I think Jason touches on it correctly. The Soma San Marcos and the Rivendell Charlie H. Gallop are very different bicycles. The Soma San Marcos is a drop bar road bike. The Rivendell Charlie H. Gallop is an upright bar road bike. It is possible to run a Soma San Marcos or any other drop bar road bike with an upright handlebar, provided one wants a bolt upright "English Gentleman" fit -OR- runs a really long stem. It is possible to run a Charlie H. Gallop with a drop handlebar, provided one wants an unusually long and stretched out fit -OR- runs a really stubby stem. One could start to compare riding characteristics like comfort and stability and take it as a given that the fit stuff has been taken care of, but to me it all begins there. In other words, I don't see a Charlie H Gallop as an "upgrade" to a Soma San Marcos with Albatross bars unless one has concluded that the San Marcos with Albatross bars is the wrong bike, and they want a do-over with the right bike. If a Soma San Marcos with Albatross bars is the right bike, then a Charlie H Gallop is a lot different and could turn out to be a lot worse for that particular rider.
In summary: it depends. Perhaps you could share photos and commentary on the Soma San Marcos with Albatross bars. Do you love it, but want to upgrade it? Are you tired of it and want something a lot different? Are you winter-bored and just thinking about potential projects? All are super common. I've got like six bike projects in different stages between concept and reality. Bill Lindsay El Cerrito, CA On Friday, February 20, 2026 at 3:13:10 PM UTC-8 Jason Fuller wrote: > I owned the proto-Gallop for about 1000 miles of riding with Albatross, > and have run the same bars for a few years on my Hillborne. My feedback > would be that if the setup fits you well on the San Marcos, the benefits > would be purely related to the longer wheelbase. Chief among these benefits > is comfort, but also it rides more sure-footed and climbs better in my > opinion too. But running these bars on a bike whose geometry accommodates a > drop bar fit tends to mean you're either scrunched up with the bars too > close, or you're running a super long stem and your hands are more over the > front wheel. I like how my Hillborne rides with the Albatross + 13cm stem, > it's more nimble at the expense of some comfort, so to me it's a matter of > priorities. But no doubt the Gallop is more optimally proportioned for a > good fit without going extreme on stem length, and probably it better > distributes your weight too > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/c191154c-7ddb-4149-b0de-f3f3aba01eaan%40googlegroups.com.
