Going Long and Hard.
- Thread starter Steve Vai
- Start date
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Jeremy's bike left a big impression on me, it's definitely in the top 5 coolest bikes ever built IMO. Mike Yozell's Speedwagon is another in that list, it's the pink one in the new Bicycling Buyers Guide. Incredible build!!
Green is my favorite color so it's actually quite odd that it's taken me this long to do another green bike. I keep going with the blue/yellow thing because those are the High Gear team colors...
-Jim.
ArmyOfNone
Well-Known Member
Get your ass to work so we can here how it rides Mr Seven!
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
You mean like these?
I have a pair of 404's with green R45s for it already. This is set-up for Battenkill so it's got the tubie wheelset on it for now.
-Jim.
giff06
Well-Known Member
Oh Yeah! now thats what I'm talkin about!😀You mean like these?
I have a pair of 404's with green R45s for it already. This is set-up for Battenkill so it's got the tubie wheelset on it for now.
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
No hail here. Just some wind and light rain, perfect conditions for testing out a new bike. I also had to get it into the dirt on it's maiden voyage!!
On that, as expected, this thing is a dream to ride!! After maybe 20 minutes the bike just disappeared under me, like I've owned it for years. Flawless. Once again the boys at Seven have really come through in getting me a frame that exceeds all my expectations. You need to get on a custom bike to understand what it's like to ride something 100% built specifically for you, it'll make you replace your entire stable😀
In all seriousness, drilling this thing on the gravel roads brought a tear to my eye, it's THAT good a ride. Speechless son.
Just for Kevin...
MURDER!!
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
This is one of the steps that does take a little faith. When you order a frame from Seven, the guy that's designing your frame calls you to talk about what ride qualities, characteristics and how you'll use the bike. There's also a questionnaire that asks if you're a masher, or a stander, etc, etc...They take that info a design a bike just for you, as long as you're honest you'll get the right bike. Telling them you spend all your time in the dirt and then expecting your bike to go up Alpe D-Huez fast isn't gonna work. With any frame design there's a trade-off one way or the other. I've slid the scale towards ride quality and durability over weight. The biggest advantage of a custom bike is having your weight perfectly centered between the wheels, it makes it handle like nothing out there. Very rarely would a person get that from a stock bike. If you're shorter like me, it's impossible. In nearly 20 years of riding and working at a shop I've never sat on a stock bike and had it fit correctly. Anything stock under a 52cm is designed by a team of laywers, not a frame builder.
-Jim.
dhsean
Member
What if you raced DH for 10 years and consider yourself an aggressive sprint masher but in transition the past year to race cross and spent all Winter doing spin and climbing drills to smooth that out?
All I do know is I want a tight toptube, low bottom bracket and slack head angle. What happens between all that I have no idea. Being short at some point I'm sure I will go custom but think I'm still undecided about what I actually want. Maybe I'll just get 3 custom Sevens - that will solve the problem. 😀
All I do know is I want a tight toptube, low bottom bracket and slack head angle. What happens between all that I have no idea. Being short at some point I'm sure I will go custom but think I'm still undecided about what I actually want. Maybe I'll just get 3 custom Sevens - that will solve the problem. 😀
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Once you get one, the rest happens pretty fast😀
Pearl, this is butted bike, they don't do a straight-gauge.
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
For the stuff we do on the road it makes a lot of sense. If I were into the Nascar Roadie Crit thing I may go in another direction. For exploring backroads, dirt, and sitting on the bike for 6 hours, steel or ti comes into it's own. I never realized how stiff my SuperSix was until I only had my MudHoney. Now just riding around the lot on a SuperSix hurts😀
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I have green Deda tape that will match that perfectly of you want it!!
Hm. When was I here last? Friday? Fine. I rode to work in the snow? Did anyone catch the snow!!?? Crazy. Whatever. Day one one the new whip was in the rain and mud, day 2 was in the snow, perfect if you ask me.
Saturday
Sandy Hook TT. I decided to race in the fast guy class. WTF right? Might as well. At least I can get my booty kicked by the fastest guys around and get an idea of where I really stand. Plus chasing the fastest guys around is a great way to push yourself above and beyond. So I tell myself.
It's Sandy Hook so the wind is murder. 100mph sorta crossways. Just enough to screw you up both ways🙄
I warm-up on the road just to check the bike and get a feel for what the wind is doing and the road condition etc...Glue my number and throw the bike in the trainer for a proper warm-up. Sandy Hook is SHORT, 7 miles, so the effort will be VERY hard. Need to be primed. Sean stopped by to peep the scene. Hi Sean!!
PS-My warm-up kept getting interrupted as people stopped by to talk to me about my GTI. Note to self, drive wife's car next time!!
I did actually go through about 30 minutes of warm-up things that I do, took the bike off the trainer with about 15 minutes to start time and rode up and down the road again, one last pit stop at the car to strip and head over to staging.
There were only 9 of us in the unleaded class, so my chances of a top ten were good!! They line you up in order of last name and then the last 3 guys are in reverse order of last year's overall. In other words it was 5 guys, me, then the 3 fastest guys in the state behind me. FUCK. I asked Ken not to pass me too quickly. I was so nervous in the "start house" I forgot to reset my Garmin.
You get a countdown from 30 seconds and then the whistle. BAM!! I was in a little too tall a gear for the start so I had to manhandle the bike a bit to get up to speed and settle into the aero bars. After that it's pretty simple, bounce it off the rev limiter until the finish line!! After about 5 minutes I was pretty sure I was gonna black out and die, but I really didn't want to get caught so I pushed it HARD. After the turn-around was the first chance I got to peep the gaps. I was still about 20 seconds or so in front of the next guy so I just had to keep digging. The way back was faster but the wind kept pulling the bars and making the bike skit around a bit and I needed to back off so I didn't get killed. About 10 minutes in I think I was drooling on myself and my eyes turned inside-out, but I kept it buried. See the top-tube? It says SUFFER!! I suffered. You can't explain this effort without doing it. It's not a 20 minute interval, it's more like a finish line sprint for 20 minutes. I was well-above any effort I've ever done.
The reward? Well, I didn't get caught. Second, I did manage to beat someone in my class. I got 5th of of the 9 so, ok. I finished on the same minute as the 4 guys that beat me, and ran 7th fastest time overall out of the 200 or whatever people were there, so that's good. The top 7 guys were the only ones to break under 16 minutes so that felt ok. There's still a ton I need to get right to hit the podium though. Those few seconds don't come easy when you're racing against the fast guys and are already redlined. I need to refine the technique and work on sitting more steady on the bike. I think Anthony got a shot of me drooling. I was able to compose myself a bit by the finish where this was taken...
I didn't have the Garmin on too long and didn't separate the actual TT, but you can see where it was😀
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/76804507
-Jim.
Dusty the Whale
Mr.Chainsaw
plus 1 on that. I am a firm believer in that...my homies don't see it my way. Sunday will be a cat1 SS race for me (2nd cat1 ever) 1st race of the season. F that S I worked pretty hard since the new year and want to see where I stand vs the fastest guys around
More importantly, That pic is real cool and most of all NICE WORK on the TT son.