TBT – Seven Cycles

19th Anniversary #tbt

We just realized that we opened our doors 19 years ago today. That first year, we crawled all over each other in a 1000sf space that had machines, builders, desks, phones and computers packed into it tighter than a Russian nesting doll. Then we moved into our current space, much larger. We had a party (and an indoor race) before we hauled all the lathes and mills in. Here is a snap from those heady times. We were young and (almost) carefree, at least when racing around the shop floor wearing a chimp mask and a Santa hat.

#TBT

For our tenth anniversary, we built some commemorative bikes. They had special paint schemes, special seat tube collars and special, laser cut headbadges, like the one above, which we found this week under one of the desks in the office, like a doubloon from a Spanish galleon washing up on a Florida beach.

#TBT

Again, our own Skip Brown, circa 1991, racing for Merlin Metal Works at Temple Mountain in New Hampshire. The photographer is Jim Paiva, a local BMX legend turned newspaper photographer. We love the look on Skip’s face, the sleeveless “jersey,” and the quads of steel. We can’t be sure, but we think Skip won this race.

#TBT – Thanksgiving

Max, Kirk, Mike, Stef and Tim circa 2001, a welding dream team. Today we are grateful for all the Seveneers, past and present, who made us what we are. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

#TBT

Here is our own Skip Brown, just after a top-ten finish at a World Cup race at the Georgia International Horse Park in 1997, the year after this same course served the Atlanta Olympics. Skip and Matt O drove down from Boston in the Seven van, raced and drove home. For a while there was an annual 24 hour race on the course (24 Hours of Conyers). It also featured in the documentary 24 Solo. Skip rode a double-butted Ti Sola that day, a very early iteration of the bike we are still making today. A few years later, we would get to watch Mary McConneloug ride another bike in this line at both the Beijing and Athens Olympics. Some of THAT history is captured in the documentary Off Road to Athens, well worth a watch.