Introducing Rufus: Our New BMX Wheeled Mini Velo

We at Soma Fabrications made an attempt to introduce North America to the mini velo style of bicycle way back in 2010. Back then very few people here (except Mark V from Bike Hugger) were interested in mini velos or even knew what they were. 

Fast forward to 2024 and there is a mini velo Reddit group with 3500 members and Velo Orange as well as other designers have continued to push what mini velos look like and what they can be built up as. The Radavist just broke the story that Crust is working on a travel mini velo just this week. The wildly popular Tern GSD cargo bike has small wheels, but interestingly no one calls it a "mini velo".  It is just a nice e-cargo bike. And that should remind us that a bike should be defined by what it was designed for and how it can improve the owner's life, not by a wheel size. And we think our newest addition should be looked upon by how fun and functional it is, not as a "mini" version of something else.

But a more appropriate marketing term won't materialize in this post, so without further ado, we would like to present to you --- Rufus, a "mini velo" frameset designed around 20" BMX wheels. It intentionally doesn't have as many bells and whistles as similar designs out there, because we wanted to keep the price down in order to entice more enthusiasts to consider a small wheeler as their n+1. So the Rufus is not designed to take a dropper post, run internal geared hubs or even a front derailleur. Current price is $599.99 USD.

It does have a plethora of rack, pack, and fender mounts as well as longish chainstay length (endurance road bike length) to help it ride more steady with a load or without. The frame is compact with a low standover, but still offers lots of space for a half frame bag. The Rufus is a bike built with utility in mind first and foremost, but is just a breeze to ride around. 

You can call it a "mini velo", a "small wheeler", or just "a bike".

This is a size SM Rufus with 530mm effective top tube.
As set up here, its a comfortable sporty ride for someone 5'6"
It is running a 44t crankset and 11-32t 8-speed cassette.

Sold frame and fork together. Seat collar, too.
Smooth riding CrMo steel. Stiff hooded dropouts. BSA bottom bracket shell.
IS disc tabs. 27.2mm seatpost. Tried and true standards.

This is built with BMX vibes using a high rise bar, but you can build
this with city bars, low rise bar, or drop bars, too.

Specifications:

• 4130 double-butted chromoly steel frame and chromoly steel fork

• Rear rack & fender mounts, cargo cage/mini rack bosses on fork (with one set of thru-bosses)

• Three sets of water bottle bosses

• Cafe lock mount

• Kickstand plate

• International Standard disc brake tabs (140/160mm rotors suggested)

• Wheel size: 20" (ISO 406) BMX size. Easy to find quality street or knobby tread tires. Tire clearance for 20 x 2.3" (20 x 2.0" w/fenders) 

• Hub spacing: 135mm, rear; 100mm, fork

• Headset Fit: 1-1/8" threadless (EC34/28.6|EC34/30 headsets)

• Bottom Bracket Shell: 68mm English threaded

• Seatpost size: 27.2mm x 350/400mm

• Sizes: Small and Large (Depending what type of handlebars are used, the Small can fit 4' 11" to 5'7". The Large can fit 5'6" to 6'3")

• Paint: Purple

Our Riff Hardtail Frame Gets An Overdue Update

 If you've known Soma Fabrications for a while, you know we don't go by model years.
We don't want to refresh our frames every January just to say we have this new thing to plop in front of your eyeballs. We don't like being forced to adopt every trend or new standard either, some of which we feel is planned obsolescence. We think changing colors every year is basically making folks who just bought our frame a few months ago feel they have something old. We will make updates when we think they will serve our customers.

What is the Riff?
This is our hardtail frame designed for 27.5" wheels. It is a nice, steel frame for a variety of trail-riding and for bikepacking and is designed around a 120mm travel fork. It has sliding dropouts, which lets you fine-tune your chainstay length, but it is mainly for allowing single speed builds without needing a chain tensioner. You can also build it for derailleur gears and hub gears (like Rohloff or Alfine), too.

Main Update:
Boost 148mm rear hub spacing. After nine years in the market, Boost 148 has become THE MTB rear hub standard. If you are shopping for a new wheelset, almost all or your options will have Boost hubs, and some of you may already have an old Boost wheel in your spare parts collection. So the main reason for the change is to make it easier for riders who don't have the patience to shop around for their ideal 142mm or 135mm wheelset.

For those out of touch with bike standards, Boost hubs have a wider axle and wider flanges which allows the wheel build to have more dish, which reduces flexiness in the wheel. It also moves the chainline farther away from the tire, which is nice when running wide 2.8" tires.

Additions and Subtractions:
• We have shortened our seat tubes to help with dropper seatpost use and the lengths chosen attempt to match other brands, so it is easier to compare sizes when shopping.
• We changed the down tube bottle cage bosses to a three-pack mount.
• We added a set of bottle cage bosses under the downtube.
• But we removed the seat tube bosses on the smaller sizes so you can use a longer dropper post. The largest frame still has the seat tube bosses.
• We have discontinued the belt-drive option, because of policies our Taiwan factory adopted during the pandemic. (Yes, Covid is still affecting us.)

What About the "Geo"?
How slack is it? Is it shreddier? Is it as progressive as a San Francisco school board?
Sorry, nope. The biggest tweak is a 1.6° steeper seat tube to improve climbing efficiency.  The bottom bracket drops almost 10mm mainly because those riding 27.5 wheels are favoring 2.4 or wider tires. But Steve of Hardtail Party would definitely classify the Riff as "old school", which doesn't mean outdated.... just a rig more purposefully designed for rolling trails and bike packing than for bombing steeper technical downhills; and also doesn't require a "modern riding technique" to get the most out of it. The 67.6° head tube angle should make it a good climber without the wheel flop and wandering of slacker machines, but still able to descend with confidence (albeit less speed) than an enduro bike.

Because we are not optimizing for downhill speed and big drops and hits, we can use lighter tubes for a more nimble and fun ride even on smoother trails. And the frame won't beat you up on rockier terrain.

Yes, that is a cable stop for a front derailleur. We haven't abandoned 2x.
The Riff also has rear rack mounts, because hardtails are still pretty popular for
on-road loaded touring these days. They probably add less weight than
our brass headbadge