Tomorrow Is Already Yesterday

7:20 am – 8:35 pm || Seven | Studio | Seven

Complaint: Too much commuting today.
Quote: Tom Kellogg compliments Seven Cycles: “we began working with Seven, delivery times improved significantly in both speed and consistency. Of course, Seven has always been known for their efficiency and organization along with their building skills. Wonderful.”
Product Design: Low Mount dropout. This project has gone on way too long – all because of me. It’s actually way more complicated than anyone wants to think about. We’ve got two competing designs: one that’s a single piece design and one that’s a two piece design. Both have benefits for the rider and both have downsides for our framebuilders.
Design: 2013 brochure is in full swing. I’ve been getting a few printing quotes; our current printer did a great job so we’re likely to continue with them. We’re thinking about printing it in a different way – part of the departure from the past; that’s the main reason for getting quotes so early. An important part of the brochure – more important than past years – are the inserts and how we approach them. They are playing a more important role than ever before. And well worth it.

Sergio Cittolin: Elements of CMS Detector

June 7, 2012

in Ephemera, Humor

I have no information about this and I cannot find the original place I saw these sketches. These are drawings by Sergio Cittolin, in the style of Leonardo da Vinci, of the CERN Large Hadron Colider. Cittolin is clearly a scientist or, at least, a science writer. He’s written at least 335 papers about CERN.

That’s all I got.

Something about these images and the idea of drawings being used to build the Hadron was compelling.

Journal: A Truly Versatile Machine

June 7, 2012

9:10 am – 8:50 pm || Seven | Studio

Time Marker: Dentist appointment this morning.
Business: Meeting about brand building vs. private label. Price-point vs. brand position. What’s right for retailer vs. what’s right for rider? I think all of these apparent conflicts can be synchronous. We do it at Seven Cycles all the time. While there may be tension between these ideas, they can be very compatible. Tension is a prerequisite for compatibility. Finding the areas of shear are the opportunities for strength.
Press: Just read Pamela Blalock’s review of her and John’s new Seven Cycles tandem. It’s about as positive a review as one could read. I hope it’s all true. A great way to start the day today.

Review: Seven Tandem Review

June 7, 2012

in Bikes, Press, Review - Bike

The Blayleys’ Seven Cycles Tandem | Photo: The Blayleys

Pamela Blalock wrote a rather amazing piece about her and her husband’s new Seven Cycles tandem. Here are some words.

[Wait for it… a few quotes while waiting]

We’ve been tandeming for a long time, and really did not expect this bike to feel so different. […] Now don’t get me wrong, our current tandems are great on the climbs, at speed and descending, but the Seven just seemed to be a notch above.

The result was fabulous. […] the first real ride consisted of 90 miles with 9000′ of climbing on roughly 70% dirt roads in Vermont’s wonderful Northeast Kingdom. And what a ride it was! The numbers, impressive though they may be, don’t convey the steepness of the climbs or the technical nature of the descents with holes appearing at the last second before a hairpin bend. However, the tandem didn’t just take all the above in its stride, it gobbled it up effortlessly […] the descending was so stable and confidence inspiring.

Venus Crosses the Sun

June 7, 2012

in Curated, Ephemera, Interesting

Thinking.

Source.

Project: Floor Plan 2.0 at Ride Studio Cafe

June 6, 2012

in Coffee, Design, Present - Meaning Today

This is actually a lot of projects all rolled into one ongoing series of alterations. Here are the Ride Studio Cafe projects for the second half of 2012:

Dedicated bike display: We’re re-purposed one of the cabinets to create an area that highlights one discipline in riding every couple of months. So far we’ve presented: randoneuring and cyclocross.
Cafe MenusRedesign the
Bike fitting area: Redesigned to:
- Improve the fitter’s line of sight
- Provide more space for fitter and client
- Better seating
- More room, and better space, to discuss components
- Cleaner more minimalist design – better shelving
- Wall-mount mirrors
- Improve bike and wheel storage capacity while improving overall presentation to the client
Redesign the bike mechanic area
Redesign the service bike storeage area

Rapha Gentlemen’s Race New England 2012

June 6, 2012

in Rides

The 2012 Rapha NE Gentlemen’s Race is complete. A great time was had by all of the people I know that participated in the ride. Here is a story from the Rapha site written by Ride Studio Cafe Team member Joy Stark. It’s a great account – better than any words I could put together.

Rapha also put together a short film. Makes me want to ride.

It was a challenging ride for many reasons. One challenge that had a huge impact on the results was weather. There was so much rain and thunder and lightning that many teams were redirected – and therefore did not completed the course. Of the 27 teams that started the ride only 12 completed the course. I’m gratified that the Ride Studio Cafe Racers took 7th place out of the original 27 teams. The final results are:

Journal: Eating Dust

June 6, 2012

7:50 am – 10:10 pm || Seven

Matt Roy and Dave Wilcox on a Green Mountain Double Century climb | Photo: Natasha Boltukhova

Project: Made good progress on the private label CFG-bike project today. I think we’ve got a great design in two configurations. Prototyping will begin in the next week.
Bike Design: Got the second phase of Matt Roy’s new rando bike completed. Still a long way to go. The first race is next weekend at the Green Mountain Double Century. I’m not thinking we’re going to make it.
Design: We’re getting the Seven Cycles poster project wrapped up. A series of four posters. Skunk is rocking the design. John L. is writing the text. Multiple photographers; the one of Mary and mike was taken by ? I’ll post each poster separately.

Product Design: Chainstays

June 5, 2012

in Bike Design, Engineering

Chainstay design at Seven Cycles is an ever evolving process. There is never any endpoint; once a stay is “designed” it changes as bicycle components and accessories evolve.

Update | October 24, 2012 | Worked some on Seven Cycles’ chainstay spreadsheet dummy today. To prove the new decision-tree methodology for choosing, and designing, the optimal chainstay for any component configuration.

Here’s an example of what goes into designing a chainstay: Chainstay designs for mountain bikes. I’m certain we’ve got 10 times more designs than we had two three years ago. We’ve got way too many options happening. It’s what Seven Cycles does as a custom framebuilder. Here is some of the craziness that affect chainstay design. Of course all of these aspects interact so in combination if feels almost infinite in complexity:

Wheel diameter: 29er, 700c, 650b, 650c, 26″, 24″
Tire width: Anywhere from 20c up to 2.5″ tire – and everything in between. We’ve even built a couple snow bikes but I don’t think we’ll be doing that again.
Tire profile: slick, file tread, knobby, how knobby? Of course, one company’s 38c measures 38c, another company may measure 35c or 42c. No ture standard, in my view.
Drivetrain type: Belt or chain?
Number of chainrings: three, two, one, blast off.
Gear inches: What size front rings? A few teeth difference alters the shape and clearance of the stays.
Chain-line: road vs. mountain vs. belt drive vs. triple vs. my patience
Gear mech: Single, internal, or classic. Additional detail issues with single and internal because of the belt or chain tension method.
Chainstay length: Most people want the shortest setup possible. Actually, about an inch shorter than possible. Not necessarily for the right reasons.
Other frame geometry elements: Primarily seat tube angle and bottom bracket drop.
Bike handling: Chain stay length affects weight distribution over the wheels.
Bottom bracket type: 68 mm threaded, eccentric, BB30, etc.
Brake system: Disc, drum, or other?
Drivetrain rigidity: This is tubeset choice: Tube diameter affects design, clearances, and possibilities.
Accessories: Fenders, chain guard, foot size, cleat set up, and more.

A quick sketch for a 29er belt drive stay. All production drawings are in SolidWorks.

Project work in reverse:

October 24 | Worked some on Seven Cycles’ chainstay spreadsheet dummy today. To prove the new decision-tree methodology for choosing, and designing, the optimal chainstay for any component configuration.

October 22 | Made some progress on the chainstay decision tree program. Looking forward to beta testing this next week. Maybe this week. I’m going to pass this off to Neil to clean up once I’ve got the proof of concept completed.

October 19 | Working on a new chainstay design system for Seven Cycles. With Neil D. and Dan V. Basically we’re developing a faster way to codify all the variables that we factor to provide the ideal chainstay type for any given bike. It’s basically a big decision tree; we’re looking at a way to take the hundreds of variables and determine the ideal stay – out of hundered – within about 30-seconds.

September 11 | Chainstays – again. Working on next generation belt drive system for 29ers. Gates belts have:

Two chain-line options – actually more than that
Two different belt systems – center track and classic
A bunch of ring sizes

All told I think there are about 35 combinations that affect chainstay length. This may seem a bit odd because most companies that work with belt drives offer a complete bike: one belt, one ring size, one tire size, etc. so it’s fairly easy to design the bike – really that’s designing the bike model. With Seven every bike seems to get a different combination based on rider size, needs, interests, style, terrain, etc.

September 4 | Stef A. is working on some SolidWorks training so we can expedite, organize, and track our endless design updates. We’re already seeing good results on the reorg but we have a ways to go. Stef is taking the lead.

August 28 | Stef’s working on a stay design. Design number 3,000 or so. This is a 50mm slick tire belt driver 29er with a too short chainstay. It’s a bit trickier than it should be. Bike shipping on Thursday. I feel like our system for stay design is getting faster and more formal. Years ago it was this way; entropy ensues. With Stef’s and Neil’s help we’re wrangling entropy for a moment.

August 23 | Today we’re messing around with chainstay designs for mountain bikes. I’m certain we’ve got 10 times more designs than we had two three years ago. We’ve got way too many options happening. It’s what Seven Cycles does as a custom framebuilder. See the above bulleted list for details.

August 20 | Working on Seven Cycles chainstay designs. The design is somewhat infinite because every bike is custom. Within that infinity we have roughly 50 design parameters or templates account for about 99% of our bikes. I’m working on two design aspects right now:

An updated version of Seven’s 1″ chainstays – these are the stiffest titanium chainstays on the planet. Not suitable for most riders, these stays are definitely for a small number of specialty bikes. And, I’m working on a couple ways to incorporate thsese stays on more bikes – making the 1″ stays more versatile, more adaptable, and more appropriate for a wider range of riders and bike designs.
Fatigue testing program that relates to titanium as a material. I’m hoping the testing program goes well becuase we’ve got some ideas I’d like to implement. More variety. More specialized applications. But many of these ideas require pushing the technical parameters of the material a bit farther – hence the testing to determine where are the boundaries.

June 20 | Seven Cycles has been designing frames with 1″ chain stays for a while. We’ve been working on broadening the frame design options with our 1″ stays. Today we iterated our road racing design. These stays are more than 2x stiffer than our most common 7/8″ stays. These are definitely not right for everyone. But, on some applications they make a big difference. We’ll be introducing a few more variants throughout the rest of the season.

June 5, 2012 | A few months ago Seven Cycles introduced out 1″ chain stay design. It’s a specialty design that’s appropriate for about 1% of riders. But, that’s what we do, we design for every type or rider and riding situation. Matt O. reminded me about it yesterday.

Journal: Dogging It

June 5, 2012

Sketch from one of my design meetings. Discussing the Elium frame design.

7:35 am – 8:05 pm || Seven | Studio

Project: Trying to wrap up the latest private label project. Project CFG-Ride. It’s gotten more complicated and larger; mostly in good ways. Looking at titanium and now steel, too. I’m looking forward to completing the prototypes and getting feedback.
Project: The Seven Cycles Framebuilding Kickstarter. Working on the next generation of this project. We’ve been supporting framebuilding learning from our inception. We’re more formally organizing this project to make it work better for all. We’ve had incredible success over the years; I can’t wait to see what the next 12-months bring.
Product Design: A few months ago Seven Cycles introduced out 1″ chain stay design. It’s a specialty design that’s appropriate for about 1% of riders. But, that’s what we do, we design for every type or rider and riding situation. Matt O. reminded me about it yesterday.