Here is the bike Seven friend and sponsored-rider Mary McConneloug rode at the Beijing Olympics. It’s the same frame she rode at the Athens games four years earlier, making it the only mountain bike ever to feature in two Olympics. We are so proud of this bike, and Mary of course, because it proves that well-made things can last, even at the absolute top of the sport.
Tag: Sola
Stripped Down
You would never design a whole bike build around a handlebar, except for those rare instances where someone hands you a Ti riser bar and leaves you to think about what its best use might be. This is another one of Neil’s projects, and the bar in question wasn’t so much the inspiration for the build, but rather the final piece of a puzzle that had been assembling itself somewhere in the dark recesses of his brain for some time.
He had the frame, acquired at a Seven employee auction a few years back. It had a short life as his every day mountain bike, but he found the geometry left him more upright than he liked to be over root and rock here in our New England woods, so it was in his “parts bin.”
Neil’s parts bin is like most people’s garage, just to paint you a picture.
There was also a Forward Components Eccentric Bottom Bracket, an external solution to retrofitting a single-speed drive train from a company that is no longer. These are the sorts of things Neil collects, and of course, because we have a wide assortment of lathes and mills, he and Mike were able to machine the arms of a Deore crank to work with the EBB in this configuration.
Add in a set of Avid mechanical disc brakes and a pair of Schwalbe Big Apple tires, and you have a balloon-tired, throw-back BMX, an over-sized version of the bike many of us cut our dirt-jumping teeth on.
Now this bike lives in our indoor parking lot, and it gets taken out for lunch on the regular. And just like those bikes we all grew up on, it loves to jump curb cuts and bunny hop flower beds on its way to picking up delicious sandwiches or just practicing wheelies in the parking lot.
Timelessness
This is Seven Cycles #10, the tenth bike we ever built. It is 15 years-old. It has been all over the US, all over Europe. It has a lot of trail miles under its wheels. We built it for one of Seven’s original founders, who has gone on, happily, to live and ride the world.
Last week, it came back for refinish.
With more than 20,000 custom bikes behind us, it’s hard not to think about the first bikes out the door, wonder where they are, what they’re doing. Seeing this bike again was a real treat, and maybe it validates a decision we made a long time ago to offer only one finish for our bare Titanium frames, one that is a bit painstaking to execute, but turns out a frame that can be easily maintained and refinished for the lifetime of the bike, which, as it turns out, can be very long time.
Part of the process of customizing a bike for an individual customer is thinking about the future. Often riders know what they want in the moment. Sometimes they have a longer range vision of what they want their Seven to be, but most of the time it’s up to us to help them think through what they’re riding needs will be five, ten, or even fifteen years down the road. The hand finish is part of that thought and vision. It’s part of the value of what we do.
This bike will leave here today, destined for some far flung trail, and we look forward to seeing it back again, fifteen years further on, if only to see how we’ve done.
Bike Magazine: Seven Cycles Sola Steel
Vernon Felton
Here’s the deal with Seven Cycles; custom. You can get a hardtail (steel or titanium) in almost any configuration you desire. You want your bike equipped with disc-brake mounts? Rack Eyelets? Horizontal, singlespeed dropouts? Seven will do all of that at no extra cost. More importantly, Seven tailors each frame’s ride characteristics to each customer’s riding style using a custom blend of double-butted Columbus, Reynolds and True Temper steels (dubbed Origin). Why is this important? Imagine two mountain bikers who both ride 17-inch frames. One rider is a 210-pound pedal-masher. The other is a 160-pound racer who spins low gears. The Clydesdale with the jackhammer pedal-stroke needs a stiffer frame than the spin boy with eight percent body fat. Nice.
On the Trail
Last Summer, I filled out Seven’s customization questionnaire and sizing chart. A month later, this baby-blue Sola landed on my doorstep. The bike features a 23-inch toptube, 71/73-degree head and seat-tube angles, 16.75-inch seat-stays and a bottom bracket height of 11.75 inches. Why is this important? Actually, it’s not important at all, unless you are roughly the same size as me (5 feet 11 inches and 180 pounds). Which brings in an interesting point—why should you read a test about a custom bike? The bike could ride beautifully for me and horribly for you; after all, it was built to fit my body and my riding style. In theory, you too could order a custom Seven built to fit your particular body and riding style. Since it is useless for me to ramble on about how a bike built for me might feel to you, I will instead focus on this question: Does Seven Cycles do a good job of building the bike you ask for? Can you really call them up long-distance and still manage to get the exact sizing and ride characteristics that you want?
Basing my judgment on the Sola I received, I’d have to answer yes. The Sola was precisely what I’d asked for. As a relatively heavy rider, I was looking for a bike that felt stiff at the bottom bracket, yet resilient while seated. “Stiff, yet resilient”: This is the much-acclaimed Holy Grail of steel hardtail attributes. This particular hardtail, however, comes about as close to hitting the target as any steel bike I’ve ridden to date. More impressive yet is that it manages all this without feeling whippy or unmanageable during all-out descents or out-of-the-saddle sprints.
There’s a price for everything, and in this case, the price is steep. There are good full-suspension bikes that cost as much as the Sola frame alone. If you’re looking for a bargain, this ain’t your pony. On the other hand, if you’ve got the cash, appreciate quality materials and workmanship, and you know exactly what you want from a hardtail, your search is over.
| Frame: | Seven Origin custom-blended double-butted steel |
|---|---|
| Suspension: | RockShox Duke SL |
| Wheels: | Shimano XT hubs, Mavic 517 Rims, IRC Mythos XC tires |
| Drivetrain: | Shimano XT |
| Sizes: | Completely custom sizing/geometry available |
| Weight: | 24lbs., 10.5oz. |
| Contact: | 617-923-7774 www.sevencycles.com |
Dirt Rag Magazine: Stuff – Really Tested Product Reviews
by Philip Keyes
On the newsstands now, the latest Dirt Rag explores Seven’s unique customization process, creating a one-of-a-kind steel Sola single-speed, complete with disk brakes and bottle opener. They were impressed by the bike and the company behind it. Read more.
Seven Cycles Sola
Need proof that singlespeeding has spread beyond the punk rock, working class recesses of bike culture? Seven Cycles is now offering a steel singlespeed frame for a cool $1495. Yeah, it’s a lot of cabbage, but what you’ll get is a high-drool bike that’s fully customized, has a beautiful ride, and could be the sweetest frame you’ll ever throw a leg over.
What drew me to the bike was Seven’s use of an eccentric bottom bracket that rotates in the shell to tension the chain, so that the rear dropouts remain vertical (and disc-friendly). As a side benefit, the bottom bracket height can be raised or lowered since the BB can be rotated up or down to tension the chain, changing the rider’s center of gravity on the bike.
What really intrigued me about the Sola was the company’s philosophy of customization. For the price of a high-end production bike, all Seven bikes are designed and produced with a specific customer in mind. Nothing is off the rack. Even “singlespeed” is just one the many options for the Sola. Another option could be 29″ wheels… or how about a 29″ wheeled singlespeed? The choice is yours.
Creating a Seven
Getting a Seven is more of a “creation” than a “purchase.” I began by filling out an 8-page questionnaire from their website that became the springboard from which the bike was designed. They wanted a full battery of body measurements, including some unique ones like your forearm length and shoulder width. I also had to describe and measure my current singlespeed, and comment on what I liked and disliked about it.
Everything’s custom: fit, geometry, and tube selection, accessories. I even chose the type of brake mounts, the cable routing, and number of water bottle mounts, paint color and decals. Then came the consultation with Seven.
These folks are hardcore bikers who realize that a rider’s relationship with his or her bike is unique and personal, and they talk in depth to their customers so they can determine what will work best for you. This is the essence of “mass customization,” but all for the same price.
The Sola uses the Origin tubeset, which uses a range of heat-treated and microalloyed tubes from Reynolds, Columbus, True Temper and Decacciai. Seven assembles the tubes in different configurations to achieve the chosen ride quality. Owner Rob Vandermark cut his design teeth with the S-bend stays, and the company creates them in-house using oversized non-tapered tubes for extra stiffness and lightweight.
Once I signed off on the design, I followed the production phases of my frame on Seven’s website by logging in with my personal password. The sense of anticipation was intense, and a few weeks later the bike was ready.
The Ride
When I first saw the bike, what caught my attention wasn’t the beautiful pearlescent white paint and black decals, the graceful lines, impeccable welds, gorgeous seat stays, or even the killer Vicious Cycles rigid fork—it was the bottle opener built into the junction of the seat tube and top tube. Whooo hoooo!
Once on the bike, I was impressed that all my desires and measurements had been used to create a bike that rode even better than I could imagine. The combination of perfect fit, dialed in geometry and custom tubing produces a ride quality that is hard to beat. The super-stiff drivetrain was perfect for out of the saddle honking, but it was still nice and supple in the rear end- a little comfort for my arse, since I was riding fully rigid.
The only design feature I didn’t like was the use of circular cable guides for the hydraulic lines, since they require brake disassembly to install. Seven assures me that they will have gone to an open design by the time you read this.
I’ve probably put in well over a thousand miles on the bike, and I’ve found that its steering is razor sharp but not twitchy. It climbs everything that I’ve got the legs for, and it’s a rocket descender as long as I’m careful about the line. Whether it was a two-hour hammer fest or a 5-hour epic, the Seven performed flawlessly.
The Parts
| Sola Frame: | $1,495 |
|---|---|
| As Tested: | $3,200 |
| Contact: | Seven Cycles 125 Walnut Street, Watertown, MA 02472 617.923.7774 www.sevencycles.com |
| Drivetrain: | Shimano XT |
| Sizes: | Completely custom sizing/geometry available |
| Weight: | 24lbs., 10.5oz. |
| Contact: | 617-923-7774 www.seevncycles.com |
I couldn’t go wrong with Vicious Cycles’ rigid disc fork. This slender steel fork with disc mounts is way cool and beautiful (in an evil looking sort of way). With its precise steering and zero travel, the fork is excellent for out-of-the-saddle hammering. The only drawback is that, like the test bike, the fork’s cable guides are eyelets that require brake disassembly to install.
The wheels are Mavic 317 disc rims woven to Spot Bike’s disc singlespeed hubs that are light and have buttery smooth cartridge bearings. Spot also produces the CNC’d black chainguard and 32-tooth chainwheel that mates nicely with the black Race Face Turbine LP cranks. The cranks are super stiff, and my only quibble is that they use old style bolts rather than the hex nuts, making on-trail tightening a hassle.
Easton’s Monkey Lite carbon handlebars help damp vibrations, which is important when running a zero travel fork. I’ve got no complaints about either the Thomson Elite stem or post, though I wasn’t keen on WTB Motoraptors since they tend to slide out fast in the comers.
The Hayes hydraulic disc brakes are secure stoppers, but they don’t have much modulation. After a series of bouts with rear brake chatter, Seven scored some oversized flange washers from Spot for the rear hub to stabilize the disc rotor.
Last Word
The Seven Sola SS is a dream bike, and while the price may keep it that way for some folk, you need to ask yourself: how important is riding to you? As Seven’s Jennifer Miller puts it: “A Seven is for someone who thinks life’s too short to compromise on the things that really matter.” Seven owners get a few perks as well: a quarterly newsletter, an owners’ website and an annual weekend gathering of the whole Seven tribe to make sure your relationship with your bike and the company lasts a lifetime.
Seven Cycles:
Following a dream
Seven Cycles was started in 1997 by the soft-spoken design guru, Rob Vandermark, and four other of his ex-Merlin compatriots. Together they shared a vision of being able to mass-produce fully customized bikes.
It may seem like a contradiction in terms, but “mass customization” is integral to Seven’s business plan. There is no batch production of stock sizes. Each frame is built separately one tube at a time, only when an order has been placed and the frame has a specific owner. A lot of thought went into Seven’s production methodology. For example, one employee’s full time job is “process improvement,” and he spends all his time working on the production schedule, improving the factory layout and fine tuning the tooling to streamline production. Another employee is solely responsible for calibrating all the machines needed to cut the myriad tubes. His goal: maximum efficiency and zero defects.
According to Seven’s Jennifer Miller, “the production process will never be a limiting factor in the number of custom bikes we build. Right now we build more custom bikes than any other manufacturer.”
Key to their success is the teamwork of all 33 Seven employees. “We have an open-book management style,” says Miller, “which allows employees to see how their actions and decisions affect the bottom line, and at the end of the quarter when we discuss profit, and the employees get a big check [from profit-sharing] they realize that everyone’s actions really do matter, and they take a real pride.”
While Seven is pushing into uncharted waters—even initiating employee stock ownership—the company was profitable after their first year, and they’ve been so consecutively for the last 46 months. Though they won’t discuss specific production numbers, they’ve had a 30% increase in sales since last year. And while their market is about 70% road frames, their recent licensing agreement of Paul Turner’s Maverick Monolink suspension design for Seven’s new Duo should create quite a stir.
“None of us are rich,” says Rob Vandermark, “but I enjoy the challenge of bringing custom bikes to people who otherwise might not afford them, as well as making a better bicycle.”