This goes back a little, but did you catch our blog about the SKLAR Super Something delivery ride? I headed out to ride the same area again right at the start of the new year. It happened to be the day after a light snowfall, so I got to see a completely different landscape from last time, and I added a route I hadn't ridden in a while, so I enjoyed that day to the fullest too.
Lately, or rather since early last summer, the bike I take on rides like this has been the SEVEN CYCLES A-Frame Gravel+Road 743. Those of you who read my summer Hokkaido travelogue or follow my personal Instagram may already know it, but I've never properly introduced it, so I'd like to take this chance to do just that.
“A-Frame Gravel+Road 743“. I imagine quite a few of you find that model name a little unfamiliar. There's one big difference between this and the SEVEN CYCLES models we've grown used to hearing about, like the Axiom and the Evergreen.
So what's the difference?
It's a semi-custom order rather than a full-custom one.
With a full-custom order, an original geometry is designed from the owner's body measurements, position and riding preferences. With a semi-custom order, you choose the one that suits you from a set of predefined geometries, and the frame is built to it.
That's right: SEVEN CYCLES now also takes orders for semi-custom frames.
What's more, the model lineup is extensive, and each model comes in as many as 36 sizes and geometries. Over a few blog posts, I'd like to tell you about it, centered on one of them: the Gravel+Road 743 that I ride.
So, let's start with how I came to order this frame.
The CIELO Road Racer Disc and the WILDE Rambler
Personally, I ride a CIELO Road Racer Disc as my road bike and a WILDE BIKES Rambler as my gravel bike, and I chose this Gravel+Road 743 as the bike to fill the gap between them.
Some of you might be thinking, "Wouldn't it overlap with the Rambler?" But there's a clear difference.
I see the Rambler as a bike for relaxed touring, bikepacking and gravel rides, of course, and also for more technical trail rides. But when I just want to enjoy pure riding on my day off, I find myself wanting more lightness and a greater sense of speed.
If I didn't ride road bikes or fixed-gear bikes, if the Rambler were my only bike, or if I didn't have the riding experience I've built up, I might never have felt that way.
But for better or worse, I ride plenty of bikes besides the Rambler, and I've racked up all kinds of riding experience, from on-road to off-road.
Also, most of the rides I go on regularly are on-road. I want a bike that can tackle gravel while having fun, but that is also enjoyable on the paved sections and lets me ride them through lightly. The answer to that ideal turned out to be this A-Frame Gravel+Road 743.
Why I Chose the SEVEN CYCLES A-Frame Gravel+Road 743
There were other options, of course, but I'd seen a lot of SEVEN CYCLES bikes in person, gone out riding with the crazy owners who ride them, and occasionally even had the chance to test-ride them. I also watched those SEVEN CYCLES owners replace the bikes they'd had, one situation at a time, with SEVEN CYCLES.
Of course, what kind of brand SEVEN CYCLES is, what materials they use and how they make their products all matter a great deal. But add the experience of seeing the relationship between those cyclists and SEVEN CYCLES up close, and it was only natural that I'd develop a strong feeling of "Someday I'm going to ride a SEVEN CYCLES!"
You might wonder, "Why not just go full custom?" But that's a story for later. A bike with an original geometry, built with tubes given an original butting process, is something I'd like to order a few years down the road.
Off on the Shakedown Ride!!!
By the way, this bike's shakedown was on a day off last May, just after Golden Week. Let me share my honest impressions from that day. (Looking back at my calendar brought up a bad memory... it was right after I'd been hospitalized for my first kidney stone and discharged. I carried painkillers on every ride back then.)
The plan that day was to ride out of town, along the riverbank, and through as much gravel as I could fit into the route. On the first paved stretch, comparing it with my road bike, I had a slightly negative impression: "The tires are wider and the geometry is different, so it's bound to feel a bit more laid-back." But that was the only time I felt that way.
Into the mountains, climbing gravel, climbing pavement, then descending everything I'd climbed, over and over. Even at points where experience told me "I'm going to fade past here" or "I'll need to shift down," before I knew it I'd already made it through, still turning the same gear. The stability was superb, not only through tight corners on the descents but also through the corners on the gravel sections, so I could enjoy it all in comfort and with confidence.
I was even able to stretch out onto a "second helping" of route I'd been thinking "would be amazing if I could make it that far," and on the riverbank ride home I kept pushing the pedals hard.
I figured I'd be wiped out once I got home, but I briskly got through the shower and the laundry, had a great time at my evening plans, and thought to myself, "Come on, this is just the best!"
All of that comes down to the high-quality titanium tubing, welding skills and manufacturing processes SEVEN CYCLES uses.
It's the best kind of bike: smooth pedaling, stiffness that turns that effort straight into forward motion, and a suppleness that keeps you from tiring even after long hours in the saddle.
That's all for this time. I'll keep telling you more about the SEVEN CYCLES A-Frame bit by bit, so stay tuned.
