exciting time of year. This season we are also building the new Mudhoney PRO, for enhanced enjoyment of muddy endeavors.
Bike Radar: Pro bike – Mo Bruno-Roy’s Seven Mudhoney Pro
By Matt Pacocha, US editor, in Madison, WI
When Seven Cycles put Maureen Bruno-Roy (MM racing) on their new prototype carbon fiber and titanium cyclo-cross bike, the top tube said ‘Mohoney’ ‘ a play on the name of their Mudhoney ‘cross line. The Mohoney has since turned into the Mudhoney Pro, which will be a production bike in 2012.
The new bike, which was released as a prototype in October, incorporates additional carbon tubes into its design, when compared to the Mudhoney SLX bikes that Bruno-Roy has ridden for the past four seasons ‘ not just the same model mind you, but the same exact frames.
While the SLX has carbon top and seat tubes, the Pro trades out its titanium seatstays, head and down tubes for carbon as well, in an effort to lighten the frame and further dampen the vibrations that reach the rider, while retaining the terrain hugging suppleness and feel of titanium.
Bruno-Roy’s Mohoney race rig was the first ‘cross bike Seven assembled with carbon rear stays, which are an adaptation from the company’s Elium SLX and 622SLX road bikes. “This rear triangle was completely novel for them, in terms of ‘cross,- Matt Roy, Bruno-Roy’s husband, team manager and mechanic, told BikeRadar. “So this was the first one and it became the basis for the new Mudhoney Pro.”
Rob Vandermark, Seven’s founder, laser-cut all of the titanium lugs for the Mohoney frame by hand. On the SLX these lugs are structural but on the Mudhoney they’re there purely for aesthetic reasons, as the carbon tubes are mitered and bonded to each other. The new bike is roughly 1lb lighter than Bruno-Roy’s SLX rigs. “I don’t think they expected it to be that much lighter,” said Roy.
Bruno-Roy’s Mudhoney Pro gets the SRAM treatment, in terms of groupset and accompanying kit – Red with a compact crank and 44-tooth Thorne Components outer ring, and Zipp’s Service Course alloy cockpit. The handlebar is Zipp’s new Service Course CSL, which is made especially for smaller handed riders and has a ‘super-short reach’ and two-degree outward bend in the drops.
A compact gxp crank with 34-tooth sram inner ring and 44-tooth thorne outer ring: a compact gxp crank with 34-tooth sram inner ring and 44-tooth thorne outer ring Mo uses a 44-tooth outer ring. Since SRAM only make a 46t ring, she opts for one from Stu Thorne’s Thorne Products. Also note the ‘late model’ Shimano PD-M970 pedals, which remain more popular on the cyclo-cross circuit than the M980 model due to their better mud performance Deviations from the SRAM brand come in the form of Bruno-Roy’s TRP EuroX Mag brakes and Mavic wheel choices. She has both Cosmic Carbone Ultimate and R-SYS SL tubular models. The former are mostly used with Challenge Grifos (with both standard Challenge and FMB casings), whereas the R-SYS are set for mud with Challenge Limus and FMB Super Mud tires. Roy takes a meticulous approach to the upkeep of his wife’s bikes and it shows through in the finished product. When we saw the bike the day before the USA Cycling cyclo-cross nationals in Madison, Wisconsin it sparkled and gleamed, with touches like fully sealed and shrink wrapped cables, custom stickers on the Fi’zi:k TK saddle and an expertly taped handlebar.
Complete bike specification
- Frame: Seven Mudhoney Pro prototype
- Fork: Seven CX
- Headset: Chris King NoThreadset, 1-1/8in
- Stem: Zipp Service Course SL, 80mm, -6deg;
- Handlebar: Zipp Service Course CSL, 40cm
- Tape: Fi:zi’k Microtex Bar:tape
- Front brake: TRP EuroX Mag w/ SwissStop Yellow King pads for Mavic wheels
- Rear brake: TRP EuroX Mag w/ SwissStop Yellow King pads for Mavic wheels
- Front derailleur: SRAM Red w/steel cage
- Rear derailleur: SRAM Black Red
- Shifter: SRAM Black Red
- Brake levers: SRAM Black Red
- Cassette: SRAM PG1070, 12-28t
- Chain: SRAM PC1091
- Crankset: SRAM Black Red Compact, 170mm, 44/34t
- Bottom bracket: SRAM Red GXP ceramic
- Pedals: Shimano XTR PD-M970
- Wheelset: Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate (or R-SYS SL w/ mud tires)
- Front tire: Challenge Grifo, 17-21psi, Aquaseal coating
- Rear tire: Challenge Grifo, 17-21psi, Aquaseal coating
- Saddle: Fi:zi’k Aliante Donna K:ium
- Seatpost: Zipp Service Course SL
Critical rider measurements
- Rider’s height: 161.9cm/5ft 4in
- Rider’s weight: 48.08kg/106lb
- Saddle height from BB, c-t: 66.4cm
- Saddle setback: 1.8cm
- Seat tube length, c-t: 50cm
- Tip of saddle to center of bar: 46.5cm
- Saddle to bar drop: 2.9cm
- Head tube length: 9cm
- Top tube length (virtual): 49.5cm
- Total bicycle weight: 7.4kg/16.33lb
Gallery Images
Mudhoney PRO: The Quest to Build the Perfect Cross Bike
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.
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
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.