Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 72 total)
  • New Bike – Seven Evergreen
  • solarider
    Free Member

    I have now switched all of my bikes to disc braking and electronic shifting. I love riding the 2 Moots (Vamoots RD for the road and Psyclo X RSL for cyclocross), but for wet weather and rough road rides (pretty much everything here in Hong Kong until October!), I wanted something more versatile. Road geometry and handling, but with greater clearance for wider tires and mudguards.
    I really liked the Genesis Equilibrium disc as a first taster of this type of bike. The ride was fantastic, but it was a little on the heavy side, the geometry wasn’t perfect for me and I missed some of the custom touches I wanted. And whilst I know steel will last well if cared for, titanium is perfect for this type of bike. Plus I am a self-confessed bike tart! So, here’s the solution.
    A Seven Evergreen SL. The Evergreen is marketed as a ‘gravel bike’, but I have had mine built with closer clearances and shorter stays. If I want a CX bike, I always have the Moots Psyclo X RSL. For fast road rides on sunny days, I have the Moots Vamoots RD. I was meant to use most of the parts off the Genesis, but in the end, that didn’t really happen (oops!).
    Seven did a great job of customizing the ENVE forks to add mudguard eyelets and dynamo cabling.
    The tires are real fatties! Can’t wait to see how the comfort vs speed equation works out.
    I don’t want to jump on the gravel bike band wagon (there aren’t many gravel roads around here), but so many of the features are perfect for a wet weather road bike without resorting to the compromised geometry of a CX bike. With the dynamo light, it will be perfect for those early mornings and late afternoons, and maybe even some credit card touring.
    Having strayed to Moots for the last couple of bikes, it is good to be back on a Seven. On balance, I think that they are the better product. The customization options are better, the workmanship is better, the finish is far easier to maintain and I think that they understand geometry more.
    I still need to connect the dynamo, but otherwise, it is finished and set up. Not super light at 17.9lbs, but very light considering the specification (the dynamo setup adds 500gms and the tyres 300gms on their own vs a road bike set up) but perfect for the usage. I will drop some weight once Campagnolo come up with a hydraulic disc brake option, but in the meantime, the Avid BB7s with ti bolts will have to do.

    Frame – Seven Evergreen SL
    Fork – ENVE Tapered CX (custom mudguard and dynamo fittings)
    Aheadset – Chris King Inset 7
    Chainset – Fulcrum R-Torque RS with Super Record chainrings (175mm, 50/34)
    Bottom Bracket – Campagnolo Record
    Pedals – Look Keo Carbon CroMo
    Front Derailleur – Campagnolo Record EPS
    Rear Derailleur – Campagnolo Record EPS
    Shifters – Campagnolo Record EPS
    Brakes – Avid BB7 Road (titanium bolts)
    Chain – KMC X-11 SL
    Cassette – Campagnolo Record (12/25)
    Hubs – SON Delux/Tune Kong Disc (32 hole)
    Rims – ENVE XC clincher (32 hole)
    Spokes – Sapim CX Ray
    Quick Release – DT RWS Ti
    Tyres – Challenge Strada Bianca (30mm)
    Mudguards – SKS Chromoplastic (45mm)
    Stem – ENVE Carbon (120mm)
    Bars – Zipp Service Course SL-80 (460mm)
    Seatpost – ENVE Carbon (27.2mm, 20mm layback)
    Saddle – Fizik Arione CX
    Bottle Cages – King Titanium
    Bar Tape – Deda Tape

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    And I’m spent……

    That sir, is blummin lush.

    slackalice
    Free Member

    I have long admired Seven bikes and always fancied a Sola, in either steel or Ti and this has just reinvigorated my desire. Not likely to happen for me unless is start taking work seriously, so well done OP. Form and function beautifully executed, enjoy! 8)

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    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Your house is as clean and contemporary as the bike. 🙂

    vinnyeh
    Full Member

    Was only thinking yesterday, as I looked at Haze’s new bike thread, that there hadn’t been a solarider new bike for a while.
    Very nice, always interesting to see a new bike from you, though the spacers under the stem are really irking me, for some reason? A small niggle, but…

    The-Swedish-Chef
    Free Member

    That looks like a bike for a rider who rides a lot, which can only be a good thing. 8)

    (pity about the cranks though, Record would have been a better match IMO) 🙂

    JCL
    Free Member

    I would have gone with a longer front centre for guard clearance but yeah, that’s pretty much the ultimate commuter/winter bike. Very nice.

    tang
    Free Member

    The only thing missing is Swarf bikes/Sven cycles custom carbon mudguards!
    As ever, I love your dedication to lushness!

    solarider
    Free Member

    Geometry and spacers are always an interesting one, and provoke much debate with my bikes. I need a 9cm saddle to handlebar drop, and I am tall. This can be achieved through a number of ways:

    1) Long head tube – I don’t want the bike to look like a gate.
    2) Riser stem – I have 90 degree stems on my other bikes, but I wanted more of a classic roadie look to this one, and the ENVE stem is 86 degrees.
    3) Loads of spacers – 2cm is my maximum, for aesthetic reasons if nothing else.

    So, what I end up doing is lengthening the head tube as much as I dare, and in ths particular case extending it above the top tube to minimise the ‘gate’ look, and using a few spacers with a slightly upright stem. It is a compromise, but to me the best compromise to achieve the fit that I want without completely destroying the handling or aesthetic.

    I had the chainset from the Genesis build. As I said, I tried (and failed) to reuse as many parts as possible (this was meant to be a ‘budget’ build comparatively!). In the end, I reused the brakes, cages, chainset, bars and saddle, so I didn’t do all that well really! I agree that Record would have looked better, although branding aside, I actually prefer the shape of the Fulcrum chainsets. Lower profile and a lower Q factor, which matters since I ride ‘heels-in’. However, since these will no doubt get replaced by the new 4 arm Campagnolo when it hits the shops, I am quite glad I didn’t change them for the moment.

    Thanks for the comments. ‘Ultimate winter/commuter bike’ was pretty much the intention. As a result of the other bikes in the collection, this one will really only come out of the shed when it either dark, wet, or both! And yes, it will be ridden lots.

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    This bike is a real conundrum for me. On the one hand, if it’s built like this because you ride audax events and 400km events is a warm up then chappeau; that sir, is THE ultimate long distance mile muncher. But on the other hand, the exuberance of the build; Record EPS, carbon Enve wheels and Enve finishing kit hanging off a titanium frame of heart breaking quality, and then, to top it all off, mudgaurds and a dynamo! It’s like putting ketchup on fine dining!

    OK it’s not really; I have my Genesis commuter and winter training bike and I’m sorely tempted to upgrade the race bike from 10 speed Dura Ace to 11 speed purely so I can put the 10 speed DA onto that bike.

    Heck you know what, it’s your bike, it’s lovely, ride it until the sun goes down and then don’t stop.

    Hats off to you.

    Houns
    Full Member

    Yet again you make me enveious

    Can we see all of your bikes together please?

    Oh and what’s your job and can I have it?

    Thanks 😛

    damitamit
    Free Member

    That would make a great audax bike! I’ve been running Di2 on my audax machine for the past 6 months and its been great (thou I did get the fear and took a spare battery on a the 400k+ rides).

    solarider
    Free Member

    And who doesn’t like a little ketchup with their champagne, caviar and foie gras?!

    My favourite part of the whole bike is actually that dynamo, partly for that exact reason. It is purely form over style. The hub is however a thing of beauty, the light weighs nothing, consumes very little power and is bright as anything I have ever seen. I have long been in the same camp of viewing dynamo as low tech and unbefitting of a nice build, but the SON hubs are made and finished better than many top end standard hubs. And for the use this bike will get, it is ideal. I know that the received wisdom is not to use nice kit on a wet weather bike, but life’s too short, and why not? It is better finished, better sealed, is nicer to use, and frankly when the weather is bad I need all the motivation I can get.

    I’ll post a photo of the build over the weekend. Flying off to Singapore on business tomorrow and working there on Saturday too before spending the rest of my weekend flying back again. Sure you want my job? Hard work, but lets me indulge in my passion for bikes.

    Houns
    Full Member

    Please. I’ll start Monday ;0)

    solarider
    Free Member

    You sure?! It’s hard work being Kylie’s hotpants stylist you know. The hours are rubbish, and the glitzy parties really wear you down after a while.

    racefaceec90
    Full Member

    bloody rich folk with their rich ways 😉

    lovely bike btw 😀

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    Is indeed a conundrum, a lovely extravagant one at that 🙂

    tang
    Free Member

    I bought two king cages from solarider, as close as I’ll ever get to owning something like that! Mind you maybe there was some magic in them as next year is custom(953)year!

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    Niiiioiiiice..

    Bit of an overkill but I love your attitude towards buying what you want, when you want and how you want it.

    Bit meh for me, sort of a middle fish in a crowded sea if you get my drift. But hey, you ride them, I just look at the fruits of your labours.

    Well done, carry on. 8)

    Clearly you are not retiring in the near future so we expect more of the same.

    😆

    TiRed
    Full Member

    So, what I end up doing is lengthening the head tube as much as I dare, and in ths particular case extending it above the top tube to minimise the ‘gate’ look, and using a few spacers with a slightly upright stem. It is a compromise, but to me the best compromise to achieve the fit that I want without completely destroying the handling or aesthetic.

    Titanium Pegoretti 😉 Very nice. I particularly like the rear mudguard fitting.

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    bloody rich folk with their rich ways

    It’s funny isn’t it but it’s very hard to begrudge a rich fellow’s wealth when he has such exquisite taste in bikes.

    adsh
    Free Member

    ^ this.

    I was keen for a Sola SLX but in the end couldn’t face that much cash for something I couldn’t see in the flesh. I don’t think Seven do themselves favours with their archive photos of skinny 26ers with long head tubes etc. I suspect I might well be tempted by the steel Sola in the not too distant future…..

    MrSmith
    Free Member

    Titanium Pegoretti Very nice

    It wouldn’t be a Seven. Dario likes Crisp titanium, he supplies the Falz oversize fork and will paint the frames for Crisp in his ‘style’

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    Do Pegoretti offer titanium frames?

    FWIW I once asked the price of a Peggy steel and was a little taken aback not least because I had asked on the pressumption that a steel Peggy would be a less costly alternative to a Titanium Indy Fab but oh no, they are about 30% more expensive than even a full custom Ti IF.

    solarider
    Free Member

    Pegoretti only makes steel. Lovely steel at that (I have owned 2), and it is easy to see where the price comes from, but not quite apples for apples with comparing the ride of titanium.

    Steel has a quite different feel to titanium, and different again to carbon or aluminium. I would say that the workmanship from Seven or Moots or IF is streets ahead of Pegoretti. His paint is sublime, but in my experience actually the workmanship is very ‘Italian’. A bit hit and miss in the detail.

    solarider
    Free Member

    First ride photos. Not a particularly sunny day in Hong Kong today, but 36 degrees and 100% humidity was enough without glaring sun. Some days I miss a nice run out of London through Richmond Park, Esher, Box Hill and back again. No, wait, pretty much every day I take my life in my hands with Hong Kong’s f**king crazy drivers I miss that. One day I will be back………

    So comfortable! Maybe I am getting old, but it feels just as fast as my race bike, with so much more comfort. Not sure how much is down to the 30mm tires (quite a bit I think), but they aren’t slow at all. Maybe a bit is down to the geometry, although it is not radically different in the angles vs my race bike, just a little bit longer in the stays. Maybe a bit is down to the 27.2 vs 30.9 seatpost, but I doubt that.

    Whatever it is, this bike is everything I wanted. Able to cope with the rough stuff, perfect in wet weather (as you can see from today’s photos), agile as a road bike, and beautifully built. The Fulcrum chainset looks a bit wrong, but once the new 4 arm Campagnolo version gets released, it will get swapped out, so I am not about to change it now. The disc brakes have bedded in nicely and offer amazing and modulated, predictable stopping power. Don’t knock them until you have tried them!

    I rode with the dynamo turned on for the whole ride and kept experimenting with turning it on and off, and there is absolutely no perceivable drag. With the neat integration that Seven managed on the forks, I am total convert. The DiNotte 300r arrives this week which will complete the ‘get yourself seen’ package nicely. No more excuses for SDNSY!!!!

    SSBonty
    Free Member

    Any close ups of how you/seven have fitted the dynamo to the forks, avoided tape/zipties for the cable etc?

    Lovely bike!

    (Just noticed the dynamo moved to the bars too! What was the reason for that?)

    solarider
    Free Member

    I transferred the Super Record chainset off my Moots Psyclo X RSL. Too nice to use off road, and the Fulcrum has a narrower Q factor which makes it better suited to cross (wider heel clearance for off road shoes, and you tend to move more about on the cyclocross bike anyway). Probably too nice to use in the rain too, but the ceramic bearings and ti parts are well suited.

    I also fitted the DiNotte 300r rear light. Fantastic bit of kit and highly recommended. Really well made (machined aluminium casing, so not plasticky at all), good battery life, lots of flashing and static modes, and above all really, really bright. I have been using it today in bright sunlight, and it is still visible. At night, it is amazing. Probably too bright on full power for bunch rides but some of the modes are less bright (although it does give me an excuse for getting dragged along at the back!). And it is quite large, but that’s because it has 2 large lenses. It comes with loads of mounting options, but fitting it to a 27.2 seat post was very straightforward. I moved the dynamo up to the bars so it easier to reach to switch on and off.

    So, the verdict after a few rides? I cannot say enough good things about this bike. The fit, the ride quality, the build quality, the do-it-all versatility, the comfort of the wider tires, the safety of the lighting, the integration of the wiring for lights and EPS. This is why it is worth going custom. First time I don’t feel disappointed taking the wet weather bike out. As you can see, today was not exactly wet. In fact it was 38 degrees and sunny. But I still took this bike out instead of the Moots. Now partly that’s the ‘new toy’ novelty, but honestly despite the weight penalty and the fatter tires (or possibly because of them), I think it rides nicer.

    fastbianchi10
    Free Member

    Solarider, fantastic build! Seven did a great job. was wondering about the geometry? what is the head tube length? and the horizontal top tube length? did you decide on a lower than normal BB drop? Plan on building a Evergreen soon. thanks.

    Rik
    Free Member

    Didn’t realise you had another Seven!

    Wow!!!!! Perfect bike mk2 and mk1 is your old Seven Mudhoney SL.

    You are my doppelgänger sizewise. So always interested when you upgrade frames as I can always be interested in the ‘cast off’s’

    😀

    oxym0r0n
    Full Member

    No, needs trp spyre c’s shirley?

    dirtyrider
    Free Member

    buys $4k custom ti frame – fits $10 15mm ti spacer

    Metasequoia
    Full Member

    Very nice; seven really are worth the outlay. Boarding on good value compared to the price of some pretty generic carbon frames. The ride is sublime.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    buys $4k custom ti frame – fits $10 15mm ti spacer

    Quite. The number of times one sees pimpy custom frames with massive spacer stacks is crazy!

    Touring bikes are even worse, especially Thorn.

    Metasequoia
    Full Member

    You are missing the point. With Seven you can choose if you want 0mm of spacer or 30mm of spacers or any measurement inbetween.

    dirtyrider
    Free Member

    why would you choose anything but 0?

    same old thread with solarider, loads of cash lobbed at a winter/wet build, posts 5 months later says finally ridden it, and posts next to the only puddle in Hong Kong, no hate, its a nice build,

    people can buy/ride what they want, and its not because i couldn’t afford the same, in most instances i could and its not like my own bikes were cheap, its

    just sometimes, with certain posters on some forums (like rick draper on bike radar) its almost like its an advert, lots of new spangly kit, no evidence of being used before its cast off for the next spangly bit

    Houns
    Full Member

    Rik
    Free Member

    Harsh and unfair!

    Nice bikes, nice guy, got the cash so why not spend it!

    duntstick
    Free Member

    Lovely, but I’d be having some of those stickers off. The name ‘evergreen’ mmm, seven stickers on the muddies, stem decals……

    mashiehood
    Free Member

    blimey dirtyrider, very harsh – you do realise he posted his first ride report some 5 months ago!

    why dont you get it off your chest and post some pictures of your bling covered in crap so you can show us all that you actually ride a bike.

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