Seven Alaris

Bicycling Magazine
by Valigra (Cambridge, Mass.)

Component Highlights

Shimano Ultegra 18-speed group, 12-23t 9-speed cassette, 39/53t chainrings, Seven custom titanium stem, 3T Prima 199 bar, Wound-Up seatpost, Chris King headset, Mavic Open Pro 32-hole rims, 700x23 Continental Gran Prix 300 tires

Profile

Titanium dream machine

Best Thing About This Bike

Not-of-this-earth craftsmanship and endless custom options at no extra charge.

Worst Thing

The price. Seven shaves about $600 bucks off the price of their butted titanium Axiom frame by using straight gauge tubes in the Alaris, but it's still far from what we'd call affordable. Our test bike came with goodies like a custom ti stem and all-carbon fork and seatpost, which also jacked up the price. A more frugal parts pick could get the Alaris down to around $3,200 with Ultegra.

The Ride

The beauty of Seven bikes is that they're custom, so each one is designed to meet the customer's needs. Our Alaris came in one of Seven's Signature Sizes, which is as close as they get to offering a standard geometry, and per our request, a slightly sloping top tube and extended head tube was added. Handling was set up to be quick and ideally suited to the skilled, corner-crazy criterium junkie, while the carbon fork and curvaceous rear triangle offered an exceptionally smooth ride without compromising road feel.

Have It Your Way

There's no such thing as a stock Seven—each frame is made to order, from the fit and geometry down to the ride, which is tuned to meet individual rider needs through careful tubing selection. Plush, stable century cruiser, razor-sharp race rig or somewhere in between—it's your choice.

The Verve

When the November print issue went to press, Seven called this bike the Verve. Since then, they changed the name to Alaris. Same bike we planned on testing, just a different name.

Seven Words About This Bike

Clean. Smooth. Sexy. Exotic. Personalized. Litespeed killer.

The Details

Weld beads are so clean and uniform they look almost sculpted, and they thought of every detail, from aluminum water bottle bolts to a chain hanger, pump peg, nifty laser-engraved headtube badge and a composite seat tube sleeve to keep the post from seizing. They even make a titanium headset spacer stack to give the front end a cleaner look.

History Lesson

At the helm of Seven Cycles is framebuilder Rob Vandermark, who helped sculpt Merlin Metalworks into the legendary company that once supplied Lance Armstrong's Subaru Montgomery team. Rob left Merlin and started Seven in '97, and the company as almost named "Wright Cycles" in reference to those brothers who tinkered with bikes and accidentally made an airplane. But there were too many ways to spell "Wright", and for various reasons, the founders settled on Seven.

Buy It If

You lust for custom titanium from a true master and want to save a buck or two with straight-gauge tubes.

Forget It If

The $1,995 price for a frame still sounds like a lot of money compared to the custom steel and production titanium out there.