Soma Fabrications is a company based in San Francisco, CA USA and they are responsible for producing practical, durable, comfortable bicycle frames, parts, and accessories and apparel. One of their frames is called the Buena Vista and I have really wanted to like this frame, but a couple of niggling design points kept me from it. The position of the brake bridge in the rear, combined with the semi-horizontal dropouts, and the position of the brake hole in the front fork made it difficult to mount fenders with normal side pull brake calipers. On Buena Vistas we have built in the past using 700c wheels we ended up using calipers with different reaches on the front and rear just to get clearances. The US distributor told me that long reach brake calipers such as the Rivendell Silver or Tektro 559 which accommodate reaches from 55-73mm will work with 700c tires up to about 28mm wide and fenders, but that is still sort of limiting. The Soma Buena Vista is a mixte design. A pair of small diameter tubes run more or less parallel from the head tube past the seat tube and on to the rear dropouts providing stiffness and strength to the step through frame.
An astute customer and reader of the Lovely Bicycle blog brought to my attention that the frames could be used with 650b wheels with tires up to 40mm wide! Well, I thought, I’ll be dipped in shit and called stinky. The US distributor also confirmed that the frame has always been suitable for either 650b or 700c wheels.
Dry fitting the brake calipers and fenders. The brake pads contact the rims at close to the max 73mm reach. Plenty of clearance for the Berthoud 50mm fenders with Grand Bois Hetre 42mm tires. The rear brake works too!
Yes the bike is complete and it turned out brilliantly, thank you very much. We are waiting for the VO Zeppelin fenders to become available and then I can include some pics of the finished bike. Now I’m happy to recommend the Soma Buena Vista 650b as a capable light touring and commuting machine.
A hub is laced to a rim with spokes and nipples in order to create a wheel. Elementary I know but semantics are important if the aspiring bike tourist is to make him/her self understood.
I don’t want to go into how to build a bicycle wheel because there are hundreds of YouTube videos and several good books available on how to do it. (Jobst Brandt’s The Bicycle Wheel being the paradigm for books)
I will say there are a couple of elements that make a good, strong touring wheel, and these things may not be intuitive. Here is a good touring wheelset: A durable inexpensive wheelset for loaded touring.
Shimano Deore hubs laced to Mavic A319 rims with 36 DT Swiss double butted spokes.
Notice there are a lot of spokes…36 per wheel to be exact. Each spoke crosses 3 other spokes on the way from the hub to the rim, creating a structure of amazing grace, elegance and stability. Some recently popular wheel designs with as few as 18 spokes per wheel rely on the strength of the rim for stability of the wheels which results in a heavier rim. (unless the rim is carbon fiber) Spokes actually are made in various gauges or thicknesses and a visceral reaction might be to assume that thicker spokes will result in a stronger wheel….but not so fast. The spokes flex with every revolution of the wheel, no way around it. So making the middle sections of the spokes thinner than the ends (called “double butting”) allows the spokes to flex and adds strength where they are most likely to fail; at the ends. Get Mr. Brandt’s book if you want to know the excruciating details.
In my experience, based on building dozens of wheelsets, there are only two companies that consistently make high quality rims: Mavic and Velocity. The Mavic A319 rims are a super solid choice for a touring wheelset. For hubs it would be hard to beat the Shimano Deore hubs for value. Steel axles and loose ball bearings make a durable, user friendly combination.
Mavic A319 36 hole. Eyelets provide a wider and smoother bearing surface for the spoke nipple, distributing the load and mitigating galling or cold welding of the rim by the spoke nipple. A good box section rim will have an outer wall and an inner wall creating the “box section”. The eyelets on the Mavic A319 distribute spoke loads to both the inner and outer walls of the rim.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
I built these wheels for a customer who reminded me he has disc brakes. Disc brakes require a disc specific hub onto which the brake rotor is bolted. These wheels don’t have a disc specific hub. That’s right, I’m a professional and an expert. I’ll be selling this wheelset and the customers new wheels are on the way.
The Path Less Pedaled made this video about how bike travel can help the economies of small town America.
Sounds good in theory but I wonder how it works out practically. There is not a large volume of people traveling by bicycle. I know the whole idea of advocacy is to get more people to do it, but it’s sort of like building a community; there needs to be enough “rooftops” before investments in infrastructure like shopping and services make sense. Or like mass transit; there needs to be a critical mass of users to make it viable. To get communities to invest in bicycle friendly amenities or to get them to promote bicycle travel may be putting the trailer in front of the bicycle, so to speak.
Personally, I would much rather ride a bike around town than drive a car. I can use the bike for almost anything I can do in a car. I have more fun too and I can feel superior to the poor slobs stuck in traffic. I also think traveling by bike and living more or less on my wits is a blast. Would I like to see more people doing it? Obviously it would be good for my business if more people were buying from me and if more people used their bikes around town there would be fewer cars to worry about, but those are pretty self-serving reasons.
At any rate, I think the best kind of advocacy is just to be out there on the bike as much as possible. In this country, using a bike for everyday routines is not exactly a mainstream activity. Utilitarian bikers in this country (except Portland) can be categorized roughly as:
-homeless
-court appointed commuters
-hipsters
-wacky hippies
When I spoke to Jobst Brandt (R.I.P.) a few years ago at Interbike and mentioned the excellent crazyguyonabike website he said he would not want to be associated as being a “crazy guy” just because he was using a bike. I think that is key. Until using bicycles is considered a normal, viable way to conduct daily business it will be a fringe activity. Jobst Brandt on the Tenda Road, French Alps in 1989. From trentobike.org
There may be some downsides to more people traveling by bikes too.
One thing I worry about is the popularity of so called “stealth camping, a practice I’ve heard described as “hiding in the woods”. Camping is generally legal on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land but when tourists start trespassing, and if they leave garbage and/or cause damage to property, then all the advocacy in the world will not repair the good will towards bike riders.
I try to remember that I am an ambassador for cycling every time I swing a leg over the top tube but I know I have probably not always represented the way I would like. In the October/November 2012 issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine there is a letter from a person who lives on the TransAmerica route and who has provided hospitality to cyclists for over a decade. This person is removing her home from the ACA map and from the Warmshowers site because of a trend for traveling cyclists to be rude and demanding and to have a feeling of entitlement. She says, “It used to be commonplace for the cyclists to notice that the property was a project in motion- stuff being built, painted or maintained in some way. Without exception I would be asked, ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’…….But it seems different these days. Out of the 115 who stayed so far this year, only three people offered to help” Ouch. She goes on to say that not only do people not offer to help but they leave trash strewn about and seem to take her hospitality for granted.
Sorry to be such a curmudgeon. I really like seeing people like Laura and Russ and like Velouria at Lovely Bicycle writing about and promoting bicycles and bicycle travel. And I truly would like to see more people using bicycles. I think it would go a long way to reducing the levels of anger, anxiety and stress we feel in our everyday lives.
The Bike Hermit gets discouraged. Maybe too easily. He knows he’s not the only one. Sometimes the most basic of tasks are hard to get started. What’s the point after all? Typing on the computer is a struggle. The sentences come out short and clipped. What’s the problem ? It appears, outwardly at least, that everybody else takes care of the events their lives have assigned to them cheerfully and without question…..they just do what they do and they are what they are….. la,la,la,la,la. The Bike Hermit knows that’s not true. Hmmm, the Bike Hermit thinks he’s special. He knows he likes to coddle his feelings of self loathing and regret…why is he not more creative? why does he make everything so difficult? why does he sabotage himself? what value is there to what he does?
Sometimes he is functional and ambulatory on dry land. Sometimes he swims in the soup of his own imaginary swamp. Sometimes he dog paddles and sometimes he just treads water. Other times he sinks below the surface and just floats there. He can observe the world outside which seems unreal and unreachable. The landscape out there is flat and the colors are grayscale or sepia. The weight presses him physically and mentally. It is not entirely unpleasant…..sort of like freezing to death, reportedly.(who reported that and how would they know?)
But when the person who is closest to him and who means more to him than anything else is affected by his whining negativity he realizes he needs to start paddling. Blorp, schpew, cough, hack, spit – his head pops out and he reaches for the bike. He strokes toward the door and outside. Up the literal and metaphorical hill he pedals, trying not to be annoyed by the “rush hour” traffic on this stretch of road that used to be mostly deserted before the geniuses in charge of such things decided it should be paved. Up to the trail he has passed before on this ride but never taken.
Turn left
Loose sand with horse hoof craters and horse shit
Get off and push
Leave bike and walk.
Except for the cheatgrass he imagines this landscape as unchanged for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. A long time anyway. It looks benign but it is really quite harsh. The hills are steep and the soil is poor; sand and windblown silt. No trees grow here, just sagebrush. He sees one half of a jawbone of some small animal and kicks it over.
Back to the bike
Walk down to the road
Coast back down
Now there is some light and color penetrating the gloom, a lens of sunset sky suspended over the horizon. Getting cooler and almost dark.
In the morning, puke it out onto the virtual page. That actually feels better. A lot better.
The Schwalbe Marathon Dureme
I enjoy reading the posts and looking at the pictures on the Pondero blog. The latest post happens to be a review of the Schwalbe Marathon Dureme tire. Check it out and look at some of his other articles while you’re at it. Good stuff.
I copied the following from the Road Bike Rider website. While not normally a great source of information for the touring bicycler I think the question and the reply at least provide a starting point for a reasoned decision about tire selection.
Are 25mm Tires Better than 23mm Tires? Question:
I found out yesterday from my LBS owner that I’m apparently late to the party moving up to 25mm tire width. I’m told all the pros have switched. Is this why I’ve been able to buy 700X23 tires on-line so reasonably? – Seth S.
Coach Fred Matheny Replies:
Yes, there has definitely been a move toward wider road tires, and I suspect that’s why shops and websites are putting 23s on sale.
A number of studies, most notably by Jan Heine in Bicycle Quarterly (www.bicyclequarterly.com), have shown that wider tires roll faster on all but the smoothest pavement if the tires have supple casings.
Wider tires also tend to be more comfortable because of the increased air volume and because they don’t have to be inflated as much to avoid pinch flats. They corner on bumpy pavement better because they don’t bounce around on the rough asphalt like narrow tires tend to do if they are inflated hard.
The weight difference between the same tire in a 23 and a 25 — or even 28 — is minimal. The extra few grams are more than compensated for by increased comfort and performance.
The only drawback is that many race-oriented frames won’t accept anything larger than a 25, or in some cases a 23. Manufacturers are remedying this, in large part because pro racers in events like Paris-Roubaix that features rough pavement and cobblestones are going to wider rubber. A good example of a carbon race-oriented bike that can handle a 28 is the Specialized Roubaix.
I’m a convert. I’m running Michelin Pro Race 25s (which are more like 28s) and Conti 4Season Grand Prix 28s on all my bikes except my old Litespeed Vortex, which will only handle 25s. I made the switch some years ago due to the extremely rough pavement here in western Colorado. We have a variety of chip seal, potholes, convex patches and grass-filled cracks, but while narrow tires beat me up, 28s smooth things out considerably.
I haven’t noticed any difference in speed — maybe a slight increase — but the added comfort is what sold me. I used the Conti 28s on the Pacific Crest Tour this summer and even on the relatively smooth pavement of Washington and Oregon, they made a significant difference in efficiency over the two-week event.
And while we’re at it the Schwalbe tire company has a page about tire size and rolling resistance. It’s interesting to note that, at a given pressure, a wider tire has less rolling resistance than a skinny tire. Obviously a skinny tire can be inflated to a higher pressure but the trade off is a less comfortable ride.
So don’t just assume that replacing the tires on your mountain bike or touring bike with some skinny, punishing race tires will make your commute better. Might want to consider the construction and tread pattern too. Maybe a little wider tire will still allow you to punk the other commuters on your route and yet not beat you up before you even get to work!
This was the studio for the Bike Hermit’s interview of Paul L. Paul is the handsome one.
On a recent overnight bicycle trip to Burgdorf Hot Springs I sat down with Paul to ask him about bike commuting…when he began, what logistical challenges he faced and about what he perceives as the benefits of riding a bike to work. We were “sponsored” on this trip by McCall Brewing Company in that they provided a keg of their Wobbily Man Smoked Scotch ale and we needed to finish the interview before things became too, shall we say, wobbly.
I read this thread the other day on bikeforums.net and there are some good replies to the original post. The one I try to remember most of the time is “Always ride like you are invisible to drivers”. Ride defensively, be predictable and assume drivers don’t see you. One exception to my rule about being predictable is a trick I learned from reading Grant Petersen’s book Just Ride . Before a car approaching from behind reaches you, do something erratic such as wobbling a little or a quick zig-zag. It’s amazing how that gets their attention and how wide of a berth they give when passing you.
With a little bit of planning and care, using a bike to get to work and to run daily errands can be enjoyable and rewarding. It can be a little nerve wracking in traffic, but statistically is still relatively safe as long as a person pays attention and follows some basic principals and local ordinances. Boise Street Smart Cycling is a great resource. I’m always interested in other tips and experiences…so please use the comments.
Well, I definitely don’t want a Rube Goldberg approach to bike touring. I prefer the K.I.S.S approach. Small, light, simple and multi purpose are useful metrics for equipment choices. Like the survivalists say: the more you know the less you need.
Of course for the items which need to be readily accessible when on the bike I also like many external pockets on my bike luggage. But that is a subject for a different post. Some things, such as a tire pump and a spare tube, are obvious for taking on a bike tour, but I want to take a moment to discuss a couple things that might not seem quite so obvious.
Zip Ties
Zip ties are rivaled only by duct tape and baling wire for versatility but they are much easier to carry than either of those. Throw a handful of assorted sizes into the bottom of a bag and forget about them until you need them. Use them to replace a broken pannier clip, hold an errant brake cable in place against the frame, replace the zipper pull on your sleeping bag, keep a fender in place, strap extra spokes to the chain stay, and in countless other situations.
Folding Knives
Say you forgot the tent stakes, or lost them. With a good, sharp knife and a small branch the day (or night) is saved.
Then you can use it to cut up the veggies for pasta primavera. And, even though I have never needed a knife for self defense, there is a certain sense of security in thinking that I could. I can even whittle a willow whistle. I’m continually surprised by how much I use this tool and I’d feel a little helpless without it. There are some features which I appreciate in a folding knife but I don’t really know that much about various steel alloys used for knife blades. Most makers will use different alloys for knives with different intended uses. For bike touring I think a trade off of durability with ease of field sharpening makes sense. The Edgie folding knife by Columbia River Knife and Tool For the last few years I have been using the “EDGIE” a folding knife from Columbia River Knife and Tool (CRKT).According to their website this model has been discontinued. With diamond coated spring sharpeners built into the folder frame the blade edge is honed each time it is closed. At just over 4 inches in length when closed and with a blade of almost 3 inches I have found this to be an ideal size. This knife has a straight blade edge which has been fine for my use.
If I were buying a new knife today I would probably look for some other features, such as, a blade which locks open, a blade with a different point shape, and a knife that is made in the USA. Buck Knives is located in Post Falls, Idaho USA and most of their knives are made there.
The Buck Ranger I love the old school look of the Ranger knife I can almost smell the old canvas of our Boy Scout tents. It looks to be a perfect size and it comes with a leather sheath, which is pretty sexy. A small stone for sharpening the blade intermittently doesn’t take up much room and one can relax in camp at day’s end reflecting on the just completed ride and reviewing the upcoming route while sharpening one’s blade. Way better than Boy Scouts because you don’t have to work on stupid merit badges.
Canada to Argentina on Surly Long Haul Truckers
Randy and Cheryl had been living their dream for two weeks when they arrived in Boise to stay with us for the night. Starting at the Canadian border they pointed the handlebars south and started riding, with the aim of eventually making it to Argentina. When I mentioned that I would have difficulty wrapping my head around a trip of that length and duration their response was reassuring. Before taking on the breathtakingly empty, desolate and beautiful Nevada desert they took time to let me record this rambling, background noise filled, (put the mic on a tripod, Mr. Hermit) interview.
Randy and Cheryl stopped at Bike Touring News on their way to Argentina.
Cycling Home From Siberia
A reader sent a link to a video of this talk by Rob Lilwall recounting his three year trip by bicycle across Siberia and Eastern and Central Asia. Rob’s an entertaining speaker and his tale is inspiring. Thanks for the link Yanyan!
A customer found this bike, an old Schwinn mixte, on Craigslist and bought it for his significant other. After bringing it to me to check for any obvious damage or misalignment he took the frame to a local paint shop and had it powder coated gloss black. Then he brought it back to me and we outfitted it with new components. I don’t know too much about Schwinn bikes except that there is enough history with that company to fill more than one book, but I don’t think this was a particularly high-end bike. But with new parts it rides surprisingly well and will make a nice commuter/day tripper.
She decided the Brooks B68s saddle was a keeper right out of the box. A 9 speed rear cassette and double chainrings provide a practical range of gears. The original bike had 27 inch wheels. The new wheels are 700c, a slightly smaller diameter, but work fine with the medium reach brake calipers.
The stem is the Nitto Technomic Deluxe 225. We could have got the bars as high or higher with the Nitto Dirt Drop stem but this was the aesthetically preferred solution. That actually is a huge cassette.
The Ahearne/Map handlebars have a slight rise and a nice ergonomic sweep and they look sportier than Albatross bars.
Dimension cork blend grips. The Tektro FL-750 levers are very clean and add a nice vintage look. The IRD XC-Pro 9 speed indexed top mount thumb shifters are a top of the line, modern version of a tried and true design.
Not counting what he paid for the bike, with parts and my labor, this build ran about $1275.00. Not cheap, in fact a new Long Haul Trucker can be had for the same price. But the end result is a unique, sporty, classic looking bike. It was fun to put together and the new owner loves it.
So I had a Bridgestone MB-1 circa 1992, I think….might have been ’93. A poor fellow, down on his luck, or perhaps his brain addled from meth or crack cocaine, determined that he was deserving of such a bike. And so he took it. The Bike Hermit is always happy to help those less fortunate than himself. I hope the buzz that person received via my bike made his efforts worthwhile. That bike had Shimano XT top mount thumb shifters which remain my favorite gear shifting solution for straight or swept back handlebars. The shape was perfect. They could as well be called knuckle shifters because the cable tension releasing motion was just a twist of the hand with the index finger knuckle against the lever. Simple, intuitive and unobtrusive.
Even though the great and powerful Shimano decided to make those shifters obsolete others have stepped in to fill the void. Paul Component Engineering makes the Thumbies which are made to be used with the levers cannibalized from Shimano or Sram bar-end shifters.
These are great as long as you have some bar-end shifters. Otherwise it’s sort of an expensive option.
IRD or Interloc Racing Design (Racing. I know, right? But they make a lot of cool stuff) makes two versions of top-mount shifters- one version is friction only and will work with almost any rear cluster. The other version uses indexing for the rear derailleur shifter and only works with 9 speed cassettes. The IRD Power Ratchet thumb shifters are friction only…no indexing. So they are compatible with almost any rear cog setup.
I’ve also been fascinated with the idea of mounting these on drop bars. On the tops and near the stem where they will be out of the way but easy to use. I had a Long Haul Trucker to put together last week and decided to try the IRD XC-Pro 9 speed shifters. The fixtures clamped to the 26.0 mm section of the handlebar without using the included shims (made for clamping to a thinner, mountain bike style bar). Offsetting the two levers slightly kept the cable housings from interfering with each other. Even so, the cable routing was a little wonky but I don’t think it looked too bad. With a little judicious trimming the cable housing could be made to fit close enough to the head tube of the bike that even a front rando bag such as a Gilles Berthoud would fit. A slight offset allows for unusual but effective cable housing routing. Another view of the IRD XC-Pro top mount shifter set up on drop bars.
I took the bike out for a ride and I have to say I was excited by how well the setup worked. The downtube shifters on my touring bike are the ultimate in simplicity but there have been times when taking one hand off the bars to shift did not seem like the most prudent thing to do. Top mount shifters on drop bars instead of bar end shifters would even preclude the need to move one’s hand to the end of the drops to shift. The more I think about it the more sense it makes. One downside could be the room these take up on the bars. Especially if a person wants to mount a computer and/or a headlight there. But the great thing about being in the bike industry is that this means there is a market thus created for handlebar extensions on which to mount those things. Actually, maybe one of those bar extensions would work for mounting top mount shifters. Hmmmmm…more experimenting and blog posting forthcoming. Something along these lines perhaps:
