Chainstays account for about 50% of a drivetrain’s stiffness.\u00a0 The rest of the stiffness comes from a combination of:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Dropouts & axle interface:\u00a0 Seven’s are machined titanium and the stiffest by about 3x compared to any others we’ve tested — titanium or carbon.<\/li>\n
- Disc brake mount:\u00a0 Seven’s is bolted to the dropout rather than being welded to a thin tube or a molded carbon shape.<\/li>\n
- Bottom bracket shell:\u00a0 Seven’s is machined from the thickest material available.<\/li>\n
- Down tube & seat tube:\u00a0 We use a number of tube sizes and walls to tailor drivetrain stiffness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
See Figure 1 for more details.<\/p>\n
Next, we turn these parts into a frame.\u00a0 Riders choose either of our framebuilding methods:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Seven Simple-Custom<\/strong>TM<\/sup> program, where we offer three tubesets that are both size-specific and usage-specific.<\/li>\n
- Seven’s full custom<\/strong> program, where we individually design the tubeset from the ground up.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Simple-Custom<\/h3>\n
We offer three levels of frame stiffness.\u00a0 See figure 1 for an example of the differences and overall range of stiffness.<\/p>\n
- \n
- RocketShip<\/strong>TM<\/sup> tubeset is super stiff.\u00a0 Typically about 25% stiffer than our Benchmark drivetrain.\u00a0 As much as 70% stiffer for our largest frames.\u00a0 This is a specialty tubeset that is not ideal for every rider.<\/li>\n
- Benchmark<\/strong> tubeset is the sweet spot; it’s balanced and optimized for most riders.\u00a0 For example, all of our world champions have ridden our Benchmark tubesets.<\/li>\n
- SuppleState<\/strong>TM<\/sup> tubeset is super smooth and plush.\u00a0 This is a specialty tubeset for specific types of riding.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Specificity<\/h5>\n
Each tubeset is size-specific and function-specific.<\/p>\n
Size-specific<\/strong>:\u00a0 We typically offer 12 frame sizes for each Simple-Custom design.\u00a0 Each of these 12 has a distinct and different tubeset from the other 11 sizes.<\/p>\n
Use-specific<\/strong>:\u00a0 We have over 30 Simple-Custom frame designs (gravel, allroads, mountain, bikepacking, etc.).\u00a0 Each of these models has a distinct tubeset we optimize for the use.\u00a0 For example, an allroads benefits from a different tubeset than a gravel bike.<\/p>\n
20-Plus Titanium Tube Sizes<\/h5>\n
We start each design with a choice of more than 20 raw tubes or starter stock.\u00a0 From there, we butt, machine, manipulate, modify, and bend each tube to optimize it for its mission.\u00a0 See Figure 2 for an image of 23 distinct tube profiles.<\/p>\n
Full Custom<\/h3>\n
Concerning drivetrains, in our full custom program, we can make drivetrains over 250% stiffer than our popular Benchmark.\u00a0 While that kind of stiffness is not beneficial to most riders, it provides a good illustration of how extreme our full custom program can get.<\/p>\n
Figure 3 shows how stiff the chainstay material can get, 155% stiffer than our Benchmark.\u00a0 Once we add in all the drivetrain elements (dropouts, bottom bracket, etc.), we can nearly double that stiffness.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/seven-dtrivetrain-stiffness-range-45-819x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Figure 1: Overall drivetrain stiffness of Seven\u2019s Simple-Custom tubesets.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/seven-23-tube-sizes-819x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Figure 2: An example of 23 distinct starter stock sizes of titanium that Seven uses daily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/208-seven-chainstay-tube-stiffness-45-819x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Figure 3: Raw stiffness of Seven’s titanium tubing range. Compared to the industry’s most popular 3\/4″ titanium chainstays.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seven takes multiple design approaches to drivetrain engineering.\u00a0 Here are a few examples. There is\u00a0chainstay\u00a0stiffness and\u00a0drivetrain\u00a0stiffness. Both are useful to understand and to consider\u00a0separately. Chainstays account for about 50% of a drivetrain’s stiffness.\u00a0 The rest of the stiffness comes from a combination of: Dropouts & axle interface:\u00a0 Seven’s are machined titanium and the stiffest by … Continue reading “Chainstay Material: Off The Charts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17193"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17214,"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17193\/revisions\/17214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Benchmark<\/strong> tubeset is the sweet spot; it’s balanced and optimized for most riders.\u00a0 For example, all of our world champions have ridden our Benchmark tubesets.<\/li>\n
- Seven’s full custom<\/strong> program, where we individually design the tubeset from the ground up.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
- Seven Simple-Custom<\/strong>TM<\/sup> program, where we offer three tubesets that are both size-specific and usage-specific.<\/li>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sevencycles.com\/7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/seven-dtrivetrain-stiffness-range-45.jpg\")
<\/a>