A Soma 'Riff' Is Born.

Recently we finished a project that was started almost 2 years ago. A frame, that any regular to the workshop would have seen hanging up gathering dust, is now finally turning wheels with purpose. This build was another of those endeavors born in the mind of my good friend Tom, the gray matter of whom is truly staggering in its fecundity. Long term blog readers will be very familiar with his name and the myriad builds he has in his fleet. All custom builds have a seed, the germ of thought or reason behind the entire process and over the years I have seen and heard them all. Or, I thought I had… This bike is here because of the paint and its connection to historical guitars. I am not sure how this happened but Tom and I both wanted this bike because of the color. I just love this blue so I was immediately in. Tom loved the name Riff and its connection to Gibson Les Paul Classic guitars. It was a pretty quick jump from, “wow that is a pretty blue” to justifying the reason it needed to be built and part of Toms ever increasing stable of bikes.

Soma Riff in Gibson Pelham Blue

So, that is the backstory and now, here is the bike.

The frame that we found so captivating is the Soma “Riff” 27.5 hardtail. It has been in the Soma catalog now for a while and looks set to stay at present, so anyone else who becomes enchanted by the blue can get their own. It actually is quite a clever frame and the geometry is really modern and forward thinking. The chain-stay design gives the ability to run tires in the plus size category but it is not Boost and can even run a traditional 135mm if you want to go old school or the sliding dropouts can be replaced to fit standard 142 x 12 thru axles. The geometry is well suited to a nimble, fast, maneuverable bike.

Just look at that blue.

So, like any build once the purpose and ride qualities are decided and the frame procured, it is time to hang the rest of the components on. First thing was a fork. The Riff frame head-tube is a very accommodating straight up and down 44mm size. This is great because you can literally use any standard. Lots of frames are fitted with tapered head tubes now but I really like the 44. In this case we went with another of my favorite Cane Creek “Hellbender” headsets. external bottom and internal top allowing us to run a X Fusion “Streat” tapered fork. As is common knowledge now, I cannot leave things alone and twas ever thus in this case too, the internals were yanked out, messed around with and upgraded with gay abandon and no thought for Toms wallet either. A remote lockout as well, obviously.

The wheels may be a little familiar to you, they were built some time ago ready for this bike but were actually installed on another of Toms projects to fill a need at the time. The Fuji conversion. If you search back in the blog posts you can read about that bike. The wheels are built up around a Shimano 11 speed internally geared hub and a Shimano XT front thru axle front. Spokes are straight gauge DT Swiss using brass spoke washers and zinc coated brass nipples. The rims are the Velocity “Blunt” in the wider 35mm width. The rims are able to run a tubeless setup and we have Stans tape and sealant housed by a set of Pacenti Neo Moto 2.1s. The Pacenti tires are really supple and the casing leaks like a sieve so plenty of sealant is the order of the day. However, for all that, they are quite impressive tires and seem to be holding up quite well.

If you look closely at the tire side wall you can see lots of little pimples which is the sealant plugging the very porous sidewall. It is quite a common phenomenon on today’s high end tires.

One of the big plus points for this frame, apart from the blue paint, is the ability to run a belt drive system. It has a plug on the drive side seat-stay that can be undone easily to feed in the belt. The dropouts are of the sliding variety which makes getting the correct tension a breeze and also gives some leeway when it comes to picking gearing and still being able to get a belt of a length that will work. Belts do not come in a huge range of lengths which can be a limiting factor when choosing gearing. Cranks are Shimano Hollowtech II, the Zee model. The belt drive system is another from Gates.

The brakes are next and we went with a set from Magura . No surprise there as we seem to be using these a lot lately. In this instance a matched set of MT Sports. The front has 4 pistons and the rear is a 2 piston oversize caliper. The hoses are all High Flow from Jagwire and, because we could, we went with a matching blue. The rotor size is 180mm front and rear. Obviously the levers have reach adjust and can be customized to your preference with regard free stroke. The pads are a semi organic compound.

The front end is finished off with a lightweight but beefy stem and bar combo. The stem is a Promax 0 degree short stem and the bars are from Deity. the clamp size is 35mm. We started out running them a little wide and have since trimmed them down some. I always err on the side of too wide as I can always lop some off however you can’t cut them longer…

Another feature on the bike is a 125mm dropper seat-post. These things are pretty much standard equipment nowadays and this bike has a remotely operated unit and the cable runs inside the seat tube to the bottom of the post, keeps things nice and neat.

To the left we have the thumb lever to activate the dropper. The switch to the right of it locks out and releases the front fork.

Once you start color coordinating you just can’t stop. It is a disease…Mind you the seat-post clamp is perfect.

So, here we have the bike together and, on first glance, it is possibly a little underwhelming. To be sure it is a pretty blue but it looks a little run of the mill. It is only when you start to get close and really look at the bike that you begin to get the point of the thing. This bike, which started out with Tom and I uttering the immortal phrase, “Ooh, that’s a pretty blue…” Is really quite special. The geometry of the frame combined with the fork and the components chosen to complete the bike have made a very capable and, most importantly, fun ride. The belt drive system is always a fantastic choice for a trouble free drive train and anyone who has not experienced a belt needs to. Whilst on the subject of the drive, when mountain bikes are built with a geared internally geared hub it is usually the bomb-proof Rohloff 14 speed Speedhub. These things are absolute wonders of engineering and are beautifully machined and assembled. On this rig we have taken a gamble and used a Shimano 11 speed Alfine hub. I had my reservations here and Tom and I discussed the merits of each. Tom, who is ever one to push the envelope and experiment was keen to find out just what the Alfine could do and he seems to have been wise in his choice. Thus far it seems to be working flawlessly. If there is any limitation it has been getting the gearing to a low enough point for Toms style and the terrain he is riding.

Now for the final picture…

If you are going to ride the tribute bike you need to play the thing its a tribute to. Here it is, the Gibson 2018 Les Paul Classic Solid Body Electric Guitar in Pelham Blue. Tom is available to play at weddings and bar mitzvahs …