I just got my new Soma Buena Vista mixte frame. Some things about it surprised me. The tubing sticker on the down tube states that it's Tange Prestige, which is a step up from the Infinity tubing that the manufacturer's website says it's made from. The more puzzling surprise is the set of knob-like things screwed into the gear shifter bosses. (At least, I hope they're only screwed in.)
They look like old, slightly bent empty thread spools, and they don't appear in any of the online photographs. Does anyone know what they are? They're made for steel and painted the same colour as the frame.

full pic plz ... i'd love to see the whole frame.

not an expert, but those look like downtube shifters thingies ...

No, I had down-tube shifters years ago and they just threaded straight into the frame bosses. I've never seen anything like these.

I agree with Acidfast7, they look like downtube shifter threaded bosses with a rubber protection cap over them.

That's what they appear to be. My cross check came with them. You can get a small adapter to screw into them for a barrel adjuster for the der. cables.

I'm well aware of what shifter bosses are supposed to look like, and I know perfectly well what an adaptor for a cable stop looks like. I've put bikes together. I've had both downtube and bar-end shifters. This steel spool-like thing is like nothing I've ever seen before. It isn't rubber, it's steel, and it's quite large. My better half hasn't ever seen anything like it before either, and he's put together far more bikes than I have.
I've emailed both the seller and Soma to try to figure out what it's supposed to be for. Since it's in more than finger-tight, I'd like to know what it is before I take a wrench to it to try to unscrew it from the boss.

I'd bet they a a shipping/protection thing.

Try using a rag as a cushion and a pair of pliers to unscrew them. With that small diameter they don't have to be very tight to be more than finger tight.

my double cross looked just like that when I got it. I just grabbed it with a pliers and twisted it off.

<guess> they left on the covers used to mask off the Bosses while the darned thing was being painted.

now , there are lots of bar endshifters sold, they come with boss cover adjusters , so putting downtube shifter boses on ther is simple and universally adaptable to
Brifters and any other non-down tube shifter you choose .. too..

sorry, i meant that they're plastic protectors in the threads that the downtube shifter bosses thread into.

here you go ... came across this on ******