There aren't many big corporations in the bike biz. I seriously doubt Soma has more than a dozen full-time employees. I believe the frames are made in the same Taiwanese factory that makes the BF/YG.
On Mar 21, 6:00 pm, Doug Van Cleve <dvancl...@gmail.com> wrote: > A few thoughts: YG or Ebisu = supporting the little guy, Soma = large > faceless corporation pretending to be counterculture. Single TT a la > Herse/Singer is absolutely stiffer, that's why most craft built mixtes have > been that way. YG and Ebisu are lugged, Soma is welded (right?). As > already mentioned, anything other than drop bars makes it easy to deal with > a longer top tube. Ebisu has cantis, debatably stronger than sidepulls and > easy enough to set up assuming modern ones. Why is the YG $200 more than > the Betty Foy? Other than being named after a female character, is there > anything more feminine about the BF than that YG? For $200 less, I think I > like it better. I personally would narrow it down to the RBW product or > Ebisu. Money not an object, the Ebisu is the classiest. Since they are at > least semi-custom, I wonder if you could get horizontal dropouts on one of > those? > > Regards, Doug > > > > On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 3:45 PM, Ray Shine <r.sh...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > > Thank you, everyone --- > > > My handlebar choice will be (at the moment) either inverted Albatross or a > > set of Jitensha flat bars that I once had mounted on my Atlantis. Those > > bars still have the Paul thumbies and the Paul levers on them, so that is > > the option I'm leaning to. > > > The other responses regarding tire width -- I'd like to do something > > between 35 and bigger. Thanks for the link to the Soma 650B conversion. > > That looks interesting. I do like the canti brakes of the Ebisu. I like > > canti brakes. > > > The other neat thing about the Soma is the horizontal drop out. I was > > giving serious consideration to trying out that new 9-speed IGH. And, I > > really like the double top tube design. I wonder if it is as strong as the > > Riv and Ebisu designs. > > > As for the Riv's. Yes, I am a Riv fan (I own three Riv's already) but the > > Gomez just doesn't catch my eye, frankly. I could get by the goofy name and > > "International Man. . ." thing if other aspects came together. I like the > > intended use of the Gomez, and the way it could be set like a Hillborne, but > > I think it's the least stylish of the three bikes I mentioned. > > > Thank you also for the Velo Orange link. That looks good as well, so maybe > > now it's a choice of four models. > > > Ray -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
