When you love something very much, say for example a bicycle, then you spend so much time with it that eventually you stop seeing it.  Or at least you stop seeing it with the fresh eyes that helped you fall in love with it in the first place.

In designing and building bikes all day, every day, day after day, year after year, for decades, it’s possible to lose sight of what you’re doing.  Even when you’re achieving your stated purpose, inspiration can ebb.

Like a bike race, where you have your head down, and your entire focus is on the work of staying in the group.  All you know is your legs are burning, and your chest is heaving.  And if you keep your head down like that, you’ll miss the winning move.

So we build bikes all day, every day, but we also pick our heads up and look around us.  There is so much there to inspire.  Some of the things you see stick with you, either consciously or unconsciously, and then find their way into your design work.

Or maybe, you are so taken with an object that you look it up. You learn how it’s made, and in discovering that process you find a better way to make something you’ve been working on forever.  In the best cases, this whole process leads to solutions for seemingly intractable problems.  You didn’t expect this, but there it was, in a sculpture park or parked out behind a shopping center, just waiting for you to see, if you can remember to look.

Photos by Seven’s own Matt O’Keefe.

Patrick Brady wrote a brief history of  New England bicycle manufacturing in the latest issue of Peloton Magazine, “New England Genesis”, and Seven was lucky enough to be included in it.  In his blog, Red Kite Prayer, Patrick elaborates on the interconnectedness of the region’s bike building companies, and created a family tree to illustrate some of the relationships.

We are honored to be a part of this thriving and expanding community, and we wanted to clarify a few aspects of Patrick’s illustration that might be confusing to readers.  Here is a list of framebuilders and bike-building industry people of which we’re aware that started businesses after working with local – primarily Massachusetts – framebuilders.  For example, King Cage is not a framebuilder, but Ron worked at Fat City Cycles so we included him on this list.

A Long History of Photo-Taking

Each company mentioned is a framebuilder, unless otherwise indicated:

Updated 23 December 2011

Seven Cycles

In addition to Red Kite Prayer’s list, here are some companies started by Seven Cycles employees and alumnae, and clarification regarding some of the companies relationships to Seven:

• Zanconato, Mike Z. was building frames before working at Seven and continues to build frames since his tenure at Seven.
• SCUL, Skunk.  SCUL is more of a chopper gang than a framebuilder.  Currently works with Seven.
• Sketchy Cycles, Mike Salvatore.  Currently works with Seven.
• Banjo Cycles, Ahren Rogers.
• Rack Lady, Leah Stargardter.  She builds custom bike racks.
• 333fab, Maxwell Kullaway and Bernard Georges.
• Icarus Frames, Ian Sutton.
• Royal H Cycles, Bryan Hollingsworth.  Currently works with Seven.
• Honey Bikes, Beekeepers.
• Kualis, Yoshi Nishikawa.  Currently works with Seven.
• Saila, Lauren Trout.  Currently works with Seven.
• Bike retailers that originally worked at Seven Cycles and later started or owned bike stores and studios:
• Grace Bicycles – Holliston, Massachusetts, Roy Cervantes.
• Cascade Bicycle Studio – Seattle, Washington, Zac Daab.
• Ride Studio Cafe – Lexington, Massachusetts, kids – lots of them.
• Velosmith Bicycle Studio - Chicago, Illinois, Tony Bustamante.

Fat City Cycles

Here are some additional companies – beyond what’s mentioned on Red Kite Prayer – started by Fat City Cycles alumnae:

• King Cage, Ron Andrews – he makes water bottle cages.
• Igleheart, Chris Igleheart
• Bomber Cycles, Dave Blakney
• S.R.P., Jeff Federson – no longer in business; he used to make small parts for the bike industry.
• Jane Wear, Jane Hayes – no longer in business, she used to make clothing for the bike industry.

Merlin Metalworks

A couple of additional companies not mentioned in the Peleton article:

• Arctos Machine, Gary Helfrich – no longer in business; Arctos was based on the west coast.
• One-Off Titanium, Mike Augsburger – he used to make custom bicycles.

Independent Fabrication

Additional companies started by Independent Fabrication alumnae:

• A.N.T., Mike Flanagan
• Sputnik Metalworks, Jeff Buckles – he makes framebuilding tooling for the bike industry.
• Firefly Bicycle

Alternative Needs Transportation – A.N.T

A company to include in A.N.T.’s family tree; more to come, we’re certain:

• Geekhouse, Marty Walsh.  In the article, it may come across that Geekhouse was born out of Marty Walsh’s work with Seven.  Marty started Geekhouse prior to working with us, ran Geekhouse while he was working with Seven, and continues to operate Geekhouse today.

Serotta Competition Cycles

Yes, we know that New York is not in New England, but Serotta and the Boston bike building scene are connected – at the very least by Whitcomb.  Here are a few additional companies started by Serotta alumnae:

• Kirk Frameworks, Dave Kirk-Bozeman, Montana
• K. Bedford Customs, Kelly Bedford
  
• Ellis Cycles, Dave Wages

Local Builders

Here are a few framebuilders that didn’t start at a local bike company, as far as we know:

• Peter Mooney Cycles
• Hot Tubes, Toby Stanton.
  • Circle A Cycles, Chris Bull.
  • Maietta Cycles, Tony Maietta.
• Dave Weagle
  • E.thirteen
  • Evil
• Ted Wojcik Custom Bicycles
• Rhygin Cycles, Christian Jones – no longer in business.
• Parlee Bicycles, Bob Parlee.
• October Hand Made Bikes – no longer in business.

We’re sure we’re forgetting a bunch of people, so please let us know whom we’ve left out!  We thank Patrick for including us in this terrific article.  We hope that after reading Patrick’s work you’ll have a better understanding of the unique history of New England that helped launch so many amazing and innovative companies.