Barrettscv 

This year, I’ve evolved from being a sedentary cycling newbie into a 120 mile/week rider, and I’m enjoying the benefits. I’m primarily a commuter, but will take 40 mile fun rides several times a month. My commute is a 25 to 35 mile RT. Cycling 100 plus miles a week will change your ideas, not only about bikes, but about transportation in general. I’ve also lost 20 lbs and expect to be down a dozen more before winter. However, I’ve been considering an upgrade from my low-cost hybrid to improve the quality of my cycling time.

I formed a criterion for selecting a long distance commuter with the following statement: A good long distance commuter should be tough, comfortable, cheap & fast. So my choice came down to a steel framed touring or cyclocross bike. Only a few touring bikes can accept really fat tires larger than 700 x 32, so I focused my search on Steel framed Cyclocross bikes. After looking at a few Surly models, I decided on a Soma Double Cross due to its better steel tubing and slightly lighter weight.

Next issue, fit.

I’m a 6 foot Clydesdale at 230 lbs. Almost every bike model has a size large enough for me, but how do I know what models will be better than average in terms of fit? Bike fitting is a specialty, and most shops don’t offer in-depth fitting. In Chicago, Get a Grip Cycles provides a complete fitting for a fee. Considering that I would be spending 10 hours or more on a new bike every week, the cost of the fitting seemed like a good investment.

See here: https://getagripcycles.com/page.cfm?pageID=93



The goal during the fitting was check the angles of the ankles, knees, hips, shoulders elbows & wrists as I rode upon a test bike. These were measured both while I was stationary and also by camera while pedaling.

After measuring my physical dimensions and range of motion, Adam was confident that fitting me to a bike would not be problematic. It was explained that the rider is positioned on the bike at three points, the pedals, the seat and the handlebars. Position those points correctly and the rider is comfortable, efficient and fast.

The Soma Double Cross in either a 58 or 60 frames size could be made to fit, but the 60 was closer to ideal. The fitting revealed that the 58 size would have required a well extended seatpost with rearward offset, this would have put my hips rearward of the ideal position to drive the crank. The solution was the 60cm frame size. The seatpost selected would have a zero offset to put the hips in the right place over the BB. The handlebars would be positioned by a 120mm stem positioned at a normal height above the tall Soma headtube.

Sourcing;

Since I would not be buying a complete bike, sourcing components would make or break the project. Finding a frame is easy enough, but as a newbie, every other component required detective work and the advice of this forum and multiple other on-line resources.

Fork: I wanted the weight savings and damp feel of a carbon fiber fork. I soon discovered that most economy priced carbon forks are not lighter than the standard steel Soma Double Cross fork. I found a new Ridley 4ZA Zornyc fork that was uncut, a recent take-off from a new bike. Ridley builds some outstanding carbon bikes, so I expect the fork is well made. It is approved for off-road work, including CX racing, and it saves significant weight over most steel forks.

Components: I struck gold, finding a new 2007 Felt F1X Cyclocross bike on eBay to be used as a parts donor. The seller is a bike shop purging NOS. The price was right at $820.00 plus shipping. I sold the frameset on eBay and recovered 2/3 of the initial cost.

Build;

I decided that Get a grip should build the bike. They disassembled the Felt, applied Framesaver the Soma, installed the BB & headset, finished the assembly and installed a computer for $150.

The result;



Below: Ridley 4ZA Zornyc carbon CX fork, Cane Creek headset, Felt 1.3 6061 Butted Alloy Bar, Felt 1.2cm 3D-Forged Stem, Shimano 105 brifters, Tektro Oryx brakes with Tektro RX bar-top levers, Mavic CXP-22 Double-Wall Rims and DT Doubled Butted Champion Spokes, Felt Precision Sealed-Bearing Hubs & 700x28 Continental Gatorback tires



Below: 175mm Sram S300 GXP CX compact double crank with a 46 X 38t ring pair, Shimano CX SPD pedals, Ultegra derailleur



Below: Ultegra derailleur, 105 11-25 cassette



Below: FSA seatpost, Felt 1.1 saddle



A view of the cockpit



Below, Disc brake bracket

chaadster

Wow, cool writeup! Great story too; congratulations. Inspiring.

The bike looks handsome and well set up, too. I might have thought that disc brakes would be ideal, particularly in cold Chicago, but if you stick to fair weather, or most of your ride is fairly open road, then the rim brakes should be just dandy. I bang through snow and rain, and I swear by my discs for that stuff! Why not V-brakes, though?

Anyway, enjoy the ride and crush those miles, man! Awesome!

taliesin

Bike looks great. I also cannibalized a Felt F1X for parts to build up my Cross Check then sold the frame on eBay.

Enjoy!

rugerben

My lord that's a nice setup.

Shimagnolo

Because they would not work with his brifters, unless he added a kludge like TravelMates.

I like the frame color. The subdued satin finish combined with the large number of black parts give it a SpecOps-standard-issue kind of look.

chaadster

Ah, got it. Thanks.

joninkrakow

Have you hung panniers off that rack yet? I considered the Double Cross, but the 42cm chainstay length had me nervous of my size 11 feet hitting the bags. (It seems the LHT is rare with its 45cm stays) TIA

-Jon

Barrettscv 

John, Are you in Krakow? I'll be visiting at the end of November.

Michael

joninkrakow

Yes, I am, as a matter of fact. :-)

Barrettscv 

Hi Joninkrakow,

Krakow is one of my favorite places;



We will have to have a beer when I'm in town. Where can I rent a bike?

To answer your question, I installed a Otivia Cargo Cashe hard case pannier on the rack last night.



Its not instantly removable and it needs a long-legged rider to fit under the seat. However it is large, waterproof & aerodynamic. I won't be using hung panniers.





Michael

JeffS

That's a nice build - a nice mix of quality, but not too expensive, components.

Barrettscv 

One of my goals was to keep the price close to that of a factory made road bike with the same components sold at retail. The total cost of materials is $1090. Not too far from target.

Michael

joninkrakow

Mine too. ;-)
If we're sharing pics, I'll have to share one of mine too. It's also on the Wawel hill, but looking the opposite direction from your pic.

Unfortunately for you, I don't drink, but that shouldn't stop us from getting together. I'll PM you my contact details so you can call when you're in town.

I almost bought a trunk that was very similar to this one, but then I remembered how higher loads on my touring bike used to unsettle me, and then I found some cheap, Polish-made panniers that I bought. I like to sling 'em low...

Thanks for the info.

-Jon

Barrettscv 

600 miles in 5 weeks, time for a review.

Its been said that a great bike is a bike you want to ride everyday. The Soma Double Cross scores a 10 out of 10 on that basis.

My initial impression on the bike was how big, but comfortable the fit is. It took a little familiarity and seat and handlebar adjustment, but the size 60cm frame fits me, and I’m just 6 foot. The zero offset FSA seatpost positions the seat at the right location and the 110mm stem brings the bars within reach. I’m on the drops about 50% of the time, the hoods are easy to ride and the cross bar is good to use at lower speeds and helps me look above the traffic as I commute. The very tall 195mm head-tube is golden. It puts the handlebar at just the right level without multiple spacers. It looks right, and the fit is great.

The ride quality is remarkable. It provides a smooth comfortable ride as the rider seems to float along. I was looking for long distance traveling comfort and the steel frame with a carbon fiber fork is very damp and plush. The bike also feels lively and accelerates well. I can sprint to 25 mph at will.

Handling is excellent and stability is also very good. The bike turns in quickly without feeling squirrelly. Stability is more than adequate. The bike will drift off line if the rider is daydreaming, but no issue IMO. It’s the kind of bike that wants to be driven hard at 20 mph or more. I’ll scrape the pedals while taking turns and accelerating out of the corners. Tons of fun to ride anywhere.

The drivetrain does its job. I changed out the compact 48 & 36t crank for a 44t single chairing, creating a 1X10. Here in Chicago the 1X10, using a 12-25 10-speed cassette, provides a broad enough range for the few hills I travel. Even uphill against the wind, the gear range is all I need. With a 1X10 there is no cross chain rule and no redundant gears. I can intuitively go up and down the range and instantly be in the right gear.

The Felt hubs and Mavic rims are strong and offer good performance. I added a second set of low cost Alex Ace 19 rims with Fuji hubs. Clearly a downgrade, but I was looking for a cheap set of rims for a pair of 700x32 Armadillo Infinity tires for puncture free winter travel. Well the rear Alex rim was damaged beyond repair on a steel flange that was hidden under leaves one night. I may just move the 700x32 Armadillo Infinity tires to the Mavic rims.

I’ve added a dual beam 16 watt light up front and a Planet Bike Superflash in back. I’m doing half of my 100 miles a week in the dark now. I‘ve also added a hard-case pannier to the rack.

This bike has become my second car.

Michael

mechBgon

Cool! Next year I want to upgrade my tired old Trek "daily driver" to a Soma Smoothie ES.

rugerben

Thanks for the review of the bike. Awesomeness.

Honestly, for the sake of twenty bucks, be a sport and get a Second Superflash. I use two superflashes and a blinkie seven. All from Planet Bike obviously.
It's an awesome combo. I rode down the road at night with my GF trailing about 100 yards behind me in her car. She said that she could clearly see the flashing lights at 100 yards on both pitch black country road, and well light city road.

Barrettscv 

I'll have to post a picture of the bike in full commuter mode, I'm no Ninja!

ewwhite

Where are you commuting to/from? Is the job *in* the city?

Barrettscv 

I commute from my home on the north side of Chicago near California & Peterson. My Job is in southwestern Schaumburg. Its a 32 mile one-way commute, but I partially depend on the car and/or bus everyday. Recently, I've been driving to Rosemont, parking the car and taking the bus to Rolling Meadows. From there, I ride the Busse Woods Bike Path to Biesterfield Rd and travel on that until get to my office. It sounds complex, but Im cutting my car usage down by 40% and I'm getting the daily exercise I want.

I still average 100 miles a week on the bike. This will be reduced to 60 a week in December, I'll start limiting my cycling to days with moderate weather and drive the whole distance 2 or 3 days a week.

Michael