I recently bought a Soma Buena Vista mixte frameset recently. And I am regretting it.
I thought of building it up into a 650b bike but I abandoned the plan. The main problem was in fitting the rear wheel with col de la vie. The rear dropout was semi horizontal and the distance from the brake bridge [even at the shortest distance from the dropout] is way too long; that when I mounted the 650b wheel, the rim is almost out of reach of the Silver caliper brake with pads at the farthest end of the calipers. It could work but I considered it only not pretty but also dangerous. The axle of the rear wheel was almost at the 'entrance' or edge of the semi-horizontal dropout. And since the rear wheel is nearer to the chain stay bridge than from the brake bridge, it was harder to install the rear wheel even without a fender. And I planned to install a fender. So I thought of just building it up as the bike is intended to be. A 700c bike. And I was disappointed also. I bought a new 700c wheel set and a set of 700c x 32 folding paselas. I used the wide mouth tektro at the rear and a wide mouth shimano caliper brake at the front, thinking that with this combo, I can get the clearance I want short of using center pull brakes. It turns out that the clearance of the fork in combination with the brake caliper is not enough to install a fender if I use the 700c x 32 tires that I already bought. I could use a smaller 28mm tire or try a center pull brake but I was too disappointed by that time I just abandoned the idea of installing a set of fenders. After riding it for a while around the neighborhood, it is now installed as a stationary bike on a resistance trainer. Sure, I might ride it outside in the future. With 32mm tires, it is quite comfy. It's just that it is not the bike that I envisioned it to be. Rene -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of JoelMatthews Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 2:19 PM To: RBW Owners Bunch Subject: [RBW] Re: Mixte Frames to Riv-up? > Its a middle ground between a Betty and a Beater but have you > considered Soma's Buena vista? Certainly good looking bike, and I really like the fork. For whatever reason, Soma went with the double skinny tube design with only a brace attaching to the seat tube. If the rider is not a tiny little thing or carries any sort of loads - and a mixte is meant to be an errand bike - the ride will be less than ideal. I have seen a lot of people on these bikes. But with all my 165 lbs to carry around, those I have ridden just did not feel right at all. Maybe I am fussy. On Sep 1, 3:29 pm, RoadieRyan <[email protected]> wrote: > Its a middle ground between a Betty and a Beater but have you > considered Soma's Buena vista? A quick google search shows them > between $375 and 475 for the Frameset. I don't have personal > experience with them but it seems like a sweet frame and good bang for > the buck. > > I am actually building up a Mixte for my wife right now from a older > CroMo Schwinn that I actually found for free at the side of the road. > After taking it all apart its going to need some lovin' but I can't > argue with the price of the bike. In Seattle I frequently see "Ladies > 3 speeds" for decent prices on Craigslist an older english ladies bike > will be plenty strong (IMO) but not light. > > R > > On Sep 1, 12:41 pm, JoelMatthews <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > - Rene Herse > > > - Alex Singer > > > - Jack Taylor > > > Well, yeah, I'll concede those three ;) > > > But the chances of finding a Herse or Singer on Craigslist or on eBay > > with a starting bid less than $1k are virtually nill. Jack Taylor > > does not have quite the cachet in the U.S. as its French counterparts > > (though indeed, it ought to), so you might get lucky. More once in a > > blue moon type of thing. > > > There are any number of bike boom French mixtes, Japanese came at the > > tail end of the boom. Some good and some not so good. Schwinn made > > some nice middle weight mixtes. I would hesitate to recommend them > > here, as the proprietary sizing will make squeezing in Riv parts more > > of chore than with the French and Japanese. > > > On Sep 1, 1:16 pm, Steve Palincsar <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Tue, 2009-09-01 at 09:57 -0600, PATRICK MOORE wrote: > > > > > On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 7:45 AM, JoelMatthews <[email protected]> > > > > wrote: > > > > > Off hand, I cannot think of one brand better than another. > > > > OK, here are three: > > > > - Rene Herse > > > - Alex Singer > > > - Jack Taylor- Hide quoted text - > > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
