interesting…
oh that is hott.
I FUCKED UP
Not bad, but I bet it will be $750+
holy shit, still threaded headsets?? i guess it fits the theme of the bike, or somethign, but wth.
what riv sez:
[quote=GP]It’s what used to be called a road-sport bike. It has light tubing (by our standards – like the Rambouillet, A. Homer Hilsen), and accepts tires up to 28mm with a fender, or about 35mm without. It has two eyelets on the rear dropouts, one on the front, and hourglass mounts on the seat stays. It’s not for loaded touring, but fits a rear rack anyway, and you can use that as a saddlebag support, or put a trunk rack or some other light load on it. It probably won’t break-like-carbon if you load it up and head for the hills, but it’s really not built to do that fantastically well. The tubing is too light.
It has the same “expanded” kind of frame as the Bombadil and Sam Hillborne. The top tube slopes up about 6 degrees, so ultra classicists will barf, but the upslope forces you to be comfortable, and some people must be forced. It also means you’ll ride a frame that’s three to five cm smaller than what you’d ride in one of our bikes.
The fork is threaded, so you can use a quill stem. All the lugs, the crown, and the BB shell are the same ones we use on our own bikes. The rear dropouts are a stock model that have been used on lots of frames, but I didn’t pick them. They’re small, strong, and light.
The tubing is Tange Prestige (heat treated CrMo). Tange is a tubing maker; Prestige is it’s top, heat-treated CrMo tubing, and it’s plenty good for any frame.
The downtube says the opposite of SOMA, and the model nameSan Marcosis in small letters on the back of the seat tube.
I think it’s best and fairest to evaluate this frame in the context of the current bike shop selection, and the price, about $895. I want to say that, because if all you do is consider “lugs” and “steel” and “fork crown” and maybe even “Rivendell-designed” it’s a short step away from being compared to frames that cost a whole lot more.
Please DO compare it to any carbon frame and fork. Compare the clearance, the bar height and comfort, the tire and fender clearances, and the overall look. DON’T compare it to an A. Homer Hilsen, etc., and expect the same details. The fork won’t be as beautiful, but it’ll look a whole lot better (by certain standards) than any carbon fork, and it’ll be way safer, too.
This frame is perfect for anybody who wants a really nice, super comfortable, attractive, safe, and versatile bike for well under $2,000. It’s great for any road rides, centuries, and (with 35mm tires run soft), some smooth fire trails.
Wrap-up:
SOMA San Marcos
Sizes: Probably 51/650 or 700c (not sure); 55, 59, 63. Maybe a 47/650, too. It’s designed, but nobody ever buys small bikes, so I may suggest to Jim to nix it. It’ll be up to him, so don’t get mad at me…
Fitting: Go three to six cm smaller than your level-top tube frame.
Color: Not set, but maybe the light blue that’s on the table (and the 'net)
Brake style: 55 reach, sidepull or centerpull, but there’s no cable hanger stop, so if you want to use a centerpull you’ll need the stops and hangers, and I’m sure Merry Sales will make them available to dealers.
Max tire with fender: 30mm. (Who makes a 30? But if you have one)
Max tire no fender: 37mm.
Braze-ons: Two bottles, two eyelets on rear drops, one on each front, plus the normal cable stops.
Designed for: Road riding, light loads. If you’re light or if you ride light (don’t smack things, pedal smoothly, unweight the bike over bumps, things like that), you can go glorious unpaved places on this bike, but the bottom line is: Road bike, not trail bike.
Loaded touring?: Nope. It won’t break, but it’s not touring-stout.
Rear spacing: 130mm
Fork type: Steel (CrMo) with Riv’s crown
Lugs, BB shell: Riv’s investment cast
Kinda tubes: Tange Prestige, with 0.8mm butts in the top and down tubes.
Seat post size: 27.2mm
Anything quirky, weird, or spooky that you’ll find out too late? No, it’s normal.
Frame weight: Shouldn’t ask, but a 55 will weigh about 4.4lb.
Available where: Bike dealers who opt to stock it, and Rivendell.
Available when: We aren’t going to rush it, and if all of the details aren’t nailed, it plain won’t happen at all. Right now the most optimistic guess is Fall, 2010. I bet it won’t land till Spring 2011, though.[/quote]
…a Rivendell for hipsters. Stoked.
i don’t get down with all the rivendell luvs
but it looks nice
all in all i approve
nvm i take it back
It’s good to know bikes will still have threaded forks in 2011.
Not sure if I qualify as an ultra classicist, but I do not like upsloping top tubes on steel road bikes, especially when they are used on a bike done up in the Rivendell fashion (quill stem, fancy lugwork, etc.) You gotta go one way or the other, this particular blend of new & old school is not particularly sexy atmo.
That said, I hope it works out well for both Rivendell and Soma.
I like threaded forks! I know how high I want my bars to be, and how far away, and which bars I want to use. And a quill stem is way nicer & cleaner looking than 99% of threadless stems I’ve seen. Works good, looks good, why not?
Honestly I think much of the threaded fork hate on Tarckbike comes from people who were traumatized switching from track drops to bullhorns to risers to whatever and having to wrap / re-wrap their bars each time. I do not believe this is as much of an issue on road bikes where you change the bars much, much less frequently.
I like threaded forks! I know how high I want my bars to be, and how far away, and which bars I want to use. And a quill stem is way nicer & cleaner looking than 99% of threadless stems I’ve seen. Works good, looks good, why not?
Honestly I think much of the threaded fork hate on Tarckbike comes from people who were traumatized switching from track drops to bullhorns to risers to whatever and having to wrap / re-wrap their bars each time. I do not believe this is as much of an issue on road bikes where you change the bars much, much less frequently.[/quote]
actually it’s because threaded headsets suck and are impossible to set up perfectly. they always seem to be less than perfect and it is tough to find a cartridge version, then if you do it probably won’t work b/c of the stack height. any idiot can set up a threadless cartridge headset properly and then ignore it for a few thousand miles at least.
gentle upslopes make a bunch of sense on bikes such as these - you can get away with a much bigger headtube without it looking like an awkward boner poking out of a jockstrap in gymclass, whilst retaining a much more manageable standover (which helps a bunch if your bike is all loaded up).
justifying the threaded fork is a lot tougher
I like threaded forks! I know how high I want my bars to be, and how far away, and which bars I want to use. And a quill stem is way nicer & cleaner looking than 99% of threadless stems I’ve seen. Works good, looks good, why not?
Honestly I think much of the threaded fork hate on Tarckbike comes from people who were traumatized switching from track drops to bullhorns to risers to whatever and having to wrap / re-wrap their bars each time. I do not believe this is as much of an issue on road bikes where you change the bars much, much less frequently.[/quote]
actually it’s because threaded headsets suck and are impossible to set up perfectly. they always seem to be less than perfect and it is tough to find a cartridge version, then if you do it probably won’t work b/c of the stack height. any idiot can set up a threadless cartridge headset properly and then ignore it for a few thousand miles at least.[/quote]
I dunno, between my wife and I, we have 3 bikes with threaded headsets and they all work fine and get very little if any adjustment. I don’t know if they are “perfect”, but the bikes certainly ride just fine…
P.S., your animated gif sig wins the animated gif sig contest for sure. Been lolling all week!
I like threaded forks! I know how high I want my bars to be, and how far away, and which bars I want to use. And a quill stem is way nicer & cleaner looking than 99% of threadless stems I’ve seen. Works good, looks good, why not?
Honestly I think much of the threaded fork hate on Tarckbike comes from people who were traumatized switching from track drops to bullhorns to risers to whatever and having to wrap / re-wrap their bars each time. I do not believe this is as much of an issue on road bikes where you change the bars much, much less frequently.[/quote]
actually it’s because threaded headsets suck and are impossible to set up perfectly. they always seem to be less than perfect and it is tough to find a cartridge version, then if you do it probably won’t work b/c of the stack height. any idiot can set up a threadless cartridge headset properly and then ignore it for a few thousand miles at least.[/quote]
I dunno, between my wife and I, we have 3 bikes with threaded headsets and they all work fine and get very little if any adjustment. I don’t know if they are “perfect”, but the bikes certainly ride just fine…
P.S., your animated gif sig wins the animated gif sig contest for sure. Been lolling all week![/quote]
yeah, they work, but mine personally bugs the hell out of me. i got a new ritchey logic for my kilo and it was either so tight it binded, or loose enough where there was a bit of play. i took it apart and put it together like 3 times, and had someone else at the shop try to help. i actually had fewer probs with the dumpstered schwinn headset that was previously on it (still not great).
p.s. i’m glad someone enjoys it - i certainly did when i first saw it.
getting rid of atlantis?! how will i ever get an atlantis then!?
looks pretty cool. good all around bike.