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Critique requested

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Cycling Equipment
Published
10 October 2003
Last activity
13 November 2003
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Claire Petersky
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  1. Paul said:

    "David L. Johnson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:
    Paul said:

    I have a Seven Axiom myself and I reason I didn't buy a Habanero is because most people will
    look at a Seven before they look at a Habanero. Even if a Habanero is an equal bike it doesn't
    have the same drool


    factor.

    If that is what you need....

    That's what we all need in some form or another. If this wasn't the case then we would all be
    riding rusty old steel bikes with 105 groupo, wearing plain black cycling shorts, a plain cycling
    jersey and unshaven legs. We would all be living in a shack and be driving a [censored] car. You show
    me a person who doesn't care what the other other people thinks and I will show you a person with
    a Seven Axiom

    Spare us the bad pop psychology. Some people are indeed motivated by what other people thnk about
    them and buy status symbols rather than useful objects. One can find them in business meetings with
    a Montblanc pen in their pocket that they can't figure out how to fill. Some people have other
    motivators- comfort for example, which is why they don't live in a shack even though they could
    afford to.

    As far as your descriptions go, though, you could be describing me. All my bikes are steel, some of
    them might even have some rust. I wear plain black cycling shorts, a plain (usually wool) jersey
    most of the time and I don't shave my legs. Never did, even when I raced. I live in a 100 year old
    1200 square foot house- close enough to a shack- and drive a 1990 Volvo 240- close enough to a
    [censored]. I haven't bought a *new* bike since 1996. I don't give a rat's ass if other people look at
    my bikes and glaze over with envy. In fact, I'd rather they didn't and then they won't be tempted
    to steal it.

    You know what? Most days I'm pretty damned happy. That's my motivator and my payoff.

  2. In article <[email hidden]>, Gary Young

    Quoted message said:

    [email hidden] (Claire Petersky) wrote in message
    news:<[email hidden]>...

    Quoted message said:

    My co-worker has been hounding me to buy a Seven bike. Please critique this little essay he
    sent me:


    <snip, snip, snip, snip....>

    Sure, drop a load of cash on a butt-ugly Seven. But be forewarned that after taking out a second
    mortgage for no better reason than to keep up with the Joneses, you will feel a subtle pressure to
    justify your decision by writing long-winded, wrong-headed essays just like your friend's. People
    will start to avoid you at parties -- "Oh no, she's going to start in on Sevens again." Perhaps
    you will feel the need to assert the rightness of your purchase here on rec.bicycles.tech, and
    Jobst will savage you mercilessly. It could get ugly, very ugly.

    I bought a Seven Axiom earlier this year. Great bike. I can find almost no fault in it. The
    ordering, cusotmization, fitting process is really nice and this is one of the main reasons I went
    with Seven. Also, in digging around on the net and elsewhere, I could find almost nothing negative
    about the company or the bikes, and tons of gushing praise.

    The bike was damn expensive and I do sometimes wonder if I lost my mind. But the ride is very VERY
    good, and it looks great, and it should last forever, and I got xlnt customer service, and the guy
    at my LBS where I bought it kisses my ass and gives me great service and lifetime free maintenance.
    And I do enjoy having a bike that is unique. Eventually I will forget about the money.

    Many of the comments in this thread are essentially reverse snobbery: "I ride a piece of [censored] 20 yr
    old bike, and this makes me better than all those yuppies on overpriced Ti, etc etc". I am not a
    money wasting idiot (I drive a 94 Civic), but jeezus you might as well live a little now and then...

    -Doug

  3. On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 22:45:41 -0700, Doug Pearl <[email hidden]> from Altopia Corp. - Usenet Access

    - www.altopia.com said:

    "I ride a piece of [censored] 20 yr old bike, and this makes me better than all those yuppies on
    overpriced Ti, etc etc".

    Yeah? It's all in the legs, anyway. Fabrizzio could drop you no matter what you rode.

    --
    home.sport.rr.comcuthulu human rights = peace PARDON me, am I speaking ENGLISH?
    1:01:49 AM 13 October 2003

  4. In article said:

    "Ryan Cousineau" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    So there you go, Claire: get a used steel bike like me, and we can drop Paul together.

    Quoted message said:

    Ryan No doubt you may be able to drop me on that old rusty steel bike but will you look good
    doing it? LOL

    Going off the front is always a good look. Fabrizio 3:14

    PS: bike is redeemed by a nice carbon-legged fork. It's purple.

    --
    Ryan Cousineau, [email hidden] sfu.ca~rcousine President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

  5. Paul said:

    That's what we all need in some form or another. If this wasn't the case then we would all be
    riding rusty old steel bikes with 105 groupo, wearing plain black cycling shorts, a plain cycling
    jersey and unshaven legs.

    Bingo. Except it's not all 105 by any means, more of a mishmash. You say this like it's a
    bad thing...

    Quoted message said:

    We would all be living in a shack and be driving a [censored] car.

    Nope, don't drive.
    --
    David Damerell <[email hidden]> Kill the tomato!

  6. "Mark Hickey" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:
    Kerry Nikolaisen said:

    Nah, she's got Steelhead written all over her.

    That'll teach her to go drinking with cyclists...

    ROTFL!

    I was feeling blue, this really helped!

    --
    Warm Regards,

    Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com

    Home of the meditative cyclist: home.earthlink.netWelcome.htm

    Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at: bookcrossing.comCpetersky

  7. "Paul" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    That's what we all need in some form or another. If this wasn't the case then we would all be
    riding rusty old steel bikes with 105 groupo, wearing plain black cycling shorts, a plain
    cycling jersey and unshaven legs. We would all be living in a shack and be driving a [censored]
    car. You show me


    a

    Quoted message said:

    person who doesn't care what the other other people thinks and I will show you a person with a
    Seven Axiom

    Fab? Fab? I want your comments here. Whitebone, can you get Fab for me?

    --
    Warm Regards,

    Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com

    Home of the meditative cyclist: home.earthlink.netWelcome.htm

    Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at: bookcrossing.comCpetersky

  8. In article said:

    On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 22:45:41 -0700, Doug Pearl <[email hidden]> from Altopia Corp. - Usenet

    Access - www.altopia.com said:

    "I ride a piece of [censored] 20 yr old bike, and this makes me better than all those yuppies on
    overpriced Ti, etc etc".

    Yeah? It's all in the legs, anyway. Fabrizzio could drop you no matter what you rode.

    And? What does that have to do with this discussion? Anybody who knows anything knows it's the rider
    not the bike. Again, not relevant to the discussion.

    -Doug

  9. Quoted message said:

    You show me a

    Quoted message said:

    person who doesn't care what the other people thinks and I will show you a person with a
    Seven Axiom


    Quoted message said:


    As far as your descriptions go, though, you could be describing me. All


    my

    Quoted message said:

    bikes are steel, some of them might even have some rust. I wear plain black cycling shorts, a
    plain (usually wool) jersey most of the time and I don't shave my legs. Never did, even when I
    raced. I live in a 100 year old 1200 square foot house- close enough to a shack- and drive a 1990
    Volvo 240- close enough to a [censored]. I haven't bought a *new* bike since 1996. I don't give a
    rat's ass if other people look at my bikes and glaze over with envy. In fact, I'd rather they
    didn't and then they won't be tempted to steal it.

    Fair enough. I guess I now have to show you a person with a Seven. If you look very closely the
    owner is standing behind the tree.

    sevencycles.comgalleryCloseUp.html
    rtucci.jpg&Michael%20V.%20from%20Ny%20shows%20off%20his%20Seven%20Axiom.

    ps that's not my bike

  10. In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

    ...

    Quoted message said:

    LBS where I bought it kisses my ass and gives me great service and lifetime free maintenance.

    That right there is worth a lot!

    ....

    --
    Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

    REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

  11. Doug Pearl <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

    Quoted message said:

    In article <[email hidden]>, Gary Young

    Quoted message said:

    [email hidden] (Claire Petersky) wrote in message
    news:<[email hidden]>...

    Quoted message said:

    My co-worker has been hounding me to buy a Seven bike. Please critique this little essay he
    sent me:


    <snip, snip, snip, snip....>

    Sure, drop a load of cash on a butt-ugly Seven. But be forewarned that after taking out a second
    mortgage for no better reason than to keep up with the Joneses, you will feel a subtle pressure
    to justify your decision by writing long-winded, wrong-headed essays just like your friend's.
    People will start to avoid you at parties -- "Oh no, she's going to start in on Sevens again."
    Perhaps you will feel the need to assert the rightness of your purchase here on
    rec.bicycles.tech, and Jobst will savage you mercilessly. It could get ugly, very ugly.

    I bought a Seven Axiom earlier this year. Great bike. I can find almost no fault in it. The
    ordering, cusotmization, fitting process is really nice and this is one of the main reasons I went
    with Seven. Also, in digging around on the net and elsewhere, I could find almost nothing negative
    about the company or the bikes, and tons of gushing praise.

    The bike was damn expensive and I do sometimes wonder if I lost my mind. But the ride is very
    VERY good, and it looks great, and it should last forever, and I got xlnt customer service,
    and the guy at my LBS where I bought it kisses my ass and gives me great service and lifetime
    free maintenance. And I do enjoy having a bike that is unique. Eventually I will forget about
    the money.

    Many of the comments in this thread are essentially reverse snobbery: "I ride a piece of [censored] 20
    yr old bike, and this makes me better than all those yuppies on overpriced Ti, etc etc". I am
    not a money wasting idiot (I drive a 94 Civic), but jeezus you might as well live a little now
    and then...


    Okay, okay, I was being unfair. Can't a guy be unfair once in a while?

    Whether you find the Sevens attractive or not is a matter of taste. As for fit, that can be had for
    a lot less money than Seven charges, but it probably helps to have enough knowledge to find people
    who will do it right. Maybe Seven earns its premium by getting it right consistently.

  12. Actually I heard it from a Lightspeed dealer. "gwhite" <gwhite@hocuspocus_ti.com> wrote in message
    news:3F8A1526.FBE7C1D1@hocuspocus_ti.com...

    Quoted message said:
    Brian Wax said:


    Sad fact. Lightspeed is the Sam Adams of boutique beers. I also heard


    that

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    Eddy Merkx provides the geometry/layout and the bikes are mass produced


    by

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    some conglomerate.

    "I heard it somewhere through a friend of a friend."

    Quoted message said:

    "gwhite" <gwhite@hocuspocus_ti.com> wrote in message news:3F884DAE.18FBD719@hocuspocus_ti.com...

    Quoted message said:

    Brian Wax wrote:
    >

    > Lightspeed is mass produced by Trek or some other big outfit.

    Huh?

    So exactly when did Lightspeed shut down their fab house and contract


    frame

    Quoted message said:

    making out to Trek?

  13. Seven certainly does seem to be the choice of upper-middle-aged upper-middle-class cyclists with male menopause around here - if those are the kind of people you want to impress that's your bike.

    You might enjoy having a not-so high zoot bike with a really cool custom paint job though Claire - you could put your creativity into the paint scheme and have something that people would admire because you thought of it yourself rather than just the fact that you could actually afford it.

    Fondriest even has a process that allows them to print hi-res photographs on your bike frame -

  14. (Claire Petersky) said:

    My co-worker has been hounding me to buy a Seven bike. Please critique this little essay he
    sent me:

    I'm not going to address that essay directly except to say that Seven bikes are not so distinguished
    as to be unique among USA-made Ti bikes.

    However, I will say this: In my search for a custom frame, I found that Seven would not offer a
    custom frame to fit me. That is, they would not scale the length of a frame for me in
    proportion to its height. I wonder what good a "custom" frame is, if it does not offer this
    characteristic at least!

    I was not impressed.

    Chalo Colina

  15. In article <[email hidden]>, Brian Wax

    Quoted message said:

    Actually I heard it from a Lightspeed dealer.

    Which I guess is no impediment to being a fool. :-)

    --Paul

  16. Chalo said:
    (Claire Petersky) said:

    My co-worker has been hounding me to buy a Seven bike. Please critique this little essay he
    sent me:

    I'm not going to address that essay directly except to say that Seven bikes are not so
    distinguished as to be unique among USA-made Ti bikes.

    However, I will say this: In my search for a custom frame, I found that Seven would not offer a
    custom frame to fit me. That is, they would not scale the length of a frame for me in proportion
    to its height. I wonder what good a "custom" frame is, if it does not offer this characteristic
    at least!

    I was not impressed.

    Chalo Colina

    Can you explain that? If not how can they call it a custom frame and not just sizings of
    readymade frames?

    --
    Perre

    You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

  17. Quoted message said:

    Whether you find the Sevens attractive or not is a matter of taste. As for fit, that can be had
    for a lot less money than Seven charges, but it probably helps to have enough knowledge to find
    people who will do it right. Maybe Seven earns its premium by getting it right consistently.

    Just how expensive is a Seven?

    Dave

  18. frame prices sevencycles.compriceroad.html

    I was just checking out their website and noticed that they are building a new frame. Has anyone
    seen the Alium? Looks pretty nice. Maybe my new Axiom won't do me for another 10 years LOL.

    with a frame price of $3595 I would really look good at the back of the pack. :-)

    "Raoul Duke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    Whether you find the Sevens attractive or not is a matter of taste. As for fit, that can be had
    for a lot less money than Seven charges, but it probably helps to have enough knowledge to find
    people who will do it right. Maybe Seven earns its premium by getting it right consistently.

    Just how expensive is a Seven?

    Dave

  19. Doug Pearl said:

    And? What does that have to do with this discussion? Anybody who knows anything knows it's the
    rider not the bike. Again, not relevant to the discussion.

    Right, considering that the OP was looking to buy a bike, not a rider.

    --

    David L. Johnson

    __o | A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. _`\(,_ | -- Paul Erdos
    (_)/ (_) |

  20. Chalo said:

    However, I will say this: In my search for a custom frame, I found that Seven would not offer a
    custom frame to fit me. That is, they would not scale the length of a frame for me in proportion
    to its height. I wonder what good a "custom" frame is, if it does not offer this characteristic
    at least!

    That is weird. I would say that changing the length/height ratio to fit the body is the one
    characteristic of a custom frame. If not, why not just get a stock size that fits one or the other?
    Placement of cable stops is unimportant.

    --

    David L. Johnson

    __o | If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a _`\(,_ | conclusion. --
    George Bernard Shaw (_)/ (_) |

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