Location Friday: Seven || 7:25 am – 8:45 pm
- Press: The Ride Studio Cafe is in great company on Monday – in a overview of cafes that serve cold brew. Thanks Boston Eater for including the Studio on the list of good cafes!
- Product Testing: We just wrapped up the second frame test for the carbon surface testing project. This test went through without a hitch. We’re going to run the third frame design on Monday. I’m pretty confident that we’ll see good results on the next test. Assuming that works we’re then onto some paint system testing on carbon. That will take another few weeks. Slow and steady.
- Time Marker: Erica’s last day at the Ride Studio Cafe is today. That’s the sad part of the day. I’m hopeful we’ll see her out on her bike, though.
Oscar Jiminez is one of the de facto leaders of the Ride Studio Cafe Team. This photo shows one of the reasons.
Context: Witch’s Cup Criterium. Oscar got crashed out with only a few laps to go. Many riders would call it a day at that point – and probably head to the emergency room. Oscar decided to haul himself off the pavement, get back in the race, and show some folks how it’s done.
Sorry that Oscar went down. Glad to know that he’s okay and healing quickly. Go Oscar!
I love this image. Russ Campbell is responsible.
Location Thursday: Studio | Seven | Studio || 7:20 am – 8:05 pm
Preview of one of many 2013 images – get ready! | photo: Natasha Boltukhova
- Bike Review: Pamela Blalock tested a Seven Cycles Cafe Racer S fixed gear bike. Absolutely worth a read.
- Time Marker: Got a call from Chris Chance today. I haven’t talked with him in 14-years. I’ve always had a lot of respect for what he accomplished in the mountain bike industry back in entire decade of the ’80s. He did what very few people have ever done. I would term his relationship to the bike industry as complicated. He’s working on a Fat City event for September and was inviting me to participate.
- Product Design: John Bayley is racing Mount Washington on Saturday. He’s taking the specially modified Seven Cycles Axiom SLX again. It’s difficult to imagine he could have a better race than his last jaunt up the mountain, but I’m keeping my spokes crossed for him. “No pressure.” seems to be the common utterance.
Why do I now read all my spam? Not only because I find a lot of it funny; now I read it because I actually learned something today.
I’m embarrassed to say that I learned something interesting from the following spam note:
Utterly indited articles, thanks for selective information. “The earth was made round so we would not see too far down the road.” by Karen Blixen.
First, I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know who Karen Blixen was. Second, I liked the quote so I looked her up to see if she was fictional – again very embarrassed to find that she rocks, and I had no clue. I have to start reading works other than business books and military sci-fi.
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Pamela Blalock just wrote a fantastic review of a fixed gear Seven Cycles Cafe Racer S. This bike is unique in a number of interesting ways. She tells it a lot better than I ever could. Her overview is definitely worth a read.
A detail of the bike. Custom Seven Cycles Tiberius titanium handlebar with a bell | Photo: Pamela Blalock
Actually you probably won’t want to look at her post because you’ll want one of these bikes by the time you’re done reading. To get you started, here are a few snip-its from Pamela’s riding experience:
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Location Wednesday: Seven | Studio || 7:20 am – 9:25 pm
- Bike Review: Lovely Bicycle posted a Seven Cycles review today. As previously, Velouria speaks very nicely of Seven; I appreciate this. I can’t wait to see the comments. On second thought, yes I can.
- Business Thinking: about quality. Had a good discussion today about some production processes on which we’re working. One feature of Seven’s production system is that anyone in the company can decide that a product or service is not acceptable, and therefore it doesn’t go out to the customer. I’m sure a lot of companies have this type of policy but we take it pretty far. The conversation was about how to define the qualities that make a frame, a service, or anything we do at Seven to be defined as an acceptable representation of Seven. What is good enough? Part of what sparked the discussion was a common refrain that what was good last year is not good enough this year. Oh yeah, by the way, I hate the word “quality.” And yes, I use the word sometimes. More on that later. Maybe on that 25th hour.
The magnetic online cycling source Lovely Bicycle posted a review of Seven Cycles’ Axiom SL today. I feel very fortunately that Lovely Bicycle’s Velouria has written about Seven before:
Here are a few of Velouria’s latest thoughts about Seven:
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Location Tuesday: Seven | Studio || 7:40 am – 9:35 pm
- Recruiting: 5 Interviews today. We hired a framebuilder for Seven today! Yay; one person on board, and seven more to go. Maybe eight more; we discussed bringing in one more welder today, again; I think we’re going to do this – in part because we might have found the right person. Time will tell.
- Project x25: Seven Cycles is in a bit of preseason mode. We’re finalizing the 2013 programs, products, POP, and lots of other aspects that delineate the 2012 season from the 2013 season. It’s prbably 25 projects that we’re going to wrap up on the next week and a half. Piece of pie.
- Quote: “I’m behind on being behind.” – Rob V.
It’s always a lot more difficult to design a new design than one might think. Certainly a lot more difficult that I ever think. We started the winter shirt in August so that I’d be way ahead on the design, for once.
Update: of course I didn’t get the design completed before the winter started. Just barely late. First run expected from the printer in mid-January. We’re getting too many options:
- Hoodys in men’s and women’s one color each
- Long sleeve thermal in men’s and women’s one color each
- Short sleeve in men’s and women’s two colors each
Location Monday: Seven | Studio | Seven || 7:45 am – 10:05 pm
- Design: More progress on the Seven Cycles 2013 brochure. Project mission agreed upon. Put together a format that might work well. Skunk is already compiling a set of images and imagery. I’ve done a draft of messaging. We’ve got a second round list of people we’re asking for involvement from. Lists are too long. We’re in whittle down mode right now.
- Scheduling: The Ride Studio Cafe schedule is about to implode. Looking for four people to cover lots of hours. We’ve got a great list of likely candidates but final hiring can’t occur quickly enough. Ariela Rose is stepping up big time on the cafe side. Patria continues to find a way to work more hours every week. Not a good situation but help is on the way. Erica’s last week at the Studio.
