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Bike Project: Earth Day Limited Edition – Part III

Here’s the third installment in a series on Seven Cycles’ Earth Day Bike.  The other installments can be found here:

Part I:  Product details
Part II:  Fuel consumption and commuting by bike

In this third installment I describe some of the manufacturing processes we employ, and how they differ from Seven Cycles’ standard production methods.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, this information isn’t meant to be a “how to” series of posts; it’s not the way to build ecologically low impact bikes.  I’m simply sharing how we went about it—as more and more people have asked for details.  I’ve also learned that we have a lot of room for improvement for future Viridianesque projects.

Within the framework of this low ecoimpact bike project, we had a number of internal and external goals; here I’ll explain another of our primary internal goals:

Bike Project: Earth Day Limited Edition – Part II

Here’s a follow up to the Seven Cycles Earth Day post from a few days ago—part one is here.  I mentioned I would explain some of the internal business processes and manufacturing thinking that we employed on this Viridianesque project, and how it’s affected my thinking about frame building in general.

I’ll preface the details by clarifying that this information isn’t meant to be a “how to” series of posts.  I’m not suggesting that this is the way to build ecologically low impact bikes, or that what Seven is doing on this project is the right way, or the best way.  I’m simply sharing how we went about it—as a number of people have asked for details. 

Minimizing Seven’s Ecological Footprint

For this project we evaluated more than just carbon emissions—a popular topic right now.  I have a lot to learn about designing and building low impact products, but I’ve been involved in enough sustainability projects to know that reducing carbon emissions is only a piece of the puzzle.  So, we made an effort to view the entire process of bike building from cradle-to-cradle—with an emphasis on the steps over which we have the most control.

Tiberius Bar Spotted In the Wild

I saw the first Seven Cycles custom Tiberius bar in the wild the other night. 

This specific Tiberius bar is cool because the rider asked us to make it perfect for serious city and high traffic commuting—pretty much what we have every day in the Boston area. 

It’s perfect for traffic riding for a few reasons:

Commuter Bike Custom Rear Pannier Rack

That’s a mouthful.  Let’s throw ‘stainless steel’ in there, too.

Here’s the latest on Seven Cycles’ ongoing custom commuter bike project.  The bike is still not ‘studio’ ready; we have a few items left to go, including:

• Painting the frame:  sacrilege on a commuter bike, I know.  However, I think we’ve come up with a pretty good commuter-tolerant scheme.  And it will work well with the fender scheme on my Café Racer.  We’ll see…
• Updating the decal system:  I think the ‘blast’ decals look great in the photos.  However, not so perfect in person.  We’ve already come up with a better way to blast them and I will update my bike soon.
• Chain ring protector:  this has not arrived yet and it sort of integrates with our custom chain guard.

Once those items are complete, I’ll post bigger bike pictures.  In the meantime, onward to the rear rack system—with photos…

Commuter Bike: Cafe Racer - Part IV

This is part IV in an ongoing series about Seven Cycles' custom commuter bikes.

Finally, got my Seven Cycles Parcours commuter bike rolling—I’ve named it the Café Racer.  I took it on its maiden voyage this morning.  Very nice, and very much a café racer.  I love café racer motorcycles and you will see that this bike has a look similar to motorcycles of that era; hence, the name.

We’re still finishing some details of the bike so I’m not posting full bike photos yet.  I will in a few days.  In the meantime, here are some detail shots of the bike, highlighting some of the ways in which it is different from any other Seven we’ve built.  And, all of these features are available on any Seven!

Bicycles Represent

Not long ago, the second issue of Embrocation hit the newsstands.  If you can get your hands on one, do it.  Competitive Cyclist is an online source for the magazine.

In issue number two Jen Park, a very good friend of mine and Seven’s, wrote a piece.  She talked about all the bikes she's had in her life.  She writes, “Each bicycle represents a certain period in my life.”  I’m sure a lot of people can relate.

Commuter Project Bike – Part III

See Part I and Part II if you missed them, or care.

Here’s the sorry excuse for a commuter bike I have right now—no fenders, hack light set up, tires that are not ideal on the ruined roads of Boston.  I’m hoping this will be my last week of commuting on this beauty.  It is one of my favorite bikes; it is actually the first Alta—now called the Aerios—Seven Cycles ever built.  It’s the original prototype from seven years ago, still performing well after many miles.

The reason I’m retiring the Aerios prototype from commuting is because Seven’s first Parcours commuter model—one of our three commuter specific models—is going into production tomorrow morning--coincidentally in my size.  I expect that the frame will be completed by the end of the day Friday.  That will give me the weekend to get it built up.  The real challenge is getting the modified fenders and custom racks completed by Friday…

Stef—who designed my bike—called it the ‘Ultra Versatile’.  I’m calling it ‘U.V. Ray’ for short—because the bike will get me outside once in a while.  Regardless of my aversion to sunlight, I agree, this bike will be very versatile.  I think we covered all the bases, a few of which include:

Tiberius Handlebar

We got our new custom titanium handlebar into production today.  We originally designed it for our commuter bike line but we already have interest for mountain bike and tandem applications, too.

 

It's, by far, the most customizable handlebar available.  We customize it in 5 different ways:

Commuter Bike Projects

We’ve been working on an interesting commuter bike project at Seven Cycles—it’s actually a long series of projects.  Of course most main stream bike companies are now offering a commuter specific model or two.  Not many companies of Seven’s size or market focus are getting into the commuter fray, yet. 

Commuters are particularly interesting to Seven for a number of reasons, including:

• The vast majority of Seven Cycles employees—over 80%--seriously commute by bike every day
• The vast majority of our employees are very serious about sustainability and about caring for the environment
• It’s an interesting project, and we love interesting projects
• Seven’s manufacturing methodology is particularly well suited to the challenges of commuter bikes

That fourth point is the one that our retailers are having trouble getting their heads around.  Understandably, our retailers and many customers are looking for a really clear definition from Seven for our commuter bike line. 

Missing the Target

As I was watching the Red Sox eke out another win a few nights ago, this commercial came on the tellie…

A Target commercial that features a guy on a bike.

At first I thought, “That’s nice; Target is promoting commuting by bike.  That’s a really good thing.”  Before I could complete that thought, the next frame showed…