mams99

The person selling the Waterford mixte I'm looking at says the seat tube to middle of crank is 17". I compared that to the three bikes I have and I see that all my bikes have different tube lengths. My smallest bike has a 17.5 seat tube ( and that bike is probably too small normally, but the mechanic and raised the handle bar to it's safe max AND added a top of handlebar that has more rise and that bike fits so well. Supposedly that's equivalent to aa 47cm bike.

My electric cargo bike is a mixte designs and it's meant for all heights. That seat tube is like 15" and then my small Surly Ogre is 16"

Here is a picture of the bike I'm asking about.

base2 

Sure can, with the caveat that I installed a Whiskey 7 carbon fork for 2mm less trail. The Soma Buena Vista rides like a nimble race bike. With the long-ish wheel base it tracks well and the lighter than average trail makes for very responsive steering. I like the front/rear weight distribution. With 700x38 Panaracer Gravelking slicks it soaks up 80 mile days with aplomb. The only limitation is the endurance of my sit bones on the hard carbon saddle. The frame design (and other stuff) does indeed do a really good job of soaking up road chatter. Supremely comfortable over less than stellar terrain.

It climbs well. It's easy to simply point the wheel where you want to go and dance on the pedals if needed. Something less sporty bikes have difficulty with. For slow speed technical challenges, there is no toe overlap with the front wheel. For high speed, highly technical descending, it doesn't inspire as much confidence as it could because it isn't as torsionally stiff as it could be. For sensible speeds this is a non-issue. At slow to normal speeds it corners very well. Almost like a crit bike.

Aero is 90% rider anyway. Your average cruising speeds will remain virtually unaffected by the bike frame design.

As to fit, I purchased a size 58. I found that with the steep 75 degree (I measured it) seat tube it needed a 25mm setback seat post to approximate a more road bike-ish 73 degree seat tube to put the saddle mid-rail where it needed to be for a road bike configuration. Then because my TRP Hylex brake hoods are so long I found an 80mm -17 degree stem was appropriate to put the hoods where I needed them to be. But shorter brake hoods would make a more midrange 90 or 100mm stem about right. You'll have to experiment based on what bars/brakes you have and your own personal proportions. I normally ride a 57cm bike frame because the 56 was unavailable at the time and in looking at the geometry numbers the only real difference would've been 10mm of stem length and a lot of spacers.

I would totally do this bike again in a heartbeat. It's super fun and comfortable. Of all the bikes in my stable, it has been the go-to bike to grab since I have built it and that is sayin' somethin'. It's rare that such a sporty bike that also supports a rack and full fenders comes along. You will not be disappointed.

OldTryGuy

Just a FYI, the Custom Mixte Paramount frame made for my wife has the single top tube (^^^ as pictured) but then has twin intermediate tubes to rear as does the Buena Vista Frame. It's also a 22" center to top of lug.

mams99

That is really good to hear. You know a LOT more about bikes than I do. Just trying to figure out what SIZE is difficult! As I said above, I've looked at the Buena Vista for more than a year now. But how to decide even what size to find or have built up when I do decide on it? I'm 5'6" with long legs, short torso. Is that a 52? 54? of maybe a 50? I do not know! And googling it just confuses me more!

squirtdad

trying to remember from previous posts you needs

just measuring seatpost side makes it hard to compare as there are other variables (level top tube, number of sizes a manufacturer has, etc)

I would not consider comparing an ebike meant for all sizes as that will have compromises.

I would get a set of measurments of your best fitting bike and then how they compare to the bikes you are looking at (and maybe the measurements will help make sense of the bike fit you got) here a is a link to measurements a custom builder gets Bike Measurements | Kirk Frameworks

Also the waterford looks to only have one set of eyelets, which is not a killer but makes more difficult for adding racks and fenders

squirtdad

also need to consider what type of bars you are using drop or "english racer style"

I my guess is 50 cm in the buena vista.is best bet (I am guessing they added some top tube length in the design for people using swept back city bars rather than drop)
500 mm seat or 19.685 inches
key is effective top tube of 530 for short torso (especially if not using drop bars)

seat post and stem can fine tune


the 54 cm has a effective top tube of 555 mm which seems long for a short torso person

but maybe you could take the soma specs to your fitter and see what they say https://www.somafab.com/archives/product/buena-vista

again best guess

Yan 

I don't know if this has been mentioned in this thread, but True Temper exited the bike tubing business a few years ago so OX Platinum frames are an extinct species.