xyzzy834

I’ve been touring on a 2003 Fuji Touring frame with a wide variety of components since 2004. It’s been dedicated to touring for most of its life since I have other bikes to ride close to home. I’ve made a thousand changes to it over the years because I like to tinker and try new things. I can never leave well enough alone.

The Fuji has a persistent problem of the Axix square taper bottom bracket “clicking” slightly under load. I’ve made several attempts to solve it with occasional short-term success. This winter, I decided to try a MTB crank set with outboard bearings. For some reason, it seemed like a good idea to swap out the frame (it’s just another component, right?) at the same time.

The Soma Saga looked like a good candidate. I like the way it looks. It has most of the touring features I like and I was able to get one for $369 plus about $15 dollars shipping from OutsideOutfitters.com. Of course, one thing leads to another and I bought a few other new parts for the new frame. Many of the old components from the Fuji were swapped over and a handful of spare components I had laying around were used to complete the bike.

All in all, I’m extremely pleased with the result, as much as I can be without touring on it anyway. Short rides are good. I’ll have to update this after I have some loaded miles under the wheels to report on how well it all works together on the road.

The Bones

The Saga is Soma Fabrications’ touring specific frame. It has fairly standard touring geometry. I ride the 58 cm (virtual) size.



While the earlier models of the Saga frame came with a lugged, sloping shoulder crown fork, the current model ships with a lugged, flat crown fork. I like the way the flat crown looks, but either way, the lugged fork looks far better than the “bent pipe” look of unicrown forks. The fork tubes have an attractive curve to them with dual eyelets on the dropouts and mid-fork attachment points for low rider racks.

Soma now puts a proper head tube badge on the Saga in place of a decal on earlier models. It’s nowhere near as nice as the badges Rivendell puts on their bikes, but it’s a real badge and it looks pretty good.



You’d have to see the thickness of the butted ends of the head tube to appreciate how strong they look. I’m sorry I didn’t snap a picture before I pressed in the headset cups. The head tube is rather long by road bike standards, to allow higher bar height without stacking 6’ of spacers under the stem. The thickly butted tube combined with its overall length makes for an exceptionally sturdy steering axis. You won’t ovalize it, even under extreme conditions. Just to be sure, though, I installed an FSA “The Pig” headset.

The FSA Pig headset uses a forged chromoly lower cup and ¼” lower ball bearings. The upper cup is a more normal 6061-T6 aluminum with 5/32” balls. It comes in silver or black. I think the silver looks great with the Soma navy blue frame. Especially, since the FSA painted logo can easily be removed from the lower cup with a razor blade. To top it all off, the Pig is dirt-cheap.

I prefer the graceful look of nice quill stems for threaded headsets. I used a Nitto Technomic Deluxe on my Fuji, but the Saga requires a threadless headset with its associated clamp-on stem. One of the things I like most about quill stems is the level forward extension to the handlebars. I hope I don’t offend anyone, but I just can’t warm up to the jacked up chicken neck stems used to get the bars up to an acceptable level. I’d rather stack spacers on the fork steering tube, even though they aren’t particularly attractive either. Fortunately, the Saga helps in this regard by extending the head tube well above the top tube joint to cut down on the number of spacers needed for a given height.

The Saga head tube angle is 72° on my frame. An 18° stem would be required to create a level forward extension. Those are rare, but 17° stems are common. That’s close enough. IRD makes a nicely finished 17° silver stem in the 90mm extension I wanted. It’s pretty cheap as well. About 40mm of silver headset spacers complete the closest approximation I can make to a classic quill stem look.



I use Thomson seatposts on all my bikes. They have no setback, which fits me well, but may make it hard for some people to get the saddle back far enough for their preference. The Thomson is a two-bolt design for easy tilt adjustment. I’m very sensitive to saddle tilt, to the point where I use a level to help make small adjustments. Thomson makes the adjustment process easy and the saddle rails never slip. The overall finish quality is outstanding and the machined micro-ridges along the length of the seatpost allow the use of only moderate force tightening the seatpost collar with no slippage. They aren’t cheap, but they’re worth it.

I’ve tried a Blackburn low-rider, a Surly Nice Rack, and a Tubus Tara on my Fuji. In my experience, the Tara blows everything else away in terms of weight, stability, rotational stiffness, and load carrying ability. The Saga fork appears to have been made with the Tara in mind. I’m a stickler for level rack load bars. I use a level to adjust mine. The Tara rack uses the middle of three possible upper mounting holes for a dead-level installation on the Saga.

The Tubus Cargo rack is the only rear rack I’ve ever used on a touring bike. It’s so close to perfect, I never wanted to try anything else. It mates to the Saga (in my size, at least) so well it’s nearly an integrated rack. I use a level here again to install the rack stays properly.

Wheels

The wheels are constructed from Phil Wood hubs, Mavic T520 48-hole rims (sadly, discontinued), and Wheelsmith DB14 double butted spokes.



Peter White built the wheels in 2003. They’re overbuilt for the task, but they’re rock solid wheels. I’m pretty careful about avoiding hole, cracks, and uneven pavement edges but I occasionally get surprised. I’ve never broken a spoke and they’re as true today as the day they were built.



Sheldon Brown explained in detail why you should pay attention to your skewers and why the enclosed cam type is superior to the exposed cam models. The Phil Wood hubs my wheels are built around didn’t come with skewers. I picked up some XTR models from my local bike shop. I would have been happy with any of the Shimano enclosed cam skewers, but these didn’t cost much more than the least expensive ones.

I’ve only used two types of touring-specific tires, both made by Continental. The Top Touring 2000 was the gold standard for touring tires during its reign. I had great luck with them and I still carry a 28mm folding version as a spare tire. Continental discontinued the TT 2000 and began making the Top Contact as their top-of-the-line touring tire. The Top Contact is handmade in Germany. I don’t know how much that contributes to the quality, but it’s rolls even more smoothly than my previous TT 2000 tires and has been even more durable. At prices that approach the cheapest automobile tires, they better be good. They are.

Drivetrain

I had been using Dura-Ace bar end shifters with good success on my Fuji. I mounted them on the bar ends of drop bar handlebars and on Paul’s Thumbies shifter pods when I switched to trekking bars. I know all the reasons these shifters are extremely popular for touring bikes. The front shifter is friction and the rear, indexed shifter can easily be switched to friction. People have been skeptical of the durability and complexity of STI shifters for touring applications, particularly when far from a well-stocked bike shop.



I’ve been using STI shifters on a couple of my other bikes for some time with no problems. I’m comfortable with their reliability, but even a catastrophic shifter failure of either shifter wouldn’t leave me stranded. If I couldn’t fix a broken shifter on the road, I can always use the limit screws to set the affected derailleur to a middle position, leaving me with a 1x9 or 3x1 drivetrain. At that point, the bike is plenty rideable to get me to a decent place to fix the problem. I mounted Shimano Tiagara STI shifters on the Saga and never looked back. I have 105 and Ultegra STI shifters on other bikes. I expected the Tiagara shifters to be crude compared to their more upscale models. Not so. The fit and finish of them is very nice. They might be a bit heavier; I didn’t weigh them, but they look good and operate smoothly.

As I explained in the introduction, my Fuji Touring bike had square taper bottom bracket that I wasn’t entirely happy with. I loved the gear spacing of my previous crank set, though. The front chain rings were 48, 36, and 22. It shifted well and when combined with Harris’ (Sheldon’s) custom Cyclotouriste 13-34 cluster in the rear, gave me 20 (out of 27 possible) well-spaced useable gears with a range from about 18 to 101 gear inches. It would actually give 22, but I don't use (or need) the big-big combinations due to poor chain line.

I wanted to move to the large outboard bearings of modern crank sets, yet keep the same gearing I used on my Fuji. I found the Shimano FC-M590 Deore crank set was available with either 44-32-22 or 48-36-26 chain rings. I bought the 48-36-26 version and the individual 22-tooth ring. After swapping the 22-tooth ring for the original 26-tooth, I had the exact gearing I wanted in an inexpensive crank set with outboard bearings. It couldn’t have been easier, except for chain line issues.

The natural chain line for a 135mm rear spacing with a 9-speed cluster is 45mm. The Deore MTB crank set wants to be set up at 50mm, which creates a problem for most road front derailleurs to reach the big chainring. A MTB front derailleur can be used, but then you have to friction shift it or use MTB shifters (which require MTB diameter handlebars, etc.) I want to use Shimano STI road shifters, so I use an IRD Alpina-D front derailleur.

There are three 2.5mm spacers used to center the Deore crank. For a 68mm bottom bracket shell, two spacers normally go on the drive side and one on the non-drive side. Moving all of the spacers to the non-drive side would set it up with a 45mm chainline, but that’s 7.5mm of spacers on the side that is expecting, 2.5mm at most. I’m not sure the threaded cup on the non-drive side would engage enough threads to be safe and solid. I moved only one of the 2.5mm spacers from the drive side to the non-drive side to split the difference and create a 47.5mm chainline.

At 47.5mm, the IRD Alpina-D front derailleur has just enough reach to comfortably shift into to the big chainring. Moving the front chainline out by 2.5mm doesn’t really create a chainline problem. The center-to-center spacing of the rear cogs for a Shimano 9-speed cluster is 4.34mm. That means I’ve moved the front chainline out about one-half of a rear cog space. I tend to ride in the outer half of the rear cassette anyway because the front chainrings are only 22-36-48. All in all, it shifts smoothly and pulls a pretty straight chain for the way I normally ride.

Cockpit

I tried butterfly/trekking bars and I didn’t really like them much. They weren’t horrible, but I’m pleased to move back to traditional dropped bars. And by traditional, I mean traditionally shaped as well. No noodles, splayed randonneers, ergonomic, super shallow drop bars or other new-fangled inventions. I use the regular Nitto M176, a.k.a “Dream Bar,” on my touring bike. The only thing unusual about it is the width; it’s 46cm center-to-center. That’s wide. I don’t think it’s made that wide anymore. When I bought it in 2003 from Rivendell, the web site said the 46cm model was heat treated for strength. The narrower widths didn’t need it, apparently. The width gives me plenty of room for a bike computer, a handlebar bag, a map holder and plenty of hand positions.



I double wrap the bars for comfort. I like a thick, meaty bar to hold, but I don’t like squishy gel or foam underlayment. I use a base layer of cloth tape wrapped tightly (skipping the shift/brake levers) followed by a firm wrap of Fi’zi:k Microtex bar tape. The Microtex looks like leather and wears like iron. It comes in a variety of colors, however the honey color is difficult to find in the US. I made the effort to get the honey tape because it closely matches my saddle. It’s not expensive like leather and it doesn’t require the same care. Microtex laughs at the rain.

A mirror is an essential part of my touring bike. I try to choose light traffic routes and, even then, I want to see when I’m being approached from the rear. I don’t like helmet mirrors and I don’t like convex mirrors much. That doesn’t leave much to choose from for road bikes. One of the side benefits of switching to STI shifters is the ability to mount the excellent MirrCycle STI-mount mirror. I use one of these on another bike I ride around town more often and I like it very much.

Brakes

Paul’s Touring Canti brakes fit the Saga well. The return spring is on the outboard (away from the frame) side of the brakes and attached to a 14mm adjustment head. I can dial in exactly the amount of return tension I want on each side to keep them well centered. The brakes are quite powerful when properly set up with a fairly low straddle or link wire. They come with a universal straddle wire, but I prefer to fit a proper length link wire. I think the installation looks cleaner and they’re easier to adjust.



My only beef with the Paul’s brakes is they put the open side of the straddle cable on the right (facing the bike from the front or rear). That’s backward from the way Shimano and every other canti brake manufacturer does it. There’s no performance effect, but it means the logo side of the link wire is facing the bike and the “ugly” side is facing out.

The rear brake cable hanger is built into Saga frame. IRD makes a nice front cable hanger for threadless headsets.

Accessories

A small, but important (to me), feature of the Saga is a built in kickstand plate. Kickstands are something of a love ‘em or hate ‘em accessory for bikes. I think they’re essential for a touring bike. I stop frequently for food, water, resting, and all sorts of reasons. I’m often stopped in places where there isn’t a convenient place to lean my loaded bike. I’ll always have a kickstand on my touring bike. It’s a pleasure to wrench down the kickstand mount bolt without worrying about scratching or crushing the chainstays.



The Saga mounts three water bottle cages on the frame. The two upper ones are nestled low on the frame and leave plenty of room for tall bottles. My front derailleur band clamp is positioned between the mounting holes of the bottle mount on the seat tube. After installing a pair of 2mm nylon spacers, the cages mount perfectly. I like the 27 oz. Klean Kanteen stainless bottles. They have no plastic smell or taste, even when the water is inevitably warm on long summer day touring.

I’ve ridden in enough rain to fully appreciate the value of good fenders on a touring bike. The SKS Longboard fenders are 45mm wide, which covers a 37mm tire, and are the longest full coverage ones around. The extra long coverage in front keeps the road grit off your feet and bottom bracket in both wet and dry weather. Taking the time to carefully mount them to accurately follow the curvature of the tires is essential for a clean look. I think the second biggest bike fashion faux pas (after unlevel racks) is fenders that don’t follow the tire curvature.

MTBMaven

Thank you for the amazingly detailed build report! I have a full build list in a spreadsheet I just sent to my LBS today but have not given the word to place the order. There are few things I want to reevaluate after reading this. Lots of good stuff in there. Have fun with the new bike, it is beautiful!

safariofthemind

Nice report. Thanks for sharing.

tarwheel 

Beautiful bike and great build. I honestly don't understand why more tourers don't select the Saga over the Long Haul Trucker. Nothing wrong with LHTs, but the Saga geometry seems much better suited for touring, at least for me. My only critique is that a riser stem would look better (to me) than a flat stem with spacers. Riser stems used to bother me too, but I've gotten used to them and actually prefer the look now over a level stem with spacers.

tip

I love reading threads like these. Thanks for taking the time to share.

dannwilliams

Beautiful build! Thanks for sharing.

Speedo

Beautiful bike. Very thorough report.

Thank you!

Speedo

irwin7638

Beautiful! You didn't miss a trick on that one.

Marc

sstorkel

FWIW, my Shimano Ultegra triple FD also works in this configuration. I would expect that most road derailleurs designed for triple cranks could work with a 47.5mm chainline.

As others have said: a nice build and a great write-up!

rzldzl

I am looking closely at building up a Soma Saga also, so thanks for the full report. I am currently running that crankset with the 22t small ring on another bike, so the chain line information is particularly helpful.
Could you tell me a bit more about the fit of the 58 cm frame? I am 6'0" with a 32" inseam and was thinking that, with the sloping top tube, I might move up to a 60 cm frame.

xyzzy834

That's a good point. My write-up wasn't clear about that. The spacer juggling around the crank to create the 47.5mm chainline was the critical part for making the setup work with road STI shifters and a front derailleur.

I used the IRD Alpina-d because it's designed for compact chainrings up to about 48-teeth. The Ultegra triple will also work. Most any road FD will work as long as you bring the chainline in from the "natural" 50mm for a MTB crank to something in the 47.5 range.

xyzzy834

I'm 6'0" with a 32" pants inseam. I don't remember my measured PBH, but i'm not particular at all about standover. I like a shortish top tube of my touring bikes. Not ridiculously short or anything, just not a long one. I'm very comfortable on a 58cm Saga. If you normally like a longer top tube, you might try moving up to the 60cm. I think most people would be better served by sizing bikes by their top-tube length preferences.

knoregs

Very, very nice. Top class all the way.

~kn