Seven Axiom SLX, 4-season and all-road

Things I like about disc brakes:

• Mountains hold less fear
  
• Work in wet and gritty conditions without losing braking power
  
• That river path near Twickenham can still be ridden through without a care for the diminished braking afterwards
  
• Allows for wider rims, tyres and support for those in the frame as all clearance issues are solved
  
  

It's what kept the Serotta from being truly 4 season, and on reflection is why I frequently chose to ride the Robin Mather... not for the mudguards or hub gears, but for the discs.

And if I'm going to go disc, I'm going to go hydraulic.

Hell, if I could throw some Hope mountain bike stuff on there I probably would (could, but I'm thinking long-term support, compatibility with the levers, etc and it's just simpler to say Shimano for everything).

What's wrong with that set up?

Allows for wider rims, tyres and support for those in the frame as all clearance issues are solved

Another very important (IMHO) advantage is that you won't need to splash out a lots of money for another Enve rims once the braking surface have worn down after a year of above average riding.

what the hell's going on with the hoses? Do you use those de-couplers for anything?

I'm having a bit of a shitty time with my Shimano set up.

It should feel very sharp and powerful, I'd take it to a different bicycle shop to diagnosis the issues, could well be a new levers/calipers is needed as there has been some rare cases where no matter how much you re-bled it, it still very spongy.

Both you and @Zed are right. But do give it another thought before you take the debit card out. I like both but prefer rim brakes, would I live with disc brakes only bike stable? No.

Maybe do a rim brake budget weenie permitting space? A cheap-ish rim brake road bike is more fun on roads/hills than a disc brake road bike IMO. Bowman palace or CAAD12 or something.

The only thing that remains from the original premise seems to be the brand of the bike.

:)

The original thought was "as close to the original as possible, replace as perfectly as possible with whatever is available today.".

But that was silly. Because I don't do the same riding as twelve years ago when I was doing crits, entering sportives, and riding with London Dynamo and basically being a very crap road racer.

The Serotta was a bike for racing, a bike for club rides and hills.

And it took thinking about it over Christmas to be honest and realise that's not what I do. The club rides, occasionally with groups of friends, but not the racing.

What I do instead are things like the Dunwich Dynamo, or solo day rides, or bits of bike-packing, and European trips to do a few mountains or roll around Provence, and yes ... I commute on the same insane bikes.

So I'm looking for more comfort (in ride position and bike handling, as well as tired hands on the 200km+ rides I very rarely do but found that the Serotta did tire me on), more control (confidence for descents or late night exhausted reactions) but with the lightness and pace I enjoyed of the Serotta. It needs to be capable of going gravel or towpath, but be a road bike at it's core.

I want a race bike that concedes a few things to helping it go farther more comfortably, whilst carrying more than just the rider, and acknowledging that the rider isn't the best. Rather than a gravel or CX bike that tries to pretend it will be good for the majority of the time that it's on the road (which wil be 95% of the time).

A road bike that if I got the urge to do the South Downs Way wouldn't make me regret it, yet allows me to beat my personal best on the Dunwich Dynamo.

Hence, I figured I want discs, and the bike models are concessions to component choice.

I don't mind changing my mind, whatever I get will have been thought through like crazy by the time I settle on it. And who really doesn't go through every permutation of decision when buying a bike like this, I'm just doing it publicly.

And who really doesn't go through every permutation of decision when buying a bike like this, I'm just doing it publicly.

Word.

Needs to be burnt.

It feels the exact opposite of sharp and powerful.

Will have to take it to be sorted soon. Makes me wanna cry.

It feels the exact opposite of sharp and powerful.

Then it should be fixed, find out if it's warranted, you should be able to have the brake feel amazingly sharp and powerful before the lever even hit the bar.

Your brakes really sound like shit (sorry, not much choice of a better word!).

I have both hydro and ceramic open pros. I would always choose hydros for better stopping, wet wether predictability and lower hand fatigue.

You had your hydraulic warranted didn't you?

They just needed to be set up correctly, one of the hose ends was squashed. So the full warranty was not required, it just required a decent mechanic (not Sigma's head mechanic).

The head mechanic there left shortly!

That's good as he was an arrogant unhelpful negligent prick.

'on here'?

Fair enough. I edited my comment as soon as I hit reply and looked to the side and realised my point falls flat on its face once I look at my own bikes.
Not a single one has remained the same since their first iteration.

Looking forward to what you end up with.

Hah, best not to says where he moved to...

Lower hand fatigue.

Htfu DJ

Evans Brentford ?

Maybe i am a less proficient wanker than you think.

I think you are on the right track with seven: not only are they some of the most experienced builders in the market, they also are one of the most successful, which, fingers crossed, means they'll be around for a long time should you need support. With smaller, newer builders there's less of a guarantee.

I will say though that the evergreen's headtube looks wank and a shop owner who sells mostly sevens has said it's not his favorite of their models.

you know Hope are making disc calipers that will work with shimano hydraulics...

https://www.bikerumor.com/2016/09/02/eb16-hope-tech-rolls-out-new-road-hubs-4-piston-disc-brake-calipers-for-sram-shimano-levers/