Stef's Seven Cycles Expat S Commuter Project

Project Commuter

I've been wanting to build a commuter bike for some time now that would be able to handle  some off road excursions too. I figured there was no better company to work with than our friends at Seven Cycles. Besides building some of the finest custom bikes from steel, titanium, and carbon fiber in their own factory in Watertown MA. USA, they also make custom racks out of stainless steel and titanium.

The model I chose was the Expat S built around 29 inch wheels with room for fenders and knobby tires if desired. I made this decision because Seven's straight gauge titanium is very durable, light weight and corrosion resistant. I also chose to have Seven construct a custom titanium flatbed rack for the front. Living in San Francisco and not owning a car, I needed something I could load down while commuting or just running errands. The rack did require a fork that had lowrider rack mounts and I really wanted one made from quality steel. Seven currently doesn't make a steel fork so the gang at Independent Fabrications came through and supplied the fork for the project.

Bespoke's inside guy at Seven was kind enough to snap a few pictures of the build process for both the frame and rack. It's amazing to be able to talk to and include input with the people that are actually building your new bike.

For the drivetrain I decided to go with the Gates Centertrack Belt Drive combined with a Shimano Alfine 11 speed hub. The combination of the belt drive and the internal geared hub makes for an almost maintenance free, quiet drivetrain not to mention no more greasy chains. Seven does a really simple and clean frame coupler to allow the belt installation that doesn't pull your eye from the overall aesthetic of the frame.  

Now that I had the drivetrain figured out, I needed to settle on a braking system. This would be especially important once extra weight is added to the front rack. I decided to go with Shimano XT Discs with Icetech Rotors. Icetech Rotors are basically a disc brake rotor constructed of aluminum sandwiched between two thin layers of stainless steel. This helps dissipate heat buildup that can cause brake fade under heavy braking or long descents. I've been absolutely impressed with this system and find them very powerful.

Although I've had this bike assembled for about a month and have been logging in the miles, it's still not finished. I had Seven design the frame and fork with front and rear fender eyelets that will in the next few months be equipped with some custom wood fenders from our friend Jeff Hantman . He does amazing custom wood fenders decorated with hand done “bespoke” artwork. Look for future blog posts about the fender project.

 Build Specs

Frame: Custom Seven Cycles Expat S titanium 29er with eccentric bottom bracket and belt drive coupler

Fork: Independent Fabrications 29er steel disc fork with lowrider rack mounts and fender eyelets

Rack: Custom Seven Cycles titanium flatbed rack.

Wheels: Front: DT 240 Hub hand laced to a DT XR400 rim with DT Competition spokes

              Rear: Shimano Alfine 11 speed hub hand laced to a DT XR400 Rim w/ DT Competition spokes

Tires: Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 29 x 2.0

Headset: Chris King

Stem: Thomson X4 100mm

Handlebar: Ritchey WCS 11 degree flat bar

Grips: ODI Xtrainer Lock On.

Seat Post: Thomson Elite

Saddle: Selle Italia SL

Brakes: Shimano XT Disc with 6 inch rotors

Crank / BB: The Hive E-Thirteen Single Speed 175mm

Pedals: Atomlab

I hope you enjoyed all that went into building this bike as much as I have.

STP

                                                           

Where it started:

 

Tubing Selection

The Key

A craftsman at Seven mitering Stef's tubing

More careful mitering

The beginnings of tube shaping

Tube Shaping

Getting the jig set up for welding

Industries tightest alignment tolerances

The beginnings of those beautiful welds Seven is known for

These guys are amazing

Pre-finshing, pre-polishing

Even raw those welds are perfect! That's an eccentric BB shell

Belt drive, low mount disc tab, and fender mounts

Finished Project

Just wait till the fenders come in! ...and yes, it wheelies across the shop just fine!

Bespoke 4th Anniversary Weekend

It's time to celebrate our 4th anniversary at Bespoke. First, a big thanks to all of our clients, friends, families and vendors, without all of you, we would have to get normal jobs. As we move into our 5th year, we are pretty excited about what's happening here at Bespoke. We have a new space where we have the opportunity to include new services, new products and we have a more comfortable space to live...work. We have the capability to do more mechanical service volume and the fitting services we offer are evolving as well. With the new evaluation and testing room, we can take our fitting services to the next level. We have new equipment all over the shop and our season is really heating up.

The weekend will consist of group rides, a happy hour event, a raffle and as always, great people, food and drinks. We will have some people from our incredible bike makers, clothing companies, old industry friends, incredible people we get to work with on a daily basis and family. Here is the preliminary schedule so save the dates!


Friday May 18th - Open house happy hour from 6pm to 9pm. 

Food and drinks will be provided by Bar Bambino.

We are raffling off a Seven Resolute custom steel frame set! Yes, you read right, one lucky winner will get one of the finest full custom steel frames available. 

Parking - It's the city so a cab or bike or public transportation might save you  the headache.


Saturday May 19th - Supported Ride with Assos - Meet at Bespoke at 9am

We will be meeting at the shop at 9am and riding to Stinson Beach and back with our friends from Assos, we did this last year and it was a blast. We will be finishing the ride at the shop for a snack and to watch the finish of the Mount Baldy stage of the Tour of California. There will be a prize given at random after the ride, the lucky winner gets a full Assos kit! FI.13 bibs, Uno S7 jersey, socks and a cap. The ride will consist of two route options. The first option is to head to Stinson via Muir Woods then North and the Pantol climb for about a 55 mile ride. The second option is to head up to Bolinas Fairfax rd and head up that and home which will be close to 70 miles. the Support vehicle will follow only the shorter route. We do have the support vehicle but please be self sufficient and comfortable with the amount of mileage and climbing on these routes. The pace will be medium rare.


Sunday May 20th - Anniversary Ride ending at Biergarten in Hayes Valley - Meet at Bespoke at 9:30

This ride is a little more casual and the route will most likely be Muir Woods Loop or something similar. We will be heading back to the Biergarten in Hayes Valley after the ride to enjoy some sun (pray), food and beer. The awesome folks at Biergarten are opening up just for us.The pace will be gentleman's tea.

Seven Elium with new Sram Red

 Here is a Seven Elium SL with the new Sram Red group. The wheels are Enve 45 clinchers with Chris King R45 hubs. The cockpit is Ritchey's Super Logic with the new C260 stem. The Elium is one of Seven's finest riding bikes. It uses a mix of carbon and titanium tubing to utilize the best characteristics of each material. The result is a very responsive drivetrain feel and it doesn't loosen your fillings on long rough rides. This frame is also highly tunable. The tubing is selected based on rider weight, frame size and desired ride feel. The handling can also be tailored to your riding style. This is one of our favorite bikes and is seriously amazing to ride. This particular one happens to look awesome too.

Recent Serotta Frames

Here are a couple of Serotta's finest. The Ottrott SE and the Coeur D'Acier. The Ottrott below is set up for DI2 and the Coeur D'Acier is going to be a touring set up, thus the optional all steel seat stays.

The beautiful Ottrott

DI2 specific

Clean!

All steel in battleship grey and about as tough as one too

Classic

Properly masked drop-outs so your paint doesn't flake off when you put a wheel in, details!

More detail

These beauties will be all built up soon so keep an eye out for the finished build photos.

Wheels!

We have a number of very nice demo wheels in house. There is no better way to upgrade your bike than with a high end wheel set. Reducing rotating weight, increasing stability and aerodynamics can make a real perceivable difference. We choose the wheels we sell very carefully here at Bespoke. We don't care about marketing hype or what Pros got paid to say they're good. We care about function, safety, design, performance and support. Quality is everything.

From left to right are the 32, the 46 and the 66. We have pairs and mixed pairs, Campy or Shimano, of these for demo!

Reynolds is offering a demo program where you can try out their amazing wheels and if you purchase a pair from us you get a free RAP (crash protection) program as well as a $100 rebate from Reynolds. We have in house a pair of 46/66 wheels, a pair of 46/46 and 2 pairs of 32s. Check out the details on the program here.

We have been working with Reynolds for a long time and have been more than satisfied with the ride quality, durability, weight and their customer service is second to none.

Retrotec Double

 This is a Retrotec Triple from Curtis Inglis up in Napa. Curtis is an amazing builder and has won several awards at NAHBS and he happens to also be a nice guy. This is a bike we did for my wife Andrea. The fenders are by Jeff Hantman who clearly does absolutely stunning work as well. We chose Paul's brakes, levers and front hub, all of which are high polished. We used a White Industries crank and bottom bracket and the rear hub is the Alfine 11spd internal. The wheels are hand built and use DT competition spokes and Mavic Open Pro rims. The fenders, frame, fork, cranks, bottom bracket, brakes and front hub are all made in California! This bike rides like a dream and it's one of the most beautiful bikes I've had the pleasure of building.

Inglis

Jeff Hantman

Detail pics on some of the new Assos

Our trio of arm warmers. Notice the shaping, details! That's why we love this stuff.

The arm protector, very thin material with great UV protection for summer

The S7 Arm warmer in black/white. These are awesome!

Detail of the fabrics used in the S7 arm warmer

That is a vest!! The Blitzfeder vest is a real standout

The fabric detail on the Blitzfeder vest and jacket

The FI.13 Jersey, say no more, it's the best

Back view of the FI.13 jersey

Got ventilation? The Fi.13 back fabric panel.

One of the new FI.Uno S7 jerseys in blue 

Fabric detail of the Uno S7

Uno S7 jersey detail

The fabrics in the S7 jersey keep you dry and comfy!

Unique collar on the S7 jersey is really comfortable and protects your neck from the sun

The FI.Mille Jersey back. It has a similar vented panel like the FI.13

The fabrics of the FI.Mille Jersey

The Mille Jersey in Swiss red

Nothing but top quality here folks

New women's bib detail

New women's bib detail

The new women's bibs! Available in all black too.

Detail of the chamois in the new women's bib. You can not get a better pad.

Long Finger summer gloves in white, available in red, black and other colors too.

You'll find reflective details like these on almost every piece of Assos.