Quote Originally Posted by tlkiwi
It's funny that, eh? There are plenty of bikes I'll look at and go "Ooo... Nice." Then every so often I'll see something that just makes me go "I WANNA RIDE IT!!!!!"
Me, two!!

I think if you start to look around at all custom bikes you'll see that a lot of tall people have them as well as the other extreme. Around here, you see a lot of short women on Steve Rex, a local Sacramento builder (think Steph or Terri, yellow, one of 'em has one). Also, people who don't fit production bikes for many reasons - torso to leg length ratio is far off average, back, neck or hip issues, etc. etc. My friend, Candy, is a novice rider and we took her in for a fitting. The production frames just weren't right and she's about 5'7", a very avg height. Joe fitted her up with an all steel Seven with 105 components for not a huge amount of money and she just rode her PB this weekend, 40 miles at the Bike Around the Buttes, and I think she's been very comfy from day 1. The issues she relates have more to do with not riding much than the bike.

I think those people at either end of the height spectrum will be driven to a custom bike sooner than the rest of us but those of us in the middle could be well-served by custom fit and the custom tubesets.

Bubba could fit a production bike, but has been lusting after a Seven for years and years. The ride characteristics of the steel and carbon combo were intriguing and he wanted the front end higher than many production bikes now have without the compact geometry. Old school purists tend to prefer a horizontal top tube from an aesthetic point of view (not anything about the functionality). What many people also don't realize is that Seven keeps many, many different tubing sets in stock so they can tune the ride, so to speak, as you wish. You want incredibly stiff and to heck with comfort? You got it. You want stiff enough for efficiency but compliant for a day in the saddle? You got it. You're a little rider? Lightweighter tubes than those used for Bubba's frame. So many reasons to go custom.

BikerZ, if you are serious about wanting a Seven sometime in the next year or so, you should come up for a ride and spend some time at Wheelworks. You may even want to set an appt with Joe for a full fitting. A bike like this can take a lot of planning and fitting. Maybe the cost of a fitting will be credited back. I don't know. Do shops do that? I'll go with you and provide the peppermint mocha delivery service.