Saturday location: Studio | Retailer Event in Connecticut || 6:40 am – 7:20 pm
From left to right profiles: Ben Serotta, Paul Levine, Bob Parlee, and Nick.
I’m the one taking the photo. Honest, I was there.
I – and John L. and Karl B. of Seven Cycles – were at Signature Cycles‘ “Meet the Makers” event today. It
The “Makers” were Bob Parlee of Parlee Cycles, Ben Serotta of Serotta Cycles, Nick of Guru Bicycles, and me. Paul Levine of Signature hosted some prepared questions and then opened up the floor for questions. People asked some great questions. And I heard some interesting answers. Maybe I’ll try to write down some of my recollections. Someone was filming the event but I doubt it’ll end up online.
It’s always good to see Bob Parlee; he’s honest and unfiltered. Ben always has interesting stories. This was the first time I’d met Nick of Guru; he was a really nice guy, smart, and did well sitting next to Ben Serotta and Bob Parlee.
The drive out and back was the best part because I got to listen to great music and talk about some seminal groups from my youth. I was feeling a bit old. Maybe it’s just the lack of sleep.
Friday location: Seven | Studio || 7:55 am – 12:20 am the next morning
- Event: Tomorrow is Signature Cycles’ Meet the Makers event. I’m wiped out so it’s going to be an interesting time.
- Meeting: I met with one of the oldest consultants with which I still work. It was a great meeting in which we focused on the ways in which I destroy Seven. It’s a long list so it was a long lunch. I want to write out some fo the destructive methods I use. They are very useful; if you want to destroy value.
- Ride Project: I worked on some of the parameters for the Highpoint Ride today. It’s interesting because I’ve not really seen a ride like this before so we’ve got to figure out some stuff that doesn’t really have a template from which to plagiarize.
- Words: The Honey Bikes blog is up and rolling. Thanks to Chip Baker for being so prolific with the great words. I certainly can’t keep up.
- Time Marker: Another long day’s slide into night.
Post title: “When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.” ― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
Thursday location: Seven | 7:40 am – 9:35 pm
- Way-Back Machine: Competitive Cyclist dug up something about which I forgot.
- Product Development: Had a meeting today with A.C. about an important Seven Cycles project today. I’ll code-name it “Trail Trial” for now. It’s going to take a month or so before this project becomes public. Once it’s public we’ll be tracking it on a daily basis. It’s going to be a bit of a mini Velvet project. And the person with which I’m working rocks at writing and documenting so this will be fun for a lot of reasons. More to come.
- Power Management: Three lights. Two Garmins. Two taillights. One backup power suppler Four hours in the dark. Night scouting is digital: the best ride or the worst. I’ve been blessed by having the best over and over again.
- Observation: Warning: rant coming. High speed wobble in a bicycle is something that pretty much everyone I’ve heard – that thinks they understand it – does not. It’s tedious to have the same conversation over and over with people that really don’t have much experience with it. I’ve been involved in building well over 60,000 hand-made bikes; more than 25,000 of these have been 100% customized. So, I – and Seven – actually have a very rare skill set when it comes to understanding bicycle dynamics and what makes them work – and not work. Seven knows how to troubleshoot high-speed wobble. And, surprise, surprise, it’s very rarely got anything to do with frame stiffness. For some reason a lot of people think this is the cause; it’s not. About 95% of the time it’s a component issue. 2.5% of the time it’s frameset alignment. About 2.47% of the time it’s rider position. And maybe 0.03% of the time it’s frame stiffness. Okay, I’m over it now. No more complaining. Back to work.
Post title: Me
For years I used a Blackberry phone. A number of Blackberry phones.
Competitive Cyclist’s most recent, “What’s New” dug up a Blackberry ad that I was in, back in 2006.
Anyone that’s been interviewed in a magazine before will know how quotes are often not real. This is one of those cases. I doubt anyone has ever heard me use the term, “world-class” in the same sentence as “Seven Cycles.”
Wednesday location: Seven | 7:50 am – 9:20 pm
- Product Development: Working on today’s version of a Pressfit 30 bottom bracket system: the 79 mm width. Not enjoying this. I think I have “BB Variant Fatigue.” I think that’s a thing.
- Product Development: The Cross is Boss Honey Bike project is just about ready. Which is good because we’ve already started on the next Honey project.
- Product Development: Honey Dirty Endurance Project. Aptly named because I need more endurance to keep up with the growing list of work. And my lack of showering is making me dirtier. The Endurance project is something different than I’ve seen before. Three bikes to approach dirt endurance from three very different angles.
- Product Development: Seven’s been working on our 142 x 12 rear mountain dropout system to work with the latest axle system. Standard of the moment. Oh, did that moment pass yet?
- Social: Honey Bikes now has a Facebook page. Too much happening with Honey to not Faceboot it. I’m sure we’ve joined the F-boot just as it’s jumping the shark.
Post title: Chip Baker and his Ronde Slayer writing.
Tuesday location: Seven | Scouting || 1:20 pm – 7:25 pm
- Product Design: Wrapped up designs on the summer cycling caps for Ride Studio Cafe. I’m liking the designs. The first one has arrived; the second design will be in soon.
- Product Design: Made some revisions to one of Seven’s bottom bracket systems. We’re looking ahead about five years and wanting to keep this one system relevant to the future. So mysterious.
- Ride Project: Highpoint is public now. One year in the making. In another year it might be ready. Actually we’re doing it in June.
- Product Development: Working on Seven’s titanium seatpost 1.5; titanium supply issues are making me reevaluate our current designs.
- Engineering: Working on the newest round of titanium fatigue testing. At some point – when I have time – I want to post the results, somehow.
Post title: Me, in reference to talking about a cafe for which I had high hopes – and that’s nine-miles out of the way from the scouting route.
Monday location: Seven | 8:10 am – 8:40 pm
- Ride Project: The Highpoint Ride is picking up steam. We’ve got pretty much the entire event mapped out. 300 miles, two days, 50 riders, 20 food stops. The perfect sunset and sunrise. More to come! I’ve been doing a lot of scouting prep; of course Pamela Blalock has mapped out 90% of the 300-mile route already. Now we’re looking for the ideal rest stops.
- Words: Chip writes some impressive words about his new Honey Cross Bike: The Ronde Slayer.
- Time Marker: So many orders right now; not able to keep up. Sliding behind.
Post title: “It’s a different kind of open ecosystem.”
Chip Baker put some thoughts into words about his new Honey Cyclocross bike.
“When you are totally suffering and you look down at the bike it is impossible to not get a smile on your face.
“I can’t even wait to race it next Fall. For now I will have to be happy riding in the woods and taking it on nice dirt roads. We have been talking about D2R2 like we always do, but this bike may be what finally gets me there. […]
“In any other situation [with a new bike] I would have been freaking out. But I trust my friends. [Honey is] so PRO its not even funny. I left it all to them. That am […] I pulled it out of the van hopped on and voila. Perfect. I took two laps up and down Washington Street just to see how it felt. Felt like a bike I have been riding for years! […]
“Felt like home. The bike had soul. Why mince words. That is very important to me. And filled me with total confidence. The Ronde chews up bikes, parts and riders. We passed so many riders that day with sheared off derailleurs, broken chains, broken bodies from crashes. […]
[click to continue…]
Sunday location: Studio | 5:30 am – 7:10 pm
Opened the Ride Studio Cafe early – 6:00 am – for a fundraiser ride this morning. And then two good sized rides later. Studio Endurance ride was a bit too big. So, four big rides today. The shape of things to come.
Saturday location: Seven | Studio || 6:20 am – 7:35 pm
