Seven Customers – Page 15

Fran’s Ti Axiom (16yrs later)

People send us pictures of their bikes. This is common. Usually it’s a month or two after they’ve picked it up from their shop. They’ve ridden it a bit, and they write in to tell us they love it. It’s nice.

Fran has taken a slightly unconventional approach to this sort of note, as you’ll see below. We actually delivered his Ti Axiom in 1999.

Hello,

I’ve been meaning to write this for some time… years really.

My bike was built in the 2000/2001 time frame. I remember speaking to someone on the phone back when I ordered the bike and the comment I made was that I’m looking for the best all around bike that I’ll never need to replace. You guys delivered!

A bad knee is what got me on a bike and I hadn’t been riding long when I got my Seven. I was in my late 30’s when I took delivery. As an adult I had been on 2 steel and 1 aluminum frames prior to the Seven. I still remember taking it out on the road the first time and thinking OMG how is this possible… it’s just a bike! What a beast!

I used to ride a lot in those days. Whether taking a leisurely ride, a testosterone ride, climbing, a century(or more) or whatever the bike has always been a pleasure to pedal. I’d take it to my LBS and people would just stare. My wife would get sick of hearing me talk about the bike.

I’m now 53. Last time I had need to bring the bike to the LBS people still stared though more to comment on the “old technology”. After many surgeries the knee has interfered, or I’ve allowed it to interfere, with many things including riding. I recently had a sunny weekend at the Cape and had the presence of mind to dust off the bike and take it with me. First ride in a very long while and all I could think was OMG how is this possible&hellp’ it’s just a bike! It’s still a beast!

So again… thanks… you delivered.

Sincerely,
Fran
Axiom s/n 5509I17 (still referred to by my wife as “The Mistress”)

Geoffrey’s New, Old Axiom

This is Geoffrey’s steel Axiom, recently revamped with new gruppo and wheelset. You’d never guess this bike is 12 years-old. Geoffrey knows his way around a camera, too.

He says:

Upgraded the old, steel horse with full Dura-ace and RS81 wheels. Feels like a new bike.

If this is what an “old, steel horse” looks like, we’ll start making more of them and update our marketing to include more mentions of geriatric equines.

It’s worth mentioning that a steel road bike like this is only 5% heavier than its Ti cousin, maybe a pound, if that, or put another way, the weight of a pair of ripe apples or a half-full water bottle. This is high performance steel.

Chris’s Evergreen S

This is Chris’s Evergreen S with our new Max 45 tapered disc fork. We built it with master fitter Steve Hogg at Pedal Pushers in Sydney. Now that Chris has had a little time to ride it, he sent us this photo and note.

Wikipedia told us, “Kangaloon is a small town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire. At the 2006 census, Kangaloon had a population of 336 people. Kangaloon is Aboriginal for “kangaroo landing ground”.”

Hi Seven,

I now have a couple of rides on my new Evergreen and I just wanted to send thanks for the fabulous frame that Seven has built for me.

Thinking back, I expected the bike to be a ‘good fit’ and ‘comfortable’ but my initial standout impressions of the ride are the ‘stability’ and ‘perfect balance’ of the frame.

Fast down hills, riding ‘no hands’, riding in the drops (and transferring from drops to hoods and back again) all feels very natural and I feel very confident the bike.

So I’m a happy customer.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Chris

The Sevens of D2R2

D2R2, the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee, is the sort of event that challenges a rider, not only to ride great distances and climb what seem like endless New England hills, but also to come up with a bike that will meet all its challenges for traction, comfort and speed. With up to 180km of mixed-terrain and as many as 10,000ft of vertical gain, this is no small challenge. Every year we love to look around and see the bikes, and it seems that each year we also see more Sevens.

We might be uniquely suited to building this style of bike. We saw Axiom road bikes modified to take wider tires (and a flat bar) like the one below. We saw Mudhoney CX race bikes, and we saw Evergreens aplenty, our purpose built mixed-terrain bikes.

Here are just a few of the Sevens we saw at D2R2.

The Places We Go

Because we build our bikes one-at-time, for their riders, we don’t have to manage an inventory of anything other than raw materials. That allows us to build the bikes riders want instead of trying to guess what they want or trying to convince them to buy what we have already built.

The challenges our riders have been taking on this last year really bring home to us how the way we do things allows our customers to lead us forward, to take us where they want us to go.

Mike Bybee rode from Arizona to Canada on his Sola SL bike-packing rig. Brad rode across the US, from Oregon to Virginia on his Evergreen SL, set up for loaded randonneuring. We rode in Yorkshire and on the Isle of Man. Matt Roy and David Wilcox attempted a 1000km brevet in the worst heat wave the Pacific Northwest has seen in decades. Daniel Sharp rode the Oregon Outback. Seven was at the Mt.Evans Hill Climb, in the Pyrenees and at Dirty Kanza. Sevens have been ridden through the night, through two full centuries, around Lake Michigan, through Paris and over the Paris-Roubaix cobbles.

Sometimes we shake our heads in wonder at all of it. What ends up happening is that, as much as guide Seven riders through the process of designing their bike, they guide us through the world of cycling. They show us what is possible and change our own ideas about what a bike can be.

Image: Daniel Sharp