The Smoothie HP: New "High Protein" Endurance Road Frame

Our Smoothie road performance frame model is as old as the Soma brand itself. It started out with a classic looking level top tube design and a curved unicrown fork. The tubes were a combination of Reynolds 631 and 4130 butted chromoly . It was an affordably-priced, solid road frame aimed at commuters as much as at seasoned road cyclists.

First generation Smoothie. 2001

Later iterations included a semi-compact geometry, lugged steel and carbon fork options and of course upgrading to a lighter Tange Prestige heat-treated chromoly. But the intent of the frame has never changed. Its designers never sought to make it the "most agile"or "most innovative" or promised podium finishes at your local crit. The Smoothie was just meant to be a competent and versatile road bike with smooth-riding steel tubeset. 

Reaching Higher

Initially we were just going to put disc mounts on the Smoothie and call it a day, but the project soon came to focus is on utilizing some of Tange's more premium Prestige Japan tubes and adding more modern road bike touches. It morphed into a High Performance version of the original Smoothie (i.e. a "High Protein" Smoothie). 

The Smoothie HP uses the thinnest walled tubes of any frame in our line up, but in oversized 34.9mm and 38.1mm diameters (depending on the frame size). Those tubes and the oversized tapered chainstays (32x18mm oval) promise to increase pedaling stiffness and responsiveness. Lastly an ovalized top tube was specced to add back in vertical compliance that might be lost with the use of the fatter down tubes, but since the tube becomes wider horizontally when ovalized, it also adds a bit of torsional stiffness.

Though optimized for 700c x 26-28mm wide tires,
both fork and frame will accept some 35mm tires.
Yes, that is a hole in the crown for mounting a rim brake.
Why? Because there are always a couple of you out of a hundred
who will ask whether your brand new disc brake frame will fit rim brakes.
Never fails. Frame and fork should fit 57mm reach road calipers. 

Photos are of a prototype. Production frames will not have so many bosses on the seatstay.

Horizontally ovalized top tube helps with lateral stiffness
and vertical compliance, but the HP is meant to have a snappier, stiffer feel
than the rim-brake Smoothie.

Geometry:

We wanted the high stack of an endurance road frame, but with a shorter wheelbase than our Fog Cutter and most current endurance road frames. Except for sloping top tube, we wanted a "tried and true" road geometry, so seasoned riders don't have to adapt to something novel. We avoided slackening the headtube and raking out the fork to restore "racing bike" trail numbers, which some performance brands have been doing. This we hope results in confident handling on fast descents and a responsiveness that many cyclists will enjoy.

Modern Yet Old School:
Modern touches include flat mount disc compatibility, thru-axles, ED rust-proofing coating, and a 44mm headtube. 

Traditional and utilitarian touches include a BSA threaded BB shell, fender eyelets, external cable routing for less hassle during maintenance time, and down tube shifter bosses. These are not necessarily the features that win you style points on club rides, but nods to practicality and backwards compatibility have always been part of Soma's DNA.

Who Do We Think This Frame Is For?

• Cyclists who want the responsiveness of a classic road race bike, but with the stack of an endurance road bike.

• Stronger riders and former racers who like to mash hard and who might find bikes like the old Smoothie not stiff enough for their style of riding

• Cyclists that might find lightweight carbon bikes sometimes sketchy-feeling on fast descents. The HP may feel a little more planted while still communicating desirable road feel.
• Fans of steel road bikes

Since we are talking about a frame and not a complete bike, we don't want say too much about what kind of bike the Smoothie HP is.  Your choice of bar, stem and spacers determines how relaxed or racey the ride position will be. Your wheel choice will determine whether it is quick out of the gates or something that keeps its momentum on those long steady rides. As with any Soma it will be as unique as its owner.

What's a Pescadero Anyway?

The Low Down on the new Pescadero frame set:

• Road sport/Endurance road geometry
• Fits tires up to 700c x 42mm
• Designed for Paul Racer centerpull brakes and 73mm dual pivot caliper brakes
• Coming in late March 2017

A pescadero is a fishmonger if you didn't get that far in your high school Spanish class. It's also the name of a charming town down the coast a bit between SF and Santa Cruz. The town began as a rancho like so many of the historic communities in California did, but nowadays it's one of a number of eclectic little villages along the scenic Highway 1. Since the Fog Cutter was inspired by a trip to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, we wanted our newest all-road bike to go with the theme of NorCal beach destinations.

TIG-welded using Tange Prestige heat-treated double-butted chromoly steel

So what's the deal with this bike anyway? As you may know our ES road sport frame was originally called the Smoothie "Extra Smooth", because it fit wider, more comfortable tires than our Smoothie road race bike. Believe it or not, it was the first Soma I ever bought back when I was first greasing chains and patching tubes at the local bike shop. And it's a great bike. It's been largely unchanged since we launched it aside from a new coat of paint every few years, but I would guess there are probably hundreds of ES that still get ridden every day.

Well we got to thinking, wouldn't it be sweet if the ES could fit the new 42c Supple Vitesse road tires that we make. Unfortunately 57mm road brakes max out at about 33mm wide tires. That was huge only a few years ago, but things change and sometimes you just need more in your life. As it turns out, the brakes were the only thing holding us back so we went ahead and made a frame set that fits 67mm reach brakes and voila! Without changing the geometry or the handling we were able to reinvent this classic Soma.

Designed for Paul Racer centerpull brakes in mind! Fits up to 700 x 42mm tires or 38mm with fenders

And I have to say, it rides great with these tires. If you've never ridden the Grand Randonneur 650b x 42mm tires then you might think a 42 would feel like a beast, but you'd be dead wrong. They're super fast and plenty light (perhaps the lightest tires available in this size).

If you can't afford the splendid Paul Racer brakes, these Rivendell/Tektro 73mm reach caliper brakes work well, too.
We positioned the brake bridge in a way to keep the pads high in the slot to minimize arm flex.

Some people feel that long reach caliper brakes just aren't quite responsive enough. I can't say I agree with that, since I've been riding them for years, but to those people I'd say you have two options to consider.

Option 1 is just go for the disc brake friendly Fog Cutter and embrace the future, man. But if you're the wool wearing, pipe smoking, Robert Burns reading type of cyclist consider...

Option 2. Centerpull brakes! Remember those? Mafac, Weinmann, Dia Compe? Even Shimano used to make them. Anyway, Paul Components up in old Chico, CA makes some and they are just bitchin. Great stopping power, tons of fender clearance, stiff as a metaphor and boy-oh-boy do they look nice. We even included a special cable hanger in the back so you don't have to use one of those dangly ones.

But wait, there's more! We got those rack eyelets, baby! It'll take a front and rear Champs Elysees rack, a Porteur Deluxe up front, a Nitto Mark's rack or one of these new Gamoh jobbies that's in the pictures. Now remember I said it's exactly like the ES, so it isn't low trail. We might do a different fork some day but for now this is it. That said, it rides great. If you want low trail you probably already know all about that stuff, so I won't bother getting into it here.



What else? Uh, Breezer-style hooded dropouts. Groovy fork blades. This sweet blue paint job. What more do you want? These will be coming in March I think. Hopefully. Anyway, if you want one your LBS can pre-order one through Merry Sales and you can just kick back and listen to some Electro Swing or whatever the kids are into these days. Cheers y'all!

Supple Vitesse SL

I mounted up a set of 33c Supple Vitesse SL tires on Pacenti CL25 rims to try them out on some local trails.

While they're not the most aggressive tires for offroad riding, the grippy Japanese rubber compound and ultralight casing make them extremely fast rolling on hardpack and slick rock surfaces.

33mm is a bit narrower that what I normally ride offroad, but for a bike that stays primarily on the road its a good size.

The Supple Vitesse has the advantage of a recessed file tread pattern, which doesn't pick small peices of rock and other debris like many retro tread patterns. The ribbed sections make the rubber softer and allow it more purchase on uneven surfaces, but due to the support provided by the solid areas they don't add much drag when in contact with smooth roads.

We've found that most tires perform better when paired with a rim that opens the casing up a bit. These Pacenti's are just about perfect for this tire.

In case you were wondering, this bike is an early prototype of the Rawland Ravn, which is designed around 26" or 650b wheels. Luckily, since it has disc brakes it's possible to experiment with these 700c wheels as well. The front rack is a Soma Champs Élysées stainless steel mini rack, which mounts to the Nitto standard hourglass eyelets on the front of the fork blades.