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Greg here: This is my new Soma Smoothie. I was hit by a Ford F150 while riding my Scott CR1 off Rt. 5 on Novemeber 6, so that bike ate it. The CR1 has always been one of my favorite bikes that I have ever ridden, owning 2 over the past 8 years. I hated to part ways with it, but what can you do? I am eyeing a new 2017 Jamis Xenith Team to satisfy my carbon obsession, so I decided to take the Shimano Dura Ace 9000 components that made it out of the crash alive and put them on a steel frame. All the steel frame options available required longer reach brakes, except for the Soma Smoothie, so the Smoothie was chosen. I added the Liquid Components 50mm carbon clinchers to finish off the package. Now as soon as these broken ribs heal I will ride.....
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PART 1: FRAME ARRIVES We unboxed this frame for another customer and when that didn't work out, we had to think quick. Luckily we had another customer who had ordered a All City Mr. Pink on eBay, but the frame was the wrong size. I guess two wrongs made a right. If you are unfamiliar with Burley, they primarily make trailers, but for a short time they made custom frames out for their shop in Eugene, Oregon using True Temper OX Platinum tubing. PART 2: BUILD IT This was a straight forward SRAM Force build. The bike built up without any surprises. PART 3: THE FINAL BIKE
We couldn't be happier with how this bike turned out! The final weight is 19lbs. with the current wheels and we can confirm some nice carbon wheels would bring this into the 17.5lb range. The ride feels light, nimble, and very responsive like a high end custom steel bike should feel. This should make for many fast and happy miles! PART 1: THE FRAME ARRIVES This is an ongoing post that will chronicle what is going to be the nicest road bike to leave our shop in our 5 year history. This frame is the most advance Ti frame on the market, weighing in at 1200g in a 56cm! All the tubes are custom drawn and cold worked to create some of the most advanced tubes on a Ti bike I have seen. Enjoy the first pictures and stay posted as we proceed forward with the build! PART 2: PARTS AND BUILD We got in the parts, which was a full Shimano Dura Ace Di2 9070 11 speed groupset. We worked closely with our customer and Litespeed to dial in the fit and gearing. There was some learning curve as we fished wires through the frame and installed the threaded-PF30 bottom bracket from Wheels Manufacturing, however the box of parts quickly became a beautiful machine. PART 3: THE FINAL BIKE
This bike came together at 16.25 lbs in a 56cm with pedals (15.5 lbs without pedals.) This is undoubtedly the nicest bike we have ever put together at Balance. The owner of the bike has been a long time customer of ours and we really appreciate the opportunity to put together this bike for him. We hope it brings miles of smiles! This one is a unique beast. Having kids and driving as little as possible are not compatible. Other countries are hip to cargo bikes, and the West Coast is catching on, but it is almost unheard of in Richmond, VA to carry kids around in a front loader. Well this is it. The baby hauler. Larry vs. Harry is a cargo bike company based out of Norway and it just so happens that the importer live in VA (hint: if you need one talk to me!) This bike is one of the most fun bikes to ride, albeit there is a learning curve. It is very fast and can haul more than your bike :)
Another custom Surly for the gallery. This one is hoping to see the Great Divide next year. This customer is already a Surly lover and demanded that if he comes in to our shop within the year, that we immediately turn him away so he doesn't buy more Surly's. But who am I to deny someone happiness?? Not my job.
We have a 20" Surly ECR graced with Brooks saddle and bar tape. We are featuring our own house brand Liquid Components 29er wheels (liquid-components.com). Other great features are the Kenda Small Block tires, Shimano CX77 brakes, and Microshift 3x8 shifter with Shimano XT derailleurs. Why 8 speed?? Because it's cheap and every shop in America has replacement parts for days. Here's to another beautiful bike and that it makes the journey it was meant to take next year! I know this gallery is generally graced with touring bikes and Surly's, but we do know our way around a road bike or two here.
This bike had been sitting on the showroom floor with Ultegra Di2, which was the manufacturers spec. We had a customer very interested in the Di2, but not the whole bike and the bike was getting stale sitting there so the Di2 came off. Doing this created a problem because the frame was drilled only for electronic groups and I wanted to put a Dura Ace 9000 group on it. I had heard about a company called Ruckus Componsites (http://www.ruckuscomp.com/) in Portland who specializes in customizing and repairing carbon frames, so I sent the bike off to them to add all the necessary cable stops. And while they were at it, I wanted a gloss finish to replace the matte finish to match the much better looking Alpha Q fork I had. Ruckus did an amazing job, I am super happy with their work. This is a one-of-a-kind Scott CR1 Premium. It is set up with a full Shimano Dura Ace 9000 component spec and carbon fiber everything (except wheels.) The full weight with pedals is 15lbs 2oz. This bike is fast already and should see some mountains this spring!! This bike is the reincarnation (continuation?) of the Surly Ogre we have posted earlier in the gallery. Mr. Orge was unfortunately stolen after getting a mountain bike makeover with Shimano XT 1x10 setup. The Ogre was stolen the night of the makeover!! Unbelievable but true, however we had this beautiful Disc Trucker sitting in our shop, a frame that we mistakenly ordered for one of our employees.
It turns out that the rider likes 56cm bikes and had plans to build a new touring bike anyway since his Orge lost it's touring persona and became a mountain bike. I guess the theft pushed the plans forward? Either way, this bike was created and it has a really nice spec. Notably, we are using the TRP HY/RD disc brakes which is our first experience with them and so far are impressed. Some of the other new tech we are using is the Shimano Alfine dynamo to the new (tiny!) Busch and Muller Lumotec Eyc T Senso Plus. It puts out the same power as it's bigger brother, but less in size!! Very nice piece. We also picked up a pair of the Velocity Blunt SS rims, new for 2015, and installed 28c Gatorskins. They look so good! This bike is otherwise running a full SRAM Rival 10sp group with a Salsa rear rack and Racktime TopIt front rack. Enjoy. Another Surly Straggler, a very cool build for daily city riding. The bike features SRAM Rival22 mechanical for the shifting and drivetrain. The wheels are Sun Ringle Inferno 23 rims built to the new Shimano CX75 hubs, which are amazing hubs. For brakes, we went with the Shimano CX77 disc calipers. I think the pictures do the majority of the talk here though. Take a peek!
This dude has been hanging out in the drafts for a little while. The pictures are worth 1000 words. Super nice touring and commuter build.
This bike is a really special edition. I will get more info on the history of the frame, but I can stick to what I know so far. Frank Herety was a custom frame builder and built this bike for a customer who had it sitting for years. Until it was brought back to Richmond, this frame lived it's bike life as NOS.
The owner was looking to do something a bit differently with this build rather than a standard period correct Campy groupset. This bike features an internal 5 speed Sturmey Archer rear hub with front and rear drum brakes....let that sink in for a minute. Our main concern with this build was to not damage and reduce the amount of clamping we had to do on the 24K gold plating...the rear triangle and front fork are gold plated. One of the innovations we engineered can be seen in the last photo featuring a pulley and a pulley cover made of a nickel. This eliminated the need for an additional cable stop on the gold. Other features of the bike are the Soma Lauterwasser handlebars, which are replicas of the actual Lauterwasser bars. The seat is a Selle San Marco Roll Ti. The crank is the finest example of the NOS Campy Super Record crank I have ever seen. The pictures really will tell the rest of the story. Enjoy! |
Balance Bicycle Shop
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