cg1985

So I made a small Change on my Soma.

Swapped to 52/18 Chainring/Cog, and removed the Rear brake and old levers, replaced the front brake and added cross lever. It's mounted funny, but it seems to me the most efficient for the brake line:

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Thoughts? Bad Change? good Change? Aesthetically that is.

EDIT: I wish I had taken a 'real' before picture from when I first got the bike.

PedallingATX

aesthetically, i think i liked it better before. but it's whatever you like...

wmgreene85

what size tires are you running?

cg1985

700x25's Conti Gatorskins.

Do they look funny?

cc700

woah- a real soma!

they gatorskins look great, your frame is pretty small though so the tires look a little fat. i'd rather be on 25's than look nice though.

bike is great and it's aesthetically much nicer- but you should have replaced the brakes with these:
https://www.velo-orange.com/diacompe.html

or something similar. the brown gum rubber would go great with your bike and bars, and i just don't think the cross lever is 'vintage' looking enough. that, and you can only brake from the top position now.

cg1985

Yea, I'm pretty short, (read 5'8) and the frame is slightly small for me, but I find it really really comfy! better to have a bike slightly small than the other way around (I have a 54 CM rocky mountain I stopped riding because it isn't comfy).

I thought about those brown hoods at velo-orange, but One reason I went with the cross lever is I like the look of the bars without brake levers.

I change hand positions quite a bit, (usually out of boredom, but with only cloth tape and no gloves, I do it out of comfort too), so the brake position is nominal really.

plus the dead lever is always weird to me. But I can definitely see why the cross lever isn't vintage enough, it's something I thought abnout.

I also thought about gummed sidewall tired. My girlfriend has these ruffy tuffy tires from Rivendell, Might change to those. One reason I went with the Gators is because i had them on my old commuter and they have been so great for flat protection, and my city is full of broken glass, rusty sharp car parts/metal, and potholes, so durability of wheel/tires was important.

That and I was so excited to put my new wheels on I just wanted to get the best tired I could that was available at the LBS at the time, which was Gators, but before that I was definitely thinkin' about gums.

illdthedj

i actually really dig the brake levers on the before pic.

cc700

yeah. brakes look better on a road bike than bare bars. and bare bars look better on a track bike. i don't think that feeling is just arbitrary, either.

clams

looks much better with just the one cross lever, those brake lines were running every which way before.

hairnet

looks better with drop levers, but not the suicide levers you have.

bbattle

I would've kept the road brakes but removed the turkey or suicide levers. The centerpull brakes would've been fine to keep, too. The hoods give you another very useful hand position.

Have you tried tilting the nose of your saddle up just a bit? The part where your sitbones rest is tilted forward; might be more comfortable for you if that part was a little more horizontal.


The bike still looks great, though. Good job!

seau grateau

Diggin the old brakes. But if you're going for clean, get rid of that reflector mount.

cg1985

the reflector mount is next on the list.