[Closed] New Bike - Seven Evergreen

And I'm spent......

That sir, is blummin lush.

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)

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

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...

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) 🙂

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.

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

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.

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.

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 😛

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).

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.

Please. I'll start Monday ;0)

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.

bloody rich folk with their rich ways 😉

lovely bike btw 😀

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

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!

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.

😆

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.

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.

^ 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.....

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'

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.

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.

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 ****ing 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!!!!

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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?)

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.

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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.

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'

😀

No, needs trp spyre c's shirley?

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

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.

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.

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

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

[img] [/img]

Harsh and unfair!

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

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

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.

these bling enough?

TallboyC, Stages, XX1

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Cannondale Super Six Hi-Mod, SRAM Red, ENVE Wheelset

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Well done.

blimey dirtyrider, very harsh

maybe harsh yer, but my point was that all his posts, look though his history, ti bromptons, carbon sevens, colnagos, moots, read like adverts for high end kit, like a showcase, like advertising, get me?

I'm gonna back up dirtyrider here - not specifically thinking about Solarider, but definitely certain people enjoy the build and the adulation that goes with it moreso than actually using the bike.

There was a chap (also in Hong Kong weirdly) on BR who used to build some stunning bikes, and compiled very detailed 'build' threads for each successive one. There would then never be a follow up to say they'd been used or anything. Just another incredibly bling build a few months later!

Someone actually resurrected a thread of his recently to ask if he ever used one of his bikes (in a nice way), he logged onto the forum but didn't answer!

[i]get me?[/i]

No, whats your point? The chain on the road bike is disgusting. Less time hating, more time cleaning.

I'm a little curious why dirtyrider has bothered to take gratuitous pics of the bottom bracket area of a couple of his bikes?
Are they historic, or has he just popped out to the garage?
Why were they taken in the first place- just to provide backup to the moniker? As proof that he actually rides his bike?
To be honest, a couple of hundred metres riding on local roads or trails at the moment, and my bikes will look like that.

njee20 - sorry but how do we all know this certain individual dosent ride the pants of his bike and builds a new one, in the same way that its speculated that person just builds a bling bike for adulation?

I'm a little curious why dirtyrider has bothered to take gratuitous pics of the bottom bracket area of a couple of his bikes?

one was for the power meter thread, saying i use it in wet weather and the battery compartment is bone dry so not the source of my battery drain

the 2nd was in a road winter bike thread

The chain on the road bike is disgusting.

its meant to be black - kmc x10 dlc

njee20 - sorry but how do we all know this certain individual dosent ride the pants of his bike and builds a new one, in the same way that its speculated that person just builds a bling bike for adulation?

Of course we don't, but then why wouldn't you respond to questions about it? I know I would! It wasn't meant to be derogatory, if folk want to build nice bikes, take pictures, then build another one that's their prerogative!

Wow, this has taken an unexpected turn.

Some people like to get attention for the things their money can buy and to feel included and appreciated for their connoisseurship.

Some people get a bit addicted to the process of swapping bikes and honing them for their perceived needs (me included in the past tbh).

Some people get annoyed by others' showing off or what they see as throwing money at non-existent problems. Hardly surprising.

Some people just like a row, I think.

I bought a frame from Solarider many years ago - he then proceeded to spend a good part of the morning transferring all my old bits from the previous frame to the new one. He did this because he loves bikes, building them, cleaning them and riding them. He's a decent bloke and his good fortune of being able to afford these things often benefits the rest of us as he sells at very reasonable prices.

His threads, to me, do nothing but demonstrate his love for bikes. I have no interest in road or x riding but do enjoy looking at some bling! I hope he keeps posting.

Do you moaners also grumble when someone dares to park their Ferrari in the high street or do you just take the opportunity to gawp at a stunning car?

Who's moaning?

I wasn't. Merely observing that for some people the joy appears to be in the ownership rather than the use.

Disappointed..

Very nice, tidy and conservative.

I'm waiting for Solariders mid-life crisis bike, something like a steel singlespeed fat bike with hi-rise Nitto bars, the only custom item being a crazy-lairy paint job. That's when we need to be concerned that a stock market crash is close to happening : )

The equation for stack isn't anything > than 0 is wrong. Sometimes thought goes into a build that supercedes the casual cbserver rigidly applying some completely arcane "rule".

The main comment on LFGSS when I posted my Curtis build was why a spacer stack when it's custom geo. Answer I hate long head tubes (gate like - just look at the older Seven MTB photos ugh!) and I wanted a low TT to get bar lever clearance without a stupidly high position. Garry and I went to a lot of effort to achieve this and managed it with a small stack which IMHO looks fine.

I tried to explain but rules is rules.

F--- rules : )
Bars, stems and headsets can all vary a bit in the effective stack of the position they offer and you may change them or need to tweak the bar angle etc. Spacers on a 'keeper' bike means you have options. Designing it for a slammed stem may work for some but wouldn't be something I'd encourage someone to do on a custom bike. Slammed stems may seem normal for racing, fair enough there, but custom bikes for road racing are rare - either your sponsor pays for them or like most you'll race a CAAD10 or similar and replace it after a year or 2 of tough life.

We have done lairy paint jobs

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-build-pegoretti-responsorium

I have a poor thread-memory or hadn't seen those ..

Would that be the barbed wire Pegoretti (no image for me). Reading through that thread it's apparent what a nice bloke the OP is.

ps I'd really like a disc Moots CX

Those lairy paint job ones are lovely too. I enjoy solarider's build threads, partly for the same reason that I often have a wishful look at the likes of Engin, Field or other custom builder's blogs. The builds are done without compromise which is not something you see that frequently as most people, understandably, struggle on the cost front. Whether he rides them that much is irrelevant to me, I just hope he keeps on posting.

[i]We have done lairy paint jobs[/i]

A thread from 3 years ago, you have way too much time on your hands.

I just hope he keeps on posting.

Definitely!

I really enjoy his posts! Lots of in depth details.
Looking at his other threads suggests he rides or used to ride a lot, including racing.

I find it a very strange thing to bring up at all, njee20 and dirtyrider. I don't see people asking in every build thread how they use their bikes, be it for the fun of building, owning or riding. It's irrelevant.

I didn't bring it up, merely supported dirtyrider that some people do seem to build an inordinate number of bikes and enjoy threads showcasing them, [i]perhaps [/i]more than they enjoy the bike. That's absolutely fine! I actually don't really like many of Solarider's bikes, I dislike Campag, and not a fan of ti, so onto a loser, but it's always nice to see top end builds irrespective of whether I'd replicate them!

As I've said several times, I agree that it's entirely irrelevant if they get used for a pub hack, a commuter, in the Iditabike or for the TdF. If someone wants to spend £500k on a diamond encrusted frame, then never build it, that's fine. No issues whatsoever. It's not really any different to some people meticulously cleaning their bike after every ride, whilst others show it a damp cloth biannually.

Shouldn't have said owt!

Nice bike but I agree it wouldn't be how I'd have specced it. Shame you couldn't go hydraulic on the brakes, as that would have improved it. Cable discs aren't a patch on hydros, as I'm sure you're aware.

If it really is for rough/wet days I'd question the choice of lecky gears. Personally I run 1x10 on my do-it-all bike - simpler, more robust, lighter and wears better, if that matters.

and again, my post was more making the point that sometimes, somewhere, on some forums, members just showcase the stuff boutique shops sell, like xgreygoose on bike radar, loads on mtbr, on every forum anywhere, for them, its more about buying the newest stuff and showcasing it, no evidence of use, again thats fine, thats upto them,

the Pegoretti thread looks like an art installation, and the latest Seven, not really a winter hack is it,

It's part of being a bloke. Up and down the country men polish cars/traction engines/lorries/anything that moves and show them off. Who cares if they get used/not used/abused, surely it's the shared passion that counts?

Dirtyrider - Why is the Seven not an example of a good winter bike? It's set up fully prepared for wet weather. You're the one that called it a 'hack'. Just because it costs a lot to build to most of us doesn't mean it costs a lot to solarider. Hell, I have a couple of friends that work in the City for whom that Seven would be a couple of days post tax wages and if that is the case why ride around on a crappy old SS on one with a 20 quid cateye light on the front. If you're short on time due to work and family commitments then why not have your 'winter hack' as a bike you enjoy riding rather than an old heap to fit in with expected forum norm. Who knows, he might even be out riding rather than posting pics of his muddy bikes on a forum whilst trying to desperately disguise deep rooted jealousy.

Shouldn't have said owt!

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I meant I shouldn't have... 😕

no, i was echoing your post, not questioning your post

Aahh good, sorry! As you were!