622 SLX Road Racing Bike

Thoughts on the 622

In the day to day of my job at Seven Cycles I take a handful of calls from customers who want to know the difference from one Seven frame to another. Lately it seems that the bulk of the questions have to do with the all-new 622 SLX. Talking technically and philosophically about what makes each model special, requires me ride each and every one to appreciate the differences. The questions for this bike came long before I had a chance to ride one. I could infer from the look and the material makeup what riding it would be like, but as I have found so many times, you really have to spend some time in the saddle to get a true understanding of the bikes unique feel.

In general, callers want to compare the Diamas SL or the Elium SLX to the 622 SLX. Lucky for me, I've spent significant time on an Elium SLX and a Diamas SLX over the past few years, and would only need a few miles on the 622 before the differences would start to present themselves. I demoed a 622 for about a week and immediately fell in love with it. My first couple of rides were on my usual weekday morning 25 milers, nothing fancy, but served to help me notice the subtle differences from my other bikes. I enjoyed the stiff, snappy feel of the 622 SLX but feared that all that response could only be possible if a certain degree of compliance was sacrificed. Most recently I've been logging miles on my personal Diamas SL, which may be the most comfortable bike I've ever ridden. Head to head, the 622 SLX gave me the sense that it may not be so forgiving in the late miles of an all day epic…so I took it on an all day epic.

What surprised me the most about the 622 was how good I felt at the end of a long ride; I was fatigued, but not beat up. The frames stiffness seemed to keep me from wasting energy as I pedaled, but it somehow became more comfortable as the day went on. Climbing on a 15lb bike is not always as wonderful as it sounds, but the 622 passed that test with flying colors. The bike tracked perfectly and even urged me to push it faster down hills. At cruising speeds on the long flat sections of the ride I was easily able to hold a wheel and take turns in front as needed. The bottom line is that I could not find fault in this bike. It's beautiful and I've yet to hear an argument to counter that. It's light, stiff, fast, forgiving, and it handled every one of my demands without question. After 110 miles of hard riding on an unfamiliar bike I made plans for a mountain bike ride for the very next morning, and decided that I should probably have a 622 SLX of my own. The only question that remained was how I would explain this to my wife.