This is Seven Cycles’ first production heavy-duty carbon randonneur fork. We’ve designed many rando forks over the past few years – most of which have been steel. In fact, any randonneur fork on which we’ve provided rack mounts has definitely been steel. This is the first carbon fork we’re offering with rack mounts. Sounds simple enough. It’s not. And we’re including a lot of other feature firsts on a carbon rando fork.
Features and options include:
Medium reach brake to fit 33c tires – or bigger. Or fenders with 28c – or bigger
Front rack friendly. We’ve designed custom titanium low-rider rack mounts for this project.
Saturday location: Seven | Studio || 6:05 am – 7:40 pm + homework
Management: Worked on a long list of delinquent employee feedback sessions for Seven Cycles and Ride Studio Cafe. It’s amazing how I neglect the most fundamental aspect of work: connectedness with people. Or, at least, some aspects of that connectedness – formal feedback, for example. I am extremely fortunate that I work with such an amazing group of adults; it makes me not being an adult a lot easier.
Production: I was welding early this morning; making fender mounts. I love welding, but not so much at 6:15 in the morning – on short sleep.
Mentoring: I had a great meeting today with a group of MIT grads about a company they’re starting. Details of the project and products are still under wraps but it has to do with outdoor activity in a way I’ve not seen before. These three guys are smart, motivated, and bring a lot of energy to the room. I look forward to seeing how they proceed with this project. One of the interesting aspects – from a business standpoint – to me is that they’re creating a new space. I’m lucky that when we started Seven the bicycle space already existed for a few years. They have to not only create the product and start the business, they also have to create the space, market, and educate people. Very challenging. I’m glad to have been invited to work on this by Bob Mason. It is a project supported by Tech Stars.
Perfect preparation for a night ride. | Photo: Rob Vandermark
Thursday location: Seven | Studio 8:15 am – 4:50 pm + home work
Reality check: A visitor to Seven Cycles asked me about titanium supply today. I mentioned, sort of distractedly, that lead-time for titanium – order to delivery – is about 18-months. The person didn’t think I understood the question. He didn’t think that 18-months was possible; he expected an answer along the lines of, “a few weeks.” And it’d be equally impossible to run a business that way, particularly when every frame Seven builds is custom so material planning is really challenging. But, if you want to use titanium made in the U.S. only two mills make the material. And therefore, lead-time is often a year and a half. Long-range planning it is. nearly impossible and yet Jennifer M. does it flawlessly.
Product Design: Cyclocross fork design. Worked on a fender mount system today. Different from what I’ve seen before. I have high hopes. Integrated. Hidden. Simple.
A typcial ride for me: around in circles. | Photo: Rob Vandermark
Wednesday location: Seven || 8:10 am – 6:35 pm
Graphic Design: Poster Project for Seven Cycles is wrapping up. It got sidelined by Seven’s brochure project. Today Skunk re-shot one of the photos for the four poster set, and we’re going to print by the end of this week. The Mary and Mike poster were completed a while back – and M&M signed them all for us!
Note: “Operational effectiveness is not strategy.” – Michael Porter. So many people confuse quality with strategy, process improvement with strategy, application of technology with strategy. These are not strategy; they are necessary but not substitutes.
Management: As a manager, why do I spend more time with product than people? Not good. It used to be the other way around; I’d spend about 50-hours a week in people management and development. Now it’s about 25-hours on average. It was a slow transition but recently I’ve become hyper aware of that change. Why the change? I got very spoiled by how well most people with which I work do self management. This is a double edged sword. Self management with limited or no guidance or support is very dangerous. I obviously like to live dangerously.
Ride Event: We’ve got the Mary MeConneloug & Mike Broderick ride project mapped out. Still working on a few details. Going public with it later this week. This ride will be a different format than the Ride Studio Cafe has done before. We’re doing more mountain bike rides than ever but this one will be different.
Ride Project: Working on the Mary McConneloug ride with the Ride Studio Cafe. It’s going to be big. And fun. Did some scouting this evening. Good to be out in the dark for many hours again. The starless night is like an old friend.
Interview: More from an upcoming interview. The interviewer was surprised about how I discussed my time working in a bike shop. I worked for about eight years – through high-school and college – at a bike shop. It was a very formative time for lots of reasons. I learned much of how I think about retail interaction and sales from those eight years. I still try to apply much of it in my work at Seven Cycles and the Ride Studio Cafe.
Production Management: Today at Seven Cycles we had a helpful meeting about 622 production. This bike has been more popular that we originally projected and we’re working on ways of integrating the frame’s unusual design into production in a more seamless way. When it comes to fixturing and tooling I tend to lean toward low-cost fast implementation solutions for a lot of reasons – most of which don’t have anything to do with saving a dollar. It’s so easy to lean toward super elegant high-cost solutions. I do a lot of cost-benefit analysis; this is usually easier to perform than most people believe. One of the costs is cost of frustration. More later.
This is Seven Cycles’ first production heavy-duty carbon randonneur fork. We’ve designed many rando forks over the past few years – most of which have been steel. In fact, any randonneur fork on which we’ve provided rack mounts has definitely been steel. This is the first carbon fork we’re offering with rack mounts. Sounds simple enough. It’s not. And we’re including a lot of other feature firsts on a carbon rando fork.
