Soma Wolverine

Soma Wolverine

You might be a rider who likes the idea of a steel touring or gravel bike.
You read Bicycle Quarterly and understand the appeal of wide road tires, generator lights and Brooks saddles. 400 kilometer long brevets with the Seattle Randonneuring club may be in your future, or you may just want a nice bike for commuting.
There are a few bike companies out there who understand what you want. Marin makes the Four Corners, Breezer has the Radar and Surly has the Straggler and the Long Haul Trucker, but you may want something a little more unique. It looks to you like a new Rivendell might be the way to go, if not for a few quirks about their design philosophy (old-fashioned cantilever brakes, quill-style handlebar stems).

Soma has it all figured out. This bike takes disc brakes and uses modern handlebar stems and headsets. The Wolverine frameset gives you the all-day comfort of the Breezer Radar and comes in the versatile frame-only option like a Surly but without the goofy Rivendell quirks. The Wolverine is made from springy double-butted Tange Prestige cromoly tubing. The matching fork has a fair amount of rake (so it will steer well with bags and other gear on the front end) and there is a fork option with a beautiful flat-plate crown.
Buy the Wolverine as a frameset for around $1000 or have us build it up with your favorite parts (the pictured bike with handbuilt wheels and Shimano GRX parts came out to about $4K).
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