Here's one for the books

[Birddog]

I've never seen a Serotta Beam Bike before. I have no assn with the seller, just thought this bike was a "conversation piece".
http://cgi.ebay.com/SEROTTA-COORS-LIGHT-TEAM-Bicycle-RARE_W0QQitemZ260123747229QQihZ016QQcategoryZ98084 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Birddog

[William]

Reminds me of Beungood's Spectrum beam bike. He loves that boomerang. :)





William

[LegendRider]

I recall Alex Stieda riding one at a crit in Atlanta in the early 90's.

[Chris]

Grewal had that built for him after he rolled his jeep and fractured some vertebrae. I think (but definitely could be mistaken) that Steida rode a Softride when he was racing for Tulsa in that weird bike racing league back in the early 90's.

[David Kirk]

Wow that brings back lots of memories. I don't recall how many of those I built for Alexi but I'd guess it was three. I also built a much more conventional version or two ( if that word can be used with the Softride) for Stieda.

The Alexi bikes took forever to build due to the curved seat tube and the relief in the BB shell. As I recall the chainstays on the bike are 36.5cm.

Alexi was an absolute gentleman and very appreciative ...........no wait.....I've got that backward. He was a Jerk. One of the Alexi bikes was built and sent to him. It was built exactly to his spec's. EXACTLY! He got the bike, pulled the frame from the box and declared that it wasn't right. He called me and told me I screwed it up yelling the whole time. I asked him how it was screwed up and he couldn't/wouldn't tell me. He never even took a tape rule to it. He refused to ride it and I had him send it back.

I got it back and triple checked all the numbers and it was dead on. So......after much deliberation we waited a week and sent it back to him telling him it was a "new" bike. This time it was perfect and he loved it.

What a guy. Oh I have stories about that guy. Everyone else on the team was so cool and easy to work with. Alexi...not so much.

Memories.

Dave

[WickedWheels]

Hey, look at it this way... he had to ride a "beam" bike as punishment!

[Brian Smith]

I recall Alex Stieda riding one at a crit in Atlanta in the early 90's.

I once had a fun ride in coastal Washington state on an ex-Steida "Softride" steel beam bike with 26" wheels. That was a bike with the killer advantage if blindly following someone's wheel through potholes/rough pavement and the killer disadvantage in every other condition. Variety is the spice of life, that bike was soon thereafter stolen from it's owner, and I'd love to be able to return it to it's rightful owner, so if anyone sees a fillet-brazed red beam bike in Steida-size with 26" wheels in the gutter somewhere, let me know.
I don't recall who actually built the frame, and it no longer displayed any Softride decals on the frame.