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 old top pull 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

 

Soma Riff Aqua Mint Build. Size LG.

The Juice and B-Side Gets A Gates Belt-Drive Option

The Juice (29er) and B-Side (27.5er) hardtails are now available with a split Tange Sliding Dropout for compatibility with belt-drive systems. Build them SS or with Rohloff (or other internal geared) hubs. Colors are the same. The only other design difference is with the drive-side chainstay which has a flat plate to make sure there is clearance for 2.4" tires and the thick Gates front cog.

The standard models are still be available. The belt-drive ones are only available in small quantities this year.

Stock we have now have a split in the dropout for the belt.
Future 2015 production will have a split in the seatstay.

Modified chainstay: Looks different, but quite stiff.
Passes Gates/Rohloff frame stiffness test.

Bike Pack Testing Trip on the Soma B-Side

Bikepacking in the Southwest from Greenwater on Vimeo.

From 2014: Bedrock Bags testing some new bag designs in the Cedar Mesa area.
So damn beautiful out there. (The orange bike is our B-Side 27.5" hardtail)

Racing the Boggs 8-Hour on the B-Side

by guest writer,  Uri Friedman, owner of  Swell Cycles

Boggs is an 8 hour mountain bike race that takes place every Spring in Cobb, a tiny 5 x 5 mile town

100 miles north of San Francisco. Over the years, it has become one of my favorite bike races because of the beautiful location (of which you can camp out for 1 or 2 nights before and after the race), fun course, and awesome fellow riders. With just 2 months of opening and running our (Will Rose and I) new shop, Swell Bicycles, I thought the odds pretty slim that I'd have the opportunity to continue my love affair with Boggs for the 4th year running. Plus it sells out hella quick, and just like every year, was sold out within weeks.

That was until a friend Sasha Magee, who races for Super Pro team, came by to check out the new shop and mentioned he was racing as part of a two-person single speed team but his partner had broken their collarbone and, der, could no longer ride. We knew what we had to do: Enter the race together and make an epic team name that would be hard to forget: Short Guys with Russian Names.

Now I had one month to dial in a sweet ride and get some extra dirt miles in to prep. I have been a loyal rider of 650b wheeled mountain bikes for several years, but as a necessary contribution to the bike shop starting gods, I sold my uber limited Ridley Ignite carbon single speed bike, and thus was without a mtb bike in which to race with. Knowing my criteria for a ride: steel frame, reasonably priced, sliding drop outs to allow for single speed, and good looking. The B-Side from Soma Fabrications was the first option that came to mind as it meets all the requirements and is designed locally by the savy folks at Merry Sales in South San Francisco.

Within a day of picking my new the B-Side up it was built up and slaying trails on Mt. Sutro. I was impressed with how well it handled and the confidence I immediately felt. I could believe how well it cornered! I was set.

Fast forward to two weeks later and Sasha, his partner Kelly and I were on our way to Boggs Demonstration Forest on Boggs Mountain, near Clear Lake. After 3 hours on some windey ass streets, we drove through Cobb, where the streets seemed to be filled with tough looking men and even tougher women. With several hours of sunlight left, we set up camp and chowed down. I brought me some quinoa, steamed vegetables, and avocado and while it was tempting to hang out with the Super Pro crowd and drink into the night, having been my 4th year at this race, knowing full well what the next morning feels like with a Super Pro party under my belt, I opted to retire early. The night after the race seemed a better option for campfire time, anyways.

The 5:30am alarm came as early as I expected. My typical pre-race meal is a 24oz. smoothie consisting of green juice, coconut juice, yogurt, flax oil, chia seed, avocado, and brown rice protein mix. I also ate a Nana Joe’s Swell bar to add some solid food with more carbs and fats. The next most important part of my morning is getting a huge cup of coffee brewed. Fueled up I begin doing reps of the start climb to get warm. 

The race start is similar to a pack of Tasmanian Devil's traveling together complete with mini tornado of dust surrounding us. 

My first lap goes pretty well and I’m feeling strong. Then something happens over lap two where I gradually start feeling sluggish. I exchange with Sasha and return to camp to stretch, change, and eat. Crucial to a racing on a team is never loosing track of your calculation of when you teammate will come through ready to exchange. Checking my chain I’m relieved to discover it wasn’t entirely me sucking. Turns out: my chain tension was a bit on the tight side and I get to work readjusting it.

After the second exchange and I stop by to check the standings. I’m pumped to see that we are currently third in our category and second place is really close. And when Sasha rolls in and he has just barely gotten us in front of the former second place team!

We have now done 5 laps each and I wait for Sasha to roll though and see if he’s ready to keep going or wants to switch. Sure enough he has crushed his lap and put us back in the 2nd place spot but wants to exchange. The motivation to hold on is strong and I begin the lap right behind Matthias Behrens, solo single speed racers extraordinaire. His pace is perfect and I follow as best as I can and finish my lap with plenty of time to spare to retain our position in 2nd place!

This marks my third podium at Boggs, all in the two-person single speed category. While the competition has gotten stronger over the years, thanks to Sasha’s strong riding Short Guys with Russian Names are on the podium. Beers, food, and shenanigans around the campfire follow.

Sunday morning came, and we started it off right with a big ol' plate of fried eggs, toast and avocado. A group then meets up for a lil' recovery ride around the park. I feel so fortunate to be in such an amazing place and able to enjoy not 1 but 2 days of world class riding and hanging out with friends before returning to San Francisco. Want to hear more about Boggs or interested in bike racing? Come by the shop at 41st and Irving St, or holla at us on ze book of Face. 

Soma 2014 Frame News: Version 3.0 of our 27.5"/650B B-Side

Just read Bike Magazine's online interview with Kirk Pacenti. I have to say cheers to Bike for bringing Kirk back into the spotlight at this time when 27.5"/650b tire size is finally being adopted by a slew of bike manufacturers both in the USA and Europe.
There's been a lot of press releases and ads from the big brands: One big brand new to the game offering new extensive research why they feel 650b is the better tire size of the three. Another reiterating they've been producing 650b bikes for years longer than anyone else. But none of these big brands giving much credit to Pacenti,who was truly the first to start pushing the "650b for MTB" concept to the industry.


It is awesome to see an interview that lets him answer the question... "How does it feel after years and years of trying to convince companies of its advantages  to see it finally being widely adopted." We find it really satisfying.

Well we hope you will find some satisfaction (see what we did there) with what we are doing with the next generation B-Side SS/Geared hardtail frame.(Not available until January.) Gone is the classic NORBA/XC racing geometry. The new B-Side is now in "extra fun, trail bike" territory...allowing you to go faster in the rough stuff, but still lithe enough to be flickable and easily maneuverable.

• Revamped geometry to take advantage of the true 27.5 specific forks designed by RockShox and Fox. We are optimizing the B-Side to run 100mm and 120mm travel forks with slack 69/68 degree head angle that has become almost the norm these days. 
• Machined 44mm headtube to increase stiffness and to be compatible with tapered steerer tube suspension fork
• Beefed up the down tube with thicker and longer butts (but not to the all-mountain tank level)
  Tange Prestige heat-treated CrMo of course
• Slightly shorter chainstays
• Equipped with  Tange/IRD stainless steel sliding dropouts which allow you run this as a single speed, traditionally geared, or even with a Rohloff hub.

Brave New B-Side: Now designed for 100mm and 120mm travel forks

 

"Will 650b Replace 26" Wheels?" "Really? You want to ask 'that' question?"

Alex Rankin asks the above question and more as he questions various players in the industry about the industry's sudden embrace of 27.5/650b tire size for mountain bikes.
Our own Jim Porter was one of those interviewed and he did a decent job giving a micro-history of 650b. For the record we have no frickin' opinion whether 650b will/should replace 26". That was one of the 'other guys'. (Interviews took place at Eurobike. Via Pinkbike)

Eurobike did have on display a ton of 27.5 frames and components. There might be more 650b offering in Europe than in the USA in 2013. Schwalbe, Maxxis, Scott, Rotwild, Ghost, Silverback, Rocky Mtn., Rockshox, SR Suntour. We are kinda pissed that RS is  releasing their 650b fork with a tapered steerer. I guess we have to steer our B-Side customers toward X-Fusion.

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.

Steal One of our B-Side 650b MTB Frames

Save over $100! We are closing out our remaining version 1 B-Side frames on the SomaFab Shop. It is a classy looking hardtail in a handsome Carmelized Orange paint job designed around the relatively new 650b wheel size, which is smack dab in between the conventional 26" and 29". Build it geared or single-speed. It is a nimble handling friend that rolls over roots, rock and big divots better than the common 26" wheel. It is probably the ideal bike for those who feel they don't "fit" 29ers or find their handling not as crisp as they want it to be, but still desire some of the advantages 29ers offer.

We do have other older frame colors on sale, too, but we cut the price extra deep on this one to encourage cyclists to experience this new platform.
Been on the fence on 650b?
Looking for the most bang for the buck?
Here it is staring at you in the face.

We will definitely continue with the B-Side, but we don't have an ETA of when version 2 may be ready.

Soma B-Side: The Hardtail With Backbone

Dan of Portland Design Works has been riding the B-Side (our 650b wheeled hardtail) for a review in Bike Magazine.
He has it built up with XTR, a White Brothers Magic80 fork, and ....elk spine.


Skeleton was found on a ride on the Lewis River Trail.
Head was missing so they couldn't be sure it was an elk.

Play The Soma B-Side

The B-Side cross country frame has arrived, so if you want one, ask your bike shop or distributor to order. Less than 100 produced in this first run.
Geometry has been up on the main site for a while. This project was our first foray into the 650b MTB platform. Kirk Pacenti approached us with his vision for 650b mountain bikes in the summer of 2007. Some of the benefits of this new platform:

- Allows shorter riders to experience the enhanced ride of bigger wheels (stability, greater obstacle roll-over capability)
- Allows frame designers to build frames with more tried and true 26" tire geometry
- Might be a little more agile than 29ers in tight switchbacks

The B-Side frame features a pure cross country geometry. You can only run disc brakes on it, but you can set it up single speed or geared. There is plenty of tire clearance for the 2.3" Pacenti Neo Motos, the fattest 650b tires currently made. To increase standover clearance, the seat tubes run extra short, so a long seatpost is recommended. A suspension-corrected rigid fork is available.

Though this totally unrelated to our frame or Soma, I thought it be cool to plug "Record Store Day" which is celebrated on April 18 this year. The original idea for Record Store Day was conceived as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally. The Bay Area's own Amoeba Music and Rasputin Music are having special guests and give-aways. Go to the site to see how participating indie record stores in you neck of the woods are celebrating.

Vinyl and steel -- both rule.

B-Side Will Be Coming In "The Spring"

We have had many inquiries wondering when the B-Side 650b mountain frame will drop. To keep it cautiously nebulous, we are saying "The Spring". Here is a production prototype we have been testing. Sorry to those who felt neglected.
Changes from the concept prototype:
1. Allows for SS or geared set up with a track style dropout. Disc mount does allow removal of rear wheel w/o loosening the caliper.
2. Gusset for improved fork knob clearance.
3. Tange heat treated CrMo, instead of Pacenti Heavy Metal tubes.

Things being left the same:
1. Same Carmelized Orange with Vanilla panel paint job which we got nice comments about
2. Geometry is roughly the same. To maximize standover we are using an extreme slope so a 400mm post is recommended for longer legged riders. This is similar to what Niner does, but less extreme.
3. Jason Grove built the concept with diamond-shaped cage boss braze-ons. We liked them, so we are keeping them.

No pricing yet. Should be similar to the Juice though.

Other frame news: We are considering a new 26" XC hardtail that will having new sliding dropouts being developed by Tange and Interloc Racing Design. So that might replace the 4one5 and maybe the Groove, too.

Soma B-Side Tested By Cycle Sports (Japan)

Our B-Side prototype was put through the paces by Cycle Sports, a big cycling magazine in Japan. (Well, all magazines in Japan seem bigger than their American counterparts, don't they?)
Our Japananese distributor was so intrigued by it at Interbike, they wanted to borrow it for their show in Japan. Then Cycle Sports saw it at their show...Long story short, we only got it back a few weeks ago.

Though the test editors agreed on most of the advantages the 650b MTB platform hopes to offer, the feature they most appreciated was that the bar height was back at a reasonable level. They really don't like the jacked-up bars most 29er's have.

We are now riding the prototype here in the States and hope to move to production soon. Geometry is mostly dialed in, but we are not sure should we go with nice Tange heat treated CrMo tubeset like our other frames or go with something more affordable to entice those that are not sold and just wanna try this thing out...like a plain ol double butted CrMo or a Reynolds 631? What yall think?

If you have access to Japanese magazines where you are the review is featured in 2008 Issue 2.

Product Updates and Belated Name Dropping

Here's an example of how off the back we can be at promoting ourselves.
Patrick O' Grady of Mad Dog Media (and VeloNews fame) bought a Double Cross for his wife back in Dec. 06. We were aware of that purchase, but never knew that he bought one for himself as well last June. So here we are name-dropping 8 month later. If you are interested in what he thinks of them, see the 9-09-07 and 6-15-07 entries on The Daily Dog.

In other Double Cross news, you people have been asking about the Double Cross Disc/Canti edition. We have delayed releasing this at least until May. We apologize to those who were looking to get this for their spring rides. We just have a lot of things taking up our time and y'know... trying to catch up on promoting ourselves 'n s__t. We have more bars coming out..... the El Toro STEEL pursuit bar is coming out end of the month. This will be the only steel bullhorn bar on the market we think. We have had multiple e-mails of people destroying their alloy bullhorns on a regular basis. We made these for them. First batch will be 26.0's like Nitto's are. If you prefer 25.4, give us a holler. We are also wrapping up development on straight bars in colors (how hard can that be?). Plus we are testing the B-Side 650b MTB frame and finishing specs on a new mixte frame. Yes, mixte!

650b MTB Concept Bike In Progress

As you may have heard some builders are unveiling 650b (27.5" tires) MTB prototype/concept bikes at this year's Interbike.
Here is ours–currently codenamed the "B-Side". It is a steel single speed hardtail. We chose a single-speed format, because we think SS folks are a little more stoked to try something different. This was built locally and will be used for testing as well as showing at Interbike. We plan to have it displayed at premier distributor BTI's booth. No production frames are planned yet. It really depends on public response.

The opportunity to explore the new platform was too easy to pass up. Tires, rims, suspension forks are being made available as we publish this. Pacenti's Neo-Moto 2.3's tires and Velocity's Blunt rims both look like winners. White Brothers forks are a proven design. Certain 26" suspension forks like Mavericks already work. If you can't find 650b tubes, 26" tubes will suffice. If we decided to pump out 50 frames, we know there will be parts to build them with.

While we acknowledge most big wheel enthusiasts are too still in love with their 29ers to consider a third wheel size, from a frame designer's standpoint 650b is territory definitely worth exploring. When designing the Juice 29er frame we did notice we had to make certain 'compromises' to get things like standover height and bar height to come out reasonable. Builders will continue to have to deal with design issues as customers demand more travel. Though the 650b size is roughly in the middle between 26" and 29", we found we could use proven 26" wheel geometries, which is sweet. Chainstay length is very close to 26" wheel bikes.

The 650b platform also promises stronger, lighter wheels, and other theoretical advantages over the 29er platform, but we won't open our mouth too much here until after we get in some rides on our B-Side.