Second Coming of the Soma B-Side

Only MD and LG sizes available now.

The 650b MTB platform has not taken the mountain bikedom by storm. Are we surprised? Not really. Even back in 2007, we never thought or hoped it would supplant either of the more established tire sizes. We felt it had its place as the "happy medium".... a tire size that would be ride ideal for some riders... mainly those who felt (in their opinion) 29ers were a little to unwieldy and slow and were willing to give up a little of the 29ers rolling advantage to get back some of a manuevering quickness of a 26" bike. No doubt it has done just that for some mountain bikers. Some have said they won't be going back to 29ers or 26ers.
So that is why we are continuing with the B-Side, even if it doesn't sell as well as our Juice or Analog frames.
The version 2 B-Side still features our custom spec of double butted Tange Prestige heat-treated CrMo tubing. It does boast some notable upgrades, including Tange/IRD stainless steel sliding dropouts. These offer the rider single-speed and geared set up options with fewer hassles than a track-style "dropout" and lighter weight than an eccentric bottom bracket. The dropouts include eyelets for fenders, but there are no rack mounts. We don't expect too many to run fenders on this bike, but it doesn't hurt to include them.


We also tweaked the geometry so tall riders don't have to raise the seatpost quite as much (a comment from some owners). Some riders will still need a 400mm post. Other geometry changes include a shorter chainstays overall and a longer top tube on the 16.5". Integrated seat clamp is gone (again at the request of our fans).
The bike is still designed around the length of a White Brothers 80mm travel 650b fork; however we expect most folks to fit a 100mm travel 26" fork on the B-Side, which is about the same length.
If you are looking for top shelf hardtail option for 650b that's versatile, too, look no further than the new B-Side in its stately matte Gun Metal Blue finish. Sizes medium and large available now (no ETA on the other sizes) Geometry is posted below. We will not be including on the main site, until the new page design is ready. Sorry about that.