In the market for a steel all-road bike and found two options locally that might work! For future reference I am 5'3" with long legs (haven't test ridden either yet)
Option A – newish Surly Preamble for $875 at a LBS. Size small, 650b wheels on it. White.
Option B – fully built used Soma Fogcutter V.1 via private seller, willing to sell for $800. Frame size 51cm, attached some pics of the current build.
Looking for something that is fun going up and fast going down. More interested in distance than speed. Getting more into riding so building something from scratch feels a little outside of my knowledge and budget at the moment.
by hawt_pot8hoe
3 Comments
Surly
I think the Fogcutter is a much nicer bike overall, but I think both are good bikes. If you can test ride them both and see what feels better that would be great.
My bias: I let a nicely built used V1 Fogcutter get away at a local shop and think about it more than I’d like to admit.
Edit to add: Soma doesn’t sell complete bikes directly, and in my experience they are far less common to come across. Surly makes very solid bikes though, and they seem to be carried as complete builds by a lot more shops.
Double check tire clearance for both. Being able to run wider tires is really nice.
Do you get toe overlap on either of them? 650b can sometimes be a big advantage for smaller frames.
Overall, I think the Soma is a higher quality frame though.