Chumba SOCO SL Ti All Road Review: Seeking Joy – Morgan Taylor | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

Carving mountain descents and sprinting up short rises, Morgan Taylor rekindled a love for zippy road bikes with the Chumba SOCO SL Ti All Road. In this long term review, Morgan reflects on what makes the SOCO a bike they’d like to keep just a little bit longer…

The Chumba SOCO SL Ti All Road is the kind of bike that all-day road bikes should aspire to: capable of fitting decently big tires for comfort and speed, precise and stable at high speeds, and versatile enough to be both a racing bike and an all-seasons friend.

I don’t have long notes about the peculiarities of this bike’s handling because, well, it just works. As soon as I hopped on the SOCO I felt at ease: it’s a fast all road bike with confidence-inspiring handling, and a build kit that complements that feeling.

Yet again, I’ve found a bike I don’t want to send back – so let’s get into what makes this one a keeper.

Chumba SOCO SL Ti All Road Quick Hits

Titanium frame made by Chumba in Austin, Texas
Enve AR (as tested) or Enve All Road IN-Route fork
7 stock sizes with custom geometry options
In-house Titanium finishing
Up to 40mm tire clearance
Starting at $4170 USD for a frame and fork

What’s the SOCO All About?

The SOCO SL All Road is the zippiest frame in Chumba’s lineup. With a short rear end and a steep head tube, the SOCO is more road-focused than Chumba’s other frames and, like those other frames, Chumba makes them in both steel and Titanium in house in Austin, Texas.

When I got the offer to review the SOCO I was excited. The bikes most companies want to send out for review these days are usually more gravel than road, with geometry that has converged around longer wheelbases and slacker head angles. I’m happy to ride bikes that deviate from that norm and love the way a bike with steeper angles rides on pavement.

That said, I’m still a fan of riding bigger tires even on smooth surfaces, and the SOCO can do up to a 40mm tire depending on how you spec it. This generous tire clearance makes for the kind of bike that I think all road bikes should aspire to – comfortable on a variety of surfaces without giving up the zippiness of a road bike.

Background on the Build

This bike was put together as a collaboration between Chumba and Industry Nine ahead of this year’s Philly Bike Expo, and you saw it in our coverage from the show there. By that point I had already been chatting with Vince at Chumba for a couple of months as we put the frame details into place for this review, but I had not yet seen any photos of the bike.

Having seen the fun anodizing work Chumba has been doing on their in-house Ti builds, I was excited to see what they’d cooked up for this project. The blend of deep gray Cerakote with both raw and purple splatter Ti anodizing blew me away.

Industry Nine launched the Solix range of drop bar focused wheelsets at the Philly show, and this bike got a pair of the Solix SL AR40c wheels, along with SRAM Force AXS, and an Enve finishing kit. It is very much a “leave no stone unturned” type of build, and was a pure joy to ride.

A Comprehensive Bike Fit Process

I went through Chumba’s custom fitting process, providing them with detailed measurements and notes from bikes I’ve ridden over the past few years. Chumba can also work from numbers generated from a professional fitting session which, if you’re investing in a bike like this, I would strongly recommend.

I tend to ride most stock-geometry bikes with a moderate stack of spacers, and with this in mind, Vince offered to bump up the 58cm SOCO’s head tube by 10mm to reduce the spacer stack slightly. Other than the longer head tube, the geometry on this bike is the stock 58, noting that the UDH dropouts fix the rear end length at 415mm.

Chumba Frame Details

While this build isn’t particularly bright or flashy, the understated details and carefully considered proportions are very easy on the eye. Chumba’s style is clean and precise, with subtle tube manipulation and beautiful welds.

Chumba works off of a standard geometry chart for the SOCO, to which they will make custom adjustments for additional cost. While custom geometry is listed at $650 in Chumba’s frame customizations menu, Vince told me they’d charge $200 for the longer head tube on this frame.

The base build includes the domestically-sourced 3/2.5 Ti frame and Enve carbon fork, Paragon Machine Works slider dropouts, machined head tube, and T47 bottom bracket, external cable routing, and three bottle mounts as well as top tube bag mounts. Add-ons are laid out in a customizations menu on the product page.

Going beyond the stock SOCO build for this bike, Chumba added Paragon Machine Works’ new UDH flat mount dropouts, internal routing for the brake cables, and left the shift cable guides off. The combination of anodizing and Cerakote is also above and beyond that of a standard build.

Little Bits of Joy

There really is something to be said for all the little things on a curated build. With my personal builds, the little things that come together over time add up to a whole worth more than the sum of the parts.

A show bike that’s been accessorized like this can sometimes look like the anodized catalog has been thrown at it without the intentional curation that comes with a slow build, but I feel like the hits are subtle enough on this one that it doesn’t feel overboard.

I have a soft spot for purple ano, and the Industry Nine Solix wheels are a real treat to look at. The Industry Nine headset and spacers add another touch of purple, as well as all the bottle bolts. If you ask me, the build wants one more hit of purple at the seat clamp.

One of my favorite touches of purple is the spoke nipples, which blend together into a dynamic ring of joy that you can catch out of the corner of your eye while riding. I won’t lie, I also dreamed of replacing some of these purple bits with gold, but that’s the fun part of these little bits – you get to choose.

Industry Nine Solix SL AR40c Wheels

Having just built a set of Industry Nine Hydra hubs for my mountain bike, I had an idea of what to expect with the Solix SL AR40c wheels. Yes, the rear hub is loud, and with 605 points of engagement, it is quite high pitched. The AR40c rims are a 25mm internal, 35mm external width, 40mm deep carbon rim. The wheels use bladed straight pull spokes with standard aluminum nipples.

I’ve been quite impressed with the AR40 rims. They’re quiet, stable, and easy to set up tubeless. For how deep they are, they act very composed in windy situations. I’ve ridden a couple sets of similar depth wheels that were much more affected by gusts. In terms of tubeless setup, getting tires on and off is on the tight side, but that’s balanced by how easily they aired up – with a floor pump and with the valve cores in. A pain-free tubeless experience.

Now, I’m not a snob about high engagement, but I do enjoy riding nice hubs. Industry Nine machines their hubs in house in Asheville, NC, and carries all the spare parts you can imagine. The Solix SL hubs have 16 spokes on the higher torque side of the wheel and 8 on the opposite side. They’re beautiful and fast. Like I’d mentioned earlier, these wheels are a really joyful part of the kit, and I’ll definitely consider them for future builds.

Enve AR Fork and Enve Finishing Kit

Chumba offers the SOCO with two fork options: the externally-routed AR fork which clears a 38mm tire and weighs 450 grams, or the internally-routed All Road IN-Route fork which clears a 40 and weighs 535 grams. On this bike Chumba opted for the AR fork. I particularly appreciate that the cable guide leads the cable perfectly in front of the headset cup to prevent rubbing.

The next piece I’d like to speak to is the Enve SES AR IN-Route handlebar. This bar has a very thin aero section with a nice flat top for resting your hands. Without looking garish, it’s just clean and modern looking. The bar offers a decent amount of damping, and the drop shape is comfortable. The bar is paired with an Enve stem which I have no notes on. Does its job and suits the application.

Finally, we have the Enve seat post. I was surprised when I pulled it out to find that it is a massive 400mm and only 75mm minimum insertion, and happy to see it has a 25mm offset. As someone who has long sought out higher offset posts to get a neutral saddle position, this post is a nice option in the premium sphere. The head is a bit finicky to swap a saddle on, but easy to adjust once everything’s together.

SRAM Force AXS

This was my first time riding AXS on a drop bar bike for a long term review and I absolutely loved it. The simplicity of using the left shifter for an easier gear out back, the right shifter for a harder gear – and both for a front shift – is super intuitive. I also enjoy how clean the cable routing is and how easy it is to pull the rear derailleur off for cleaning and maintenance.

I’ve always liked the Force level of SRAM components. Red is where we see the newest technology first and I’m definitely glad that it exists, Force is where I’m happy and my upgrade pick when making a recommendation, Rival is completely acceptable for most riders, while Apex leaves something to be desired for me. That said, newer Apex is as good as old Rival. The trickle down is real.

While this crankset didn’t have a power meter in it, I appreciate that SRAM has power meters at two different price levels: a spider-based, two sided option, and a less expensive spindle-based one sided option. Both of these power meters can be retrofitted onto this crank. Great! I waxed the chain from the beginning and enjoyed a quiet and worry-free drivetrain.

If only I could remember to charge the batteries. This happens with my AXS mountain bike also: I forget to check the battery and end up out the door before realizing I need to go back in for another battery. I’m not sure I’d choose electronic shifting for a bike that wasn’t being ridden regularly – perhaps an oxymoron, but part of my experience.

Notes on Handling

This bike is the benchmark of what a performance road bike should be. It’s confidence inspiring, it’s fast, and it’s comfortable. The handling is stable – not in the sense that the bike is long, but the interplay between geometry, tubing choices, and my weight balance over the wheelbase results in a platform that can confidently be ridden no hands on bumpy roads and loves to carve a corner.

I think there is something to be said for a road bike with a short wheelbase and the front wheel closer beneath your center of gravity as far as inducing stability in the front wheel. Of course, this is a drawback when you get into technical off-road riding, but I think that this is part of the benefit of road bikes for their intended purpose. The SOCO exemplifies why slapping road tires on gravel bikes with slacker head angles and longer front centers doesn’t always produce great results.

Interference

While I had an awesome time with this bike, there is one issue to note, and that was heel interference on the rear dropout. Fortunately there was no interference while pedaling, but my left heel was contacting the front of dropout when descending at 9 and 3, and the right heel was also able to contact the hood of the dropout. I’d call it heel rub, but given the squared shape of the PMW UDH flat mount dropout, it was actually gouging my left shoe.

Vince said that a few people at Chumba with smaller feet than mine had ridden the bike and didn’t have this issue, so it is definitely a larger shoes problem. That said, I wear a size 46 and the ball of my foot is about 10mm in front of the spindle, so they’re not exactly flippers. Keep in mind this bike has a 415mm rear end and that dropout is a brand new design.

The solution for me was a wider Q-factor, and there were a few ways to get there. My initial approach was to move my cleats as far in as they would go, and after that I added a second pedal washer on each side. That helped but I was still able to get the contact on the left side. We next considered a Force Wide crank for 2.5mm on each side, but opted for Shimano’s +4mm (per side) Ultegra wide pedals.

Even with those moves I was still able to get the left side to touch, and was just careful with my foot position while descending. Vince said their standard Paragon slider dropouts have a lot more clearance, and that they would make sure to discuss this with customers ordering SOCO frames.

Cerakote and Ti Anodizing

There are so many options for finishes with Ti frames, from wild anodizing with complex graphics to fully painted stealth mode. This finish, much like Chumba’s approach to building bikes, is understated while being both balleur and functional.

The deep gray Cerakote has a depth that actually does a decent job of mimicking Ti out on the road. When running into friends on this bike, they would immediately assume that it was Ti, even though they were initially just seeing the Cerakote finish. The Ti finish is a combination of raw brushed Ti and violet anodized splatter done in-house at Chumba.

It’s a fun concept that shows what Chumba’s capable of in the finish department. While I might opt for a less subtle Ti finish if I were choosing, I like how the color match on the fork feels natural. And, there are certainly folks who like a more subtle finish. With Ti, you can have it how you like it.

Things I’d Still Change

Reflecting on having this bike for the past few months, I do have a few things I’d change if this was *my* bike. First, I would have to see what can be done with the heel clearance at the dropouts. The UDH dropouts are super slick and afford the use of the new RED XPLR 1×13 group, but I would still be pushing Q-factor out in all ways possible.

Second, I would be reluctant to have a bike built without accommodations for mechanical shifting, even if I chose an electronic group. I’m not sure if those of us lamenting the loss of high quality mechanical groupsets are going to be seen as retro-grouches in the future, but for now, I’d still like the option to throw an older group at my bikes.

Finally, I can’t have a bike without fender mounts. I know lots of people who never put fenders on their bikes. I am not one of them. We made it to the bottom of this review before I mentioned living in the wet Pacific Northwest, but here we are. I like the option for full coverage fenders, and it’s an add-on I would choose.

With that said, I would probably also appreciate a touch more tire clearance to be able to run at least a 32 with those fenders. And at this point, I am at risk of turning the SOCO into a bike that straddles the line between road and gravel and does neither perfectly. I am stoked that this is a ripping road bike with bigger tires and think that character should be preserved.

Pricing

The SOCO Ti frame with the Enve fork has a base price of $4170 USD. Since this particular build was a show bike primarily, it has quite a few add-ons. The UDH dropouts, internal routing, and longer head tube are worth $600-700, and the custom Cerakote and in-house Ti finish adds another $1100 or so. You can see the pricing for each of the add-ons on the SOCO page. If these prices feel out of reach, Chumba does of course also do steel frames in house, with the SOCO Steel frame and fork at a base price of $2470.

Zipping it Up

Road bikes don’t elicit as much of an emotional response from me as bikes with bigger tires, but I continue to be drawn to them for the unique ride experience. Memories of carving mountain descents and sprinting up short rises on a quick and confidence-inspiring road bike are etched in my mind.

This is an absolutely beautiful build that really shows off what Chumba is capable of in all facets of a custom bike build. From the manufacturing, to the paint and anodized finish, to the assembly and build, the whole package is stunning. It certainly helps that the parts spec matches the ride quality, but this bike would still ride beautifully with less expensive parts.

For the past few years I’ve ridden mostly longer and slacker bikes, and the SOCO is a great reminder that zippy road bikes are awesome too.