Soma Buena Vista Mixte

[sbctwin]

I am keeping my fingers cross for the Soma mixte. The bike store I am working with said 'they are tight' with Soma and have already put in place my needs. Ohhhhh, I am so hoping I get one of these. I really want a new commuter bike that has some versatility....keep your fingers crossed for me. I can't believe there will be many other there wanting the 'smallest' size they have....

[xeney]

The geometry is up now on the website. Scroll down to the bottom.

That is CRAZY geometry. The size medium has a 555mm effective top tube! That is a dude's bike. I'm glad I didn't hold out for one of these because I don't think it would fit me. The proportions really do seem like they are intended to fit men more than women: shorter legs in proportion to the upper body, steep seat tube angle.

[mimitabby]

yes, and the small has a top tube length the same as my Bianchi (which was a 49cm with a 51.5cm top tube.)
what's up with that?

[sbctwin]

AAAACK...

[KnottedYet]

My goodness!!!!!

what were they thinking?
Are they assuming you'll put townie-style bars on it, to bring the reach back into humanly possible ranges?

I'll keep riding my relatively short (!) top-tube road bikes for a while longer.

(just measured one of my "boy" cyclocross bikes, and the top-tube is actually shorter than the comparable mixte.) I really hope my Soma LBS www.freerangecycles.com will have a couple so I can try them out. But for many reasons, I probably won't be buying one this year.

[xeney]

The initial post on the subject of the mixte said that it was intended to be more aggressive than the others on the market ... so I was thinking drop bars or bullhorns. But the reach is way too long for that, at least for me and probably for most women.

They never marketed it as a women's bike, though. I guess they built it for the boys.

[furryblue]

My goodness!!!!!
what were they thinking?

I can tell you what they were thinking since I was thinking pretty much the same thing!

If it's ok for me to participate (I'm clearly not neutral since I'm trying to develop and market a line of mixte bikes), I'm quite interested in this discussion.

I looked at the Buena Vista geometry and I agree - they are not specifically targeting women, otherwise I thought the dimensions seem quite reasonable considering there are 4 sizes and only one size with 26" / 650C wheels.

I would argue that producing a range of sizes with the top tube lengths that might be appropriate for many shorter torsoed women requires use of a different wheel size - 700C wheels are too large.

Having a small or compact frame is not a problem usually in terms of saddle height, since long seat posts are available. The potential problem with a small frame here is if one desires say drop bars to be level or higher with the saddle without using a funky stem. It can be hard to figure out from the geometry chart the handlebar height issue.

Most of the comments have concerned the top tube measurement, and I want to argue that top tube dimension is not that meaningful by itself, you have to consider it together with the seat tube angle. Suppose bike A) has a 53.0 cm top tube and a 75 degree seat tube angle, and bike B) has a 55.0 cm top tube and a 73 seat tube angle. For the same position of the saddle relative to the bottom bracket, the reach to the handlebars will be (almost) identical - each degree of set back of the seat tube uses up about 1 cm of horizontal length of the top tube.

The important, but often unpublished, frame dimension in this discussion is the front center - the distance from the cranks to the center of front wheel. The front center determines the amount of toe overlap (toe hitting the front wheel) and also, in combination with rear center (chainstay length), the weight balance between the front and rear wheels.

The "small" model Buena Vista is about as short a front center as is reasonable with 700C wheels and the chosen head tube angle.

[/QUOTE]
(just measured one of my "boy" cyclocross bikes, and the top-tube is actually shorter than the comparable mixte.)
[/QUOTE]

Again, I question this if you are properly considering seat tube angle, do you have the make and model - is the geometry published? I'd be happy to calculate the front-center with BikeCAD.

The real issue here is that 700C wheels are just too big for many smaller frame sizes. The top tube lengths that are desirable for you and someone seeking a WSD frame would require smaller diameter wheels, and in a road bike non 700C wheels are often a hard sell, or so I've been told.

[sbctwin]

Thank you for your input furryblue. I am worried that even the XS might be too much of a reach for me. I dream of a bike with 700c wheels, but reality speaks and I know that just won't cut it for me. I will be looking at the XS with 26" wheels (if one is in the cards for me). I really like the idea of a mixte where I don't have to worry about the top tube...