# Vertical Compliance



## echo7 (Sep 7, 2010)

Hi there
can someone tell me about vertical compliance..(comfortable....... to stiff)
I totally forgot what it meant
thanks


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## brianmcg (Oct 12, 2002)

Its a marketing term dreamed up by some suit to get people to buy a bike in the hopes it will be more comfortable. 

But unless your talking about a shock on a mt bike its purely B.S.


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## Dajianshan (Jul 15, 2007)

I think on the Seven order form they are asking how comfortable you want the ride. Do you want more road feel or cadillac plushness. 

With Seven you can see that in the rear triangle. 

Compare these seatstays. These are both Axiom SL models from 2011. One is built to be a little more compliant for training rides and everyday use. The other is raced. 

You can see the smaller diameter tubing on the more compliant frame. It does not wrap around the seat tube like the stiffer bike, despite the rider being heavier than the rider of the bike which is raced. 

The racing frame was tuned for road feel and just enough stiffness outside of crits. You feel the bumps, but not the bite. I know of other Sevens that are so plush they are described as "rolling on a cloud." 

I know the more compliant ride was modeled after the Colnago C-40. The racing frame had no model. This is just one difference. 

The term to look out for in marketing is "Laterally stiff... yet vertically compliant."


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## echo7 (Sep 7, 2010)

thanks Dajianshan
Now I remember.. the tubing on the seat stays depends on the riders weight.. 
simply because a lighter rider may select a more comfort ride (0-5) and still not flex the frame . While a massive rider will have to select stiffness (6-10) so the frame wont flex when climbing/sprinting.


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## Dajianshan (Jul 15, 2007)

Well... not necessarily. The compliance would allow the tubing to give more or less suspension. The less suspension you want the thicker the stays. A heavier rider may get thicker tubes. A heavier rider might want a cushy ride and get thinner tubes. Seven calculates the rider weight into the tube selections anyways, so the custom sheet asks you how comfortable you want your ride for your weight. The bike with the thicker stays in the picture actually belongs to the smaller, lighter rider (me) because I wanted a bit more road feel and stiffness for climbing and racing. I think the other Seven owner has about 15-20lbs on me.


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## echo7 (Sep 7, 2010)

i recall that I selected more comfort on vertical and more stiff on drive train...
your seat stays diameter looks the same as mine.. I checked the welds and its also the same..


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## Dajianshan (Jul 15, 2007)

Mine is a 5. The chainstays may also be thicker.


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## Dajianshan (Jul 15, 2007)

Im 140lbs.


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## Dajianshan (Jul 15, 2007)

By the way... how does it ride?


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## echo7 (Sep 7, 2010)

im 150lbs... sometimes 154 after a party or 147 after a century ride.. ;-)
the bike rides the way I wanted it to be..I'm trying to recall vertical compliance as I'm planing on getting my second seven but this time the SL version (i think that's the manipulated tubing right?)

I also recall that I selected 2 or 3 on the vertical compliance.. since I usually ride centuries and double centuries...


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## Dajianshan (Jul 15, 2007)

I have the SL version. 

The tubing is externally double butted for weight savings and tube manipulation. I think my frame weighs 1300 grams. 

The longest ride on that frame is 105 miles with 7000ft of climbing and it is comfortable enough. Climbs and descends superb. In races it has really come through. I can plow over uneven surfaces without chatter or bite. Very good. It still reminds me it is stiff, but it is never jarring.


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## medimond (Apr 26, 2009)

echo7 said:


> thanks Dajianshan
> Now I remember.. the tubing on the seat stays depends on the riders weight..
> simply because a lighter rider may select a more comfort ride (0-5) and still not flex the frame . While a massive rider will have to select stiffness (6-10) so the frame wont flex when climbing/sprinting.


As I understand it, you don't pick number relative to your weight. You pick the performance that your looking for and Seven then factors in your weight to get that performance you are looking for. 

Honestly, don't worry about the numbers. Just tell Seven what type of bike that you want, how it should handle, what you want to do with it, how you want it to climb and how you want it to steer ... they then take care of the rest. I didn't really care what numbers I ended up with, what I did want is a rear end that transferred power and a bike that tracked like it was on rails while not being nervous. I'm not sure is Seven could have done any better than what they provided me, it's really good.


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