We got a first glimpse at a prototype of UK Brother Cycles’ Stroma steel road bike a year and a half ago. But the time since has been well-spent, as the Stroma evolved into a more versatile, affordable all-rounder. This is the kind of modern steel road bike that will be just as happy attacking summertime road rides, as it will churning wet base miles with full-coverage fenders and fat tires all winter long.
2020 Brother Cycles Stroma Reynolds 725 steel all-road bike
The Stroma has in fact been I development for three years now, behind the Brothers’ star Kepler gravel & Big Bro adventure mountain bikes. What started as a tight clearance, crit racy rim brake 853 road bike morphed into this fat-tire disc brake endurance 725 all-road machine. I’d say that is a solid transformation, fitting more into the versatile ethos the two brothers have put into the rest of their bike lineup.
Intended to be your year-round road bike, the Stroma is TIG-welded in Taiwan from a happy medium heat treated, double-butted Reynolds 725 chromoly steel tubeset, then ED electrocoated to prevent rust.
Geometry for the bike is designed as a happy medium too, balancing quick handling angle with a slightly longer wheelbase for 4-season stability. Named for a remote island off the northeast coast of Scotland “battered by ferocious weather and near impenetrable tides”, this is meant to be an affordable road ride that you will want to ride every day, no matter the weather outside.
Stroma – Tech details
The 725 steel Stroma gets the highlights of modern road bike details – 44mm headtube for 1.5″ tapered steerer forks, 12mm thru-axles, flat mount disc brakes for 160mm rotors, and external cable routing but still with Di2 cable ports.
It sticks with a 27.2mm seatpost, 28.6mm band clamp front derailleur, 68mm threaded bottom bracket, a standard pair of water bottle bosses in the main triangle, and includes front & rear full fender mounts, plus braze-ons for a rear rack as well.
The Stroma is rated for maximum 700 x 32mm tire clearance, or up to ~28-30mm tires with full mudguards. It is intended to get a traditional road groupset build, so there is room for up to a 53/39T double crankset. Claimed weight for a medium size frame is 2000g, plus another 500g for the uncut fork.
Brother Stroma – Pricing & availability
The black & white (OK, light gray) all-road Stroma is available now for pre-order as a £899 frameset (£750 without VAT for buyers outside of Europe), including the Reynolds 725 steel frame with seatpost clamp and Brother’s full monocoque carbon fork. A headset is not included, but fits a pretty standard ZS44/EC44 setup for the tapered fork. First deliveries of the new frameset are expected to head out from the UK office in the last week of March.
Brother Cycles is not expected to offer complete bike builds of the Stroma in the near future, but their Builds page offers a nice suggestion of how their customers build up their custom rides.
