It’s rare to have the privilege of collaborating on a bike build with a customer who is uncompromising and particular about their function and aesthetic preferences, and who plans to ride the hell out of their bike, both for everyday transportation and getting out on overnight adventures.
I’m grateful to Meredith for finding her way to Cycle & Coffee, and for trusting us with her bike build. As a daily rider replacing a second family car with bikes, Meredith was willing to invest extra money in quality and dependability where new parts were needed, and reusing parts from her old bike (the previous, rim-brake version of the Soma Grand Randonneur) when possible. As a vintage bike mechanic, I see what kind of components fail or become difficult to service after a few decades, and felt uniquely equipped to lead the curation of this build.
The story of this bike wouldn't be complete without shouting out Ben Rainbow at Back Alley for having helped Meredith with the original version of the bike back in 2016 - a stunning and dependable starting point - making this a collaborative project with him as well as with Meredith. He set a high bar, and Meredith expressed her excitement about finding a place willing to work with her as closely as he did. We did our best to rise to the occasion!
I had fun disassembling the V1 Soma Grand Randonneur, polishing up a decade-old white industry crankset, lacing up a new dynamo wheelset with polished silver hubs, etc. and collaborating with my talented coworker Chris on much of the assembly and finer details of this build.
Before: Soma Grand Randonneur V1
A well-loved bike: Meredith's old Soma Grand Randonneur V1
After: Soma Grand Randonneur V3
Upgrading to disc brakes: Meredith’s new Soma Grand Randonneur V3, with lots of transplanted parts from her old bike
Meredith went for high-end parts with a reputation for quality
Bye bye brifters: Converting to friction shifting
For this build, we made the jump from her previous integrated brake levers/shifters (brifters) to more durable/easily serviced separate bar-end friction shifters and brake levers with gum rubber hoods. Meredith had a strong preference for gum (brown rubber) brake hoods, but brifter replacement hoods these days are hard to find and generally only come in black when they even exist (RIP to Hudz - the now-defunct brand that used to make colorful replacement brake hoods of all shapes and colors, now owned by ODI who seems to be selling out of their sparse remaining inventory).
Luckily, several standalone road brake levers come with gum hoods and have more readily available replacement hoods due to their universality and therefore resilience to the ever-changing landscape of drivetrains. She chose the drilled TRP RRL-SR Brake lever in Gum/Silver, for their balance of ergonomics and aesthetics.
I much prefer friction shifters and standalone brake levers for their seamless functionality across all drivetrain combinations, and their mechanical simplicity, which makes them no-fuss to install and service, and far more durable, while indexed brifters usually have tiny internal pieces that can break or get gummed up over time. Getting used to manual friction shifting as opposed to one-click-per-gear indexed shifting, and moving your hand off the brake lever in order to shift is a small price to pay in order to be free of the shackles of planned obsolescece.
Despite years of familiarity with indexed shifting, Meredith had an open mind, came for a test ride on another bike with bar-end shifters, and she took the plunge into the world of friction shifting! We had a shiny set of Rivendell bar-end shifters waiting for the right build at Cycle & Coffee, so we went with those.
A timeless and durable setup: Rivendell bar-end friction shiftters, and standalone brake levers, and reused Brooks leather bar tape with plenty of beausage.
Meredith also asked that we rewrap her bars with her old Brooks leather bar tape, making sure to wrap them in a different direction such that the stripes of the previous wear would show. The worn tape was delicate and misshapen, so I had Chris take on this expert-level wrap job. The tape did tear once but he was able to cover the tear and let the tape live on. Stunning beausage!
Build specs at a glance
* = transplanted from Meredith’s previous Soma Grand Randonneur
Frameset: Soma Grand Randonneur Disc, Moss Green, 58cm
Front hub: Kasai FS Hub Thru-Axle 6-Bolt Disc (Silver, 32 hole)
Front hub additional piece: Kasai 12mm to 15mm Thru-Axle Converter
Front rim: Velocity A-23 OC Rim (Tubeless ready, 650B, 32H, silver)
Rear hub: Steve Potts Cycles Suzue Alpina Rear Disc Hub, silver, 32H
Rear rim: Velocity A-23 Rim (Tubeless ready, 650B, 32H, silver)
Spokes: DT Swiss Champion Spokes, silver
Nipples: Polished silver brass spoke nipples
Headset: Used Velo Orange Grand Cru polished silver headset, pulled off a broken old Rivendell Atlantis frameset
Bottom bracket: Square taper bottom bracket (I forgot to write down which one/which size, whoops).
Crankset: Used* White Industries V1 VBC Road Crankset with double chainrings (28 & 44T)
Cassette: Shimano Ultegra CS-HG800 Cassette - 11 Speed, 11-34t, Silver
Chain: S Ride 11 Speed Chain
Brakes: Paul Components Post Mount/I.S. Klamper, short pull, Silver with orange adjusters
Brake levers: Brake Levers - Road - TRP - RRL SR, Drilled, gum hoods, silver levers
Brake rotors: Yokozuna Brake Rotor R2 Extra Thick, 160mm, 2.0
Tires: Used* Panaracer Gravelking TLR 42B, 650B, with tubeless setup
Valves: Used* oil slick anodized valves
Handlebars: Used* Soma Highway One 42cm drop bar
Bar tape: Used* Brooks Leather bar tape, brown
Shifters: Rivendell Silver Dia Compe Bar End friction shifters, $100
Front rack: Used* Nitto Campee mini front rack, silver
Front basket: Used* Wald 137 basket, silver
Rear rack (not pictured): NITTO rivendell big back rack 32R (medium), silver
Front light: Used* Edelux II “Upside Down” w/integrated switch (from previous Soma)
Rear light (not pictured): B+M TopLight Line Plus 50mm dynamo tail light
Seatpost: Used* Origin 8 Setback
Saddle: Used* Berthoud Leather (Brown)
Cables: 2 road shift, 2 brake
Shift housing: Simworks Nissen Stainless Outer Cable for Shift, Salmon
Brake housing: Simworks Nissen Stainless Outer Cable for Brake, Smoke brown
Fenders: Honjo Fenders Silver (Hammered, 650b/27.5/584, 52mm)
Finishing touches: Frame protection stickers, Cycle & Coffee build sticker
Rack and rear dynamo light, not pictured
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The Nitto Rivendell rear rack, which we ordered from Blue Lug in Japan after finding that the silver Tubus Logo rear rack originally spec’d for this build sat too high up and was a painted silver rather than a polished silver and were not up to snuff for this build.
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The B+M TopLight Line Plus 50mm dynamo tail light, which was also a late addition - the previous tail light was a fender-mounted light which had been wired through the inside of the fender, which had resulted in damage to the wires over time. We had mounted the old light to the Tubus rack, however the shape of the light didn’t look right mounted that way, and Chris recommended this as an upgrade, because it responds to slowing with a brightened glow, similar to brake lights on a car.
Drivetrain
The old drivetrain was a bit worn out but we were able to transplant the crankset, derailleurs and just replace the cassette and chain.
Details
Shine bright like a Dynamo
Meredith’s team dynamo all the way, for the simplicity of not needing to take lights on and off the bike and remembering to charge them. We built her this new disc wheel with a Kasai dynamo hub, reused her old Edelux front light, and ended up upgrading her rear light to the one mentioned above - rack mounted and with a “brake light” feature.
Hammered fenders (because they’ll get banged up)
The metal fenders on her old bike were the smooth kind, which got pretty banged up over the years, so we went with the hammered texture this time, in anticipation of the beausage to come.
Hammered Honjo fenders with a customized fit
Rear disc hubs are loud :(
Despite the beauty of the Steve Potts rear disc hub (which I forgot to get a closeup of, womp womp), Meredith and I were both disappointed by the loud freehub once the bike was rolling. Alas, we’re in disc brake bike world now which seems to be filled with loud hubs, and online listings sadly don’t come with hub audio recordings. If anyone knows of a shiny silver disc brake hub that doesn’t sound like a hornet’s nest, please let me know so I can keep that in mind next time!
Based on my research, it seems that rear disc hubs tend to be louder than rim hubs because they use stiffer, higher-tension pawl and ratchet systems to handle the extra torque from disc braking, so quiet ones are fewer and far between. On the bright side, a loud hub lets people know you’re coming up behind them. Meredith said she’ll get used to it.
I forgot to photograph the rear Steve Potts hub but it’s really pretty, I promise. Please enjoy looking at the Paul Klamper instead.
Hard to say goodbye
I spent a lot of time on this build, and honestly I feel attached to it in a similar way that I feel about my own bikes! Not only that, but talking with Meredith about bike camping, visible mending and other shared interests, just made me want to be friends with her. I hope to see her and her new Soma out in the wild, and maybe get a chance to do another photo shoot!
Thanks for reading!
-Summer