Soma Buena Vista Mixte

[Thommy]

Thank you ladies for letting me in. As you can tell from the log in I'm a guy. Came accross this site doing a search for the new Soma mixte. from what I'm reading on this forum I'd say the geometry for this frame isn't very lady-like. My lady stands 4' 13", she currently rides two road bikes with 48 cm top tubes, and one hybrid, 15" Trek. All these bikes have 700 wheels on them. I've had my lady on a 650 wheeled bike and she dwarfed it. I don't buy that she should be on a 650 bike, no way, no how. My lady isn't over stretched on her road bike at all. I feel most bike builders just don't want or aren't capable of building women's smaller frames with 700 wheels. My lady's feet do not hit her front wheel. So, what's with all the "you should be on a 650 automatically if you're under 5'5"?" Baloney!!!
Ok, thanks for listening to the rant. The reason I was looking at Soma was because the only choices it seems for mixtes are all used mixtes from the 70's and 80's. For my lady's golden years I want to build her a nice new mixte with a 44 tooth single chain ring up front and an eight speed out back using a new Grip Shift 8 speed system, no drop bars this time around. Masi isn't even an option as they only want to sell complete bikes. I have been enlightened reading all the replies here on this forum. Why not get a woman's view? I am trying to build a woman's bike. I'm hoping someone over at Soma will read the views presented on these forums and tweak the dimensions for this frame.
I really don't want to build on an older frame that I will have to convert the wheels from 27" over to 700. It seems a lot of the older mixtes I've been looking at also have crappy brakes. Anyway, thank you ladies, I will keep hoping for a new frame for my lady. Thank you for all the insight.

[Blueberry]

Welcome, Thommy, and good luck with your lady's new bike

Have you looked at the Rivendell Mixte? It's beautiful, but pricey.

CA

[uforgot]

Velo Orange has a mixte, also and so does Masi. I put a deposit down on the Masi and they said it would be over a month. The Masi starts at 16" which may be a little big, but the Velo Orange one is built to fit. It's pricey too at around $1600 for the frame.

[Tri Girl]

My lady stands 4' 13"

You mean, 5' 1"?
I hope you find a good bike for your lady. Good luck!

[Thommy]

Yes, 5' 1". No, Rivendell is too pricey. I have many many parts, no reason to pay for someone else's labor and overhead. I really enjoy building the bikes and wheels from the ground up. In my opinion the Masi looks cheesy and I really don't like the guy on the Masi website's goofy haircut. I can't wait to actually see a Buena Vista frame "live". I will be measuring it carefully.

[Thommy]

Hi ladies and gents. Have any of you looked at the fixedgeargallery.com website ? Pull it up and click on the far left of the page under "Interbike Photos" day 2. Look at the first and second pages, there are Soma's display of the Buena Visa in white. Looks like we're getting closer. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

[KnottedYet]

Mid-life Crisis Bike Redux!

I can get a 54 cm Soma Buena Vista (in the new graphite color, with the very sexy new Sutro Tower In the Fog headbadge) and transfer all the goodies from my Surly to the new frame for about $100. Plus $75 for caliper brakes. Plus $500 for the BV frame.

If the bike worked out, I could sell the Surly frame to help defray costs.

My long arms would appreciate the 1 cm longer toptube. And the BV fork has front pannier mounts.

My LBS was telling me how easy and cheap it would be, etc. Bunch of enablers.

The graphite mixte frame is out of stock until Fall, so I've got time to stew on this...

[yellow]

Have you seen a built Buena Vista in person? I am currently enabling someone in the bike-buying realm and she wants a step-through frame (she is close to 70 and does not want to swing her leg over) but something much lighter than her current hybrid bike. I'm encouraging her to look seriously at the Buena Vista, but I don't expect her to commit for a couple of months. We have a local dealer who can order and assemble for her, but she is hesitant because she has it in her head that she should be able to go to the store and buy a complete bike. I've assured her that she will love a bike put together just for her!

If you do commit, your timing could be good for her to stumble upon a review and some pictures.

[KnottedYet]

Free Range Cycles www.freerangecycles.com usually has one built up in the shop. I watched one of the wrenches building one a few years ago, and she gave me a lot of info on how she felt about the frame quality, how she liked working on it, etc.

I probably won't get one, at least not yet. I've waited so many years, what's a few more, eh?

In any case, the gray is out of stock until the Fall. White is available, so if your friend is interested in a white bike, she could do that right now.

One thing the wrench at Free Range suggested years ago is that I buy a cheap bike with the parts I like, and transfer them to the SOMA frame I want. It would have been cheaper to do that (and sell the resulting naked frame) than to buy parts individually for what I wanted.

Perhaps your friend would like to take a look at the Linus and Public mixtes? They are not too expensive (under $1,000) and they are complete. http://www.linusbike.com/ http://publicbikes.com/

[SadieKate]

Have you seen a built Buena Vista in person? I am currently enabling someone in the bike-buying realm and she wants a step-through frame (she is close to 70 and does not want to swing her leg over) but something much lighter than her current hybrid bike. I'm encouraging her to look seriously at the Buena Vista, but I don't expect her to commit for a couple of months. We have a local dealer who can order and assemble for her, but she is hesitant because she has it in her head that she should be able to go to the store and buy a complete bike. I've assured her that she will love a bike put together just for her!

If you do commit, your timing could be good for her to stumble upon a review and some pictures.

You will be happy to know that my freakin' first-off-the-assembly line Buena Vista frame is finally out of its hidey spot and ready for the build. Of course, I can't find the grips for the initial build (somewhere in the garage, don't ya know) and Velo Orange is out of stock on my chosen stem. But. This. Will. Happen.

I saw a Linus mixte at the LBS as I was running into the LFS yesterday. I only glanced but it looked nice but I don't think it had the gearing a 70 yr old would want in SLC. Probably has other options but I was focused on the LFS.

And, glad to hear the BJ is getting some attention.