U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix
U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix
This is Ralf’s Axiom SL. We built it with the good folks at Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington, MA. Now Ralf lives in Japan. He sent us this photo, and the note below:
Enjoying the backyard of my new home, Tokyo/Japan, on the most wonderful bike ever built. – Ralf
This is Alex and her new 622 SLX, which, as you can see, is made for climbing, right down to its Queen-of-the-Mountains paint scheme. All the titanium is painted Dianthus, one of our new colors for this season. We built it with Mark Brone at Brone’s Bike Shop in Fountain City, WI. We finished it just in time for Alex to take to Colorado for two weeks, culminating in the Mt. Evans Hill Climb. Here is her quick report from the trip:
Hi Seven,
I would just like to give you a feed back about my new bike.
We have returned from our trip to Colorado and the bike is amazing!
I was curious how this “custom made” is going to turn out and if I was going to notice any difference in the fit/feel. I have several bikes that are all “fine”, so it had to be better than “fine” to stand out.
And it…did!! Amazing, how comfortable it is. Not just a smooth ride, but I have never had any aches or pains (with climbing I got used to a uncomfortable “straining” feel in my lower back). I thought that the strain/pressure in my lower back is simply “a deal” for me in climbing position, not avoidable.
We first did the Independence Pass, then Loveland Pass (both from the harder sides, both about 12,000 ft elevation). A big surprise: I was not even thinking about any discomfort (other then the thin air…) and later on realized that I had no discomfort of any kind on that bike! Great!!
Our main event, at the end of the trip, was Bob Cook Road Bike race on Mt. Evans, to 14,140 ft elevation and about 7,000 ft of climbing in 28 miles. I was doubtful if I would make it to the top, but I did it! It took me 5 and a half hours (my husband did in 3hrs 22 min, riding conservatively as we did not know what to expect), but who cares? The weather was great (just luck), I felt perfectly fine going my relaxed tempo, so I kept going. It was an amazing feel to go through that finish line on over 14,000 ft height. Wow!!!
I am so happy that I was able to take my new bike on that trip. It would not be the same without it, so thank you for making the best effort at the end to make it happen!
Alex
This is Nick’s 622 SLX. We built it with our friends at the Red Bicycle Studio in Red Bank, NJ. Nick took our Lug Deluxe paint scheme and went a step further. We think it came out great, and the matching white and red pedals are a nice touch.
It isn’t summer yet, just April’s end, but there are buds on the trees, the sun rises higher in the sky every day, and we can begin to see all the riding options summer will give us. Our New England trails are drying out. The sunrise is early enough to get out on the road on a Saturday before the cars have woken up. The options are nice to have, though they sometimes necessitate more than one bike.
Flat bars or drop? Skinny tires or fat? One seat or two? In summer, it almost doesn’t matter what you choose.
We built this Axiom SL in 2002, for a customer who has since worked with us on two more bikes. This winter, he decided he wanted to update the look of this bike after 13 years on the road. He sent it to us to strip and repaint. This is what it looked like when we got it, not bad for its vintage, not bad at all.
We tell our riders we’re building them a lifetime bike, that they’ll still be riding it in decades. We think it’s one of the big selling features of a Seven, but in the excitement of getting a new bike, few really appreciate the value of the long term. You can’t blame them, they’re getting a new bike.
But now, 18 years into our bike building adventure, we are seeing bikes coming back for refinishes and repaints, and we send every one back out the door looking as good as it did when it was new. Many of these frames are a decade or more old.
There’s a story in this that resonates with these times: about quality, about not making disposable stuff, about caring for and fixing things instead of throwing them away and buying something new.
Here is the after shot of the bike above:
We hope we’ll see it back again in 10 or 15 years for another update.