It's clearly a soma bike, designed by riv/grant—so soma decides the branding, etc.
"This is a bike we were commissioned to design for Soma Fabrications of San Francisco, for distribution to its many dealers. We’re friends with the SOMA people, and they wanted a Rivendell-designed bike. As part of the agreement, we were (not surprisingly) allowed to sell them, too." This deal benefits riv, soma, and the buyer. Soma has a bike they can market as "designed by riv/grant," yet control production and sell though their dealer network. Riv/grant get to expand their influence/message/market by making a riv-like bike available to folks who might not otherwise know about riv or now consider buying one because it's cheaper. Could lead to new customers in parts, upgrades to riv bikes, etc. The buyer can get a "less pretty" (somewhat subjective, I suppose), riv-approved, riv clone at a cheaper price. And unlike a riv, one find discounted deals on new frames/bikes on the web. Win, win, win. As for the head badge, I doubt anyone would care if you swap it to riv but riv wouldn't do it as it's not part of the original agreement. Perry -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
