Bike Project: Earth Day Limited Edition

Recently we completed a Seven Cycles limited edition bike design that was a bit different from our previous limited editions.  This project was different because it turned out—for me—to be more about the process than about the product.  Normally we don’t discuss process with the public; mainly because it seems that most people are a lot more interested in the finished product, rather than the process—or how a project comes to fruition.

The recent limited edition I’m referring to is Seven’s Earth Day bike.  I call it our Viridian model.  I’m a bit of a Viridian.  Even though, technically, the movement is officially dead—as stated by its founder—I still find it worthwhile.

Anyway, why did the process overwhelm the project?  I think that the product—the bike—is actually really cool--I'm jealous of those that will own one.  If you’re interested, you can read a bit about the bike on our site.  The process, however, has had a lasting impact on the way I now think about building bikes. 

Our list of directives for this Viridian project was simple:  build a completely custom Seven that takes reducing our impact on the environment farther than we have before; our list of design directives included:  lower energy use, higher sustainability, more durability, lower environmental impact, reducing resources, reusing materials, and supporting brands that support these types of directives.

Of course, we made tradeoffs along the way; these directives helped us decide the right tradeoffs at the time.  Here are a few examples of how we approached the process, along with some of the tradeoffs we made.

Packaging

We’ve always focused on recycle-abilty of our shipping materials.  I’ll post about that at some point…  On this project we tried to push packing materials and shipping father than we previously had.  What we arrived at is 99% of the packaging value is coming from reused materials—almost no new materials.  The only new material is packing tape; it is a bit difficult to reuse tape—although I honestly looked at that as a possibility--it jsut doesn't stick all that well.  However, we settled on reducing the amount of tape; for example, we’re trying to use compression and friction interfaces wherever possible.  Every other material—from the box to the packing material—is all reused.

Fuel Consumption

One of our primary fuel consumption controls was a focus on having the components of the bike travel the shortest possible distance; this essentially meant sourcing parts made in the United States.  And then, having those parts travel by truck rather than plane.

U.S. Sourced

This directive was a lot more difficult than we expected.  We wanted to minimize the transportation fuel cost for every part of the bike.  So, we thought that a good place to start was sourcing every part we could from within the US.  Well, that didn’t work out as well as we’d hoped.  As most people know, the list of US made bike parts is very short.  Here is the list of US partners we are working with on this project:

• Chris King for headset and wheels
• Carbon Drive for belt, front, and rear cogs
• Sykes bamboo fenders
• A front Zero Gravity Brake
• A Paul’s brake lever
• We couldn’t find a US made crank so we moved to Canada for this, with RaceFace.  Certainly not a compromise.  I hear that Canada is the new United States anyway.

The only parts we couldn’t source from North America were:  tires, rims, pedals, saddle, and grips.  These parts account for about 7% of the overall value of the bike.  So, about 93% of the bike’s value comes from North American made parts.  I think that’s pretty great for a first effort.

If we couldn’t source a part from the US or Canada, we next focused on sustainability, durability, and some of the other directives mentioned above.  On these parts we made some trade-offs.

The part that I’m most disappointed about—because we couldn’t find a part that met any our criteria—was the saddle.  No one that I know of makes a saddle in the US.  Again, please correct me if I’m wrong.  Next, no one seems particularly focused on sustainability or low impact.  Leather’s not a low impact choice, in my book.  So, we’re left with lots of synthetics that aren’t all that environmentally conscious—as far as we could determine.

The part that we had the most indecision about was inner tubes.  We went tubeless to try to cut down on replacement parts and petroleum products.  I have mixed feelings about the tradeoff between tubes and ‘no tube’ solutions.  We will do more work on determining the cradle-to-cradle cost of these two options.  In the limited research we did, we came down on the side of tubeless.

The part that we took the simple route for the bike owner was on the grips; we could have gone US—basically made in-house at Seven—but we decided that cork wrap would work well, be reasonably durable, and at least marginally comfortable.

The part where we took the easy route was on the rims.  We looked at wood rims but had too many questions for this first Viridian effort.  We also couldn’t find a source in the United States.  We’re doing more work with rims and we might add this to the bike.

I’m sure there are some US manufacturers that we missed; I’d love to hear from those that could offer partnerships for this project.

Ground, Air, & Water

We are having every part and material—that we can reasonably control—shipped via ground shipping—truck.  No air if we can avoid it.  Clever folks will know that shipping by boat is actually significantly more fuel efficient than truck.  So, those clever folks might also know that we could have sourced a few parts from the UK, for example.  However, in doing the math, there’s still a lot of ground covered before and after the pond; so, we decided, on this first Viridian project, to stick with US and contiguous land.  Maybe next time we’ll do everything by boat…

This post is getting a bit long.  Next time I’ll post about Seven’s electricity use and carbon footprint.  These are parts of the bike over which we have the most control; and, to me, these are the most interesting parts—and the areas in which we learned the most about Seven and our manufacturing future.  Stay tuned.

Let the complaints begin.

Comments

[Pete LaVerghetta]

I thought Selle An-Atomica saddles are made in WI?

http://www.selleanatomica.com/

[jason]

It's nice to have you back...must be super busy in Watertown these days!

[Ruth]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Ruth

http://fendisite.com

[Rob Vandermark]

Jason: work has been way too busy--always seems to be the case. It's good to be blogging again; somewhat therapeutic. Thanks for continuing to check in.

[Rob Vandermark]

Pete: Thanks for the heads up about Selle An-Atomica. I neglected to mention them. We were trying to avoid leather if possible but you are absolutely right that they are making saddles in WI. Thanks for reading.

[Rob Vandermark]

Ruth: Thanks for reading. Best of luck with your blog. I hope you check back on 25Seven once in a while. I will check your's, too.

[Matthew Pronovost]

Rob,
I think White Industries cranks are made in the U.S.
Matty P.

[steve]

So are you still selling the earthday bikes? Are their any more...larger pictures of it anywhere I can view. Nice bike. What gearing is the belt drive? 55 x 22