When I visited Ride Studio Cafe in February, I developed a little crush on an Orange painted monstercross bicycle. Other than the fact that the paint job was fantastic it looked like it was ready to take on the world and do it with style. I really could not get it out of my head for weeks. I looked for information about the bike and found a nice writeup on Seven’s website.

Meanwhile I finished Der Panzer build and was collecting the kilometers on it. The characteristics of Der Panzer are very defined: it is slow moving, heavy, stable, beefy – pretty much everything you’d want a gravel touring bike to be. With 13.25 kg of weight (that’s 29.21 lbs) it’s not going to speed past anyone, but old people in wheel chairs. It was also doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing. Still I could not get the orange Seven out of my head.

When I realized that I will be visiting Ride Studio Cafe again and that I’ll be taking some bikes on a spin, I asked Patria if she could borrow the orange rig from Neil. Neil was kind enough to agree and so on a beautiful New England day, after I rode 28 km (17.6 miles) on a 8 kg Seven Mudhoney SL, I took Neil’s monstercross on a ride.

To my great surprise I found myself riding a version of Der Panzer. It was 1 kg lighter, had bar-end shifters and more volume in its tires, but it moved in much the same way. It was comfy and smooth, but the same superlatives that I use to describe my Hunter could be used to describe Neil’s orange monster cx Seven. It’s a fantastic ride and would be hella fun to take on any trail, but I already had that bike, in blue, and with that, I was released from my spell and was free to contemplate the next build.