Greeting from "Shangri-La" Nearly 3700 Meters Up

Eleanor's Soma Saga in the mountain passes of Yunnan

Our gal Eleanor restarted her solo tour of China, Russia and Mongolia earlier this month.
She posted the first photo on our FB wall with the comment.
"I was warned by the locals on this one...but I slaughtered those 1500+ meters."

It was tough getting going at the high altitude, but she got to "Shangri-La" (not the fictional place from Lost Horizon, but a place in Yunnan Province, China, which is probably equally remote, but not really a utopia as in the novel.) six days ago. Even out there, she got in a couple of scrapes with some annoying drivers. Check out her report in her 2Wheels4Girls blog.


Morning view along some famous "Red Army Crossing"


New friends seeing Eleanor off.

July 4th Weekend Means Quake City Rumble is Back

This year Quake City Rumble is including a cargo race and a ladies/trans only race on Saturday, as well as a Bike Prom on Sunday. We will be donating something for the goodie bags.

Hozan Rim Polishing Pad, for safe braking!

We all lube our chain regularly to go faster, but is there any routine maintenance for braking performance? This little block from Hozan will drastically improve your brake performance by polishing your rim surface. Constructed with foamed NBR copolymer-rubber mixed with sintered aluminum dust to be gentle on your rims while refreshing your braking surface. A must-have item for any regular rider. Available in the SomaFab Shop..


- 120 grit texture

- Foamed rubber block

- Sintered alloy

- Works wonders on worn rim surfaces

- Made in Japan

Salt Lake City's Velo Weekend is THIS Weekend

Velo City Bags presents VELO WEEKEND! A whole weekend of bike events: Critical Mass, Tall Bike Jousting, Alley Cat, Trick Comp and Sprints! Registration is $20 and gets you a t-shirt, automatic entry into alley cat, trick comp, sprints and raffle, along with lots of other goodies from our sponsors. Go to http://veloweekend.com/ and register now.

We are sending out pairs of our heavy duty (but gentle on your rims) Steel Core Tire Levers, but only enough for 50 registrants.

Friday, June 24:
3 PM Last-minute Registration @ Fresh
5:30 PM Critical Mass @ Galliva...n
7:00 PM Tall Bike Joust @ Vertical Diner

Saturday, June 25:
1 PM Alleycat @ SLC Bicycle Co.
3 PM Freestyle Trick Comp.@ Cakewalk Baking Co.
8 PM Salt City Sprints and Raffle @ Pie Hole

Bicycle Time's Completed Review of the Soma Buena Vista

Karl of Bicycle Times posted a "first look" review on their website a few months ago. The final review is published in Bicycle Times #11. We would be lying if we weren't a little concerned since we couldn't size him for the frame since he's in Pittsburgh and he admitted he's never ridden a mixte.

PDF file of the article is in Product Reviews page of this blog.

Some pull quotes for those with short attention spans:

"From my first pedal strokes, I realized that this was one quick handling townie"


"Exhibited the classical "lively" feeling of a quality chromoly steel frame - a sweet blend of snappy acceleration and a comfortable resilience over the road. I felt that the mixte design offered some additional bump-absorbing vertical compliance, compared to double diamond frames."


"Felt...at home cruising the...sometimes unpavedd, rural roads on my favorite multi-hour recreational loop."

Coming Soon: Soma's New Porteur Rack

We left the MP3 player at home for our weekend ride.
Instead we loaded up an old radio one of us had collecting
dust in the garage --- onto a prototype of our Porteur Rack.
(Click on images to +)


The rack has a 12 x 14.2" platform. The "fence" shown
here is an optional attachment.
Rack is height adjustable and mounts to the axle,
but there is a workaround if you want to attach it to
the fork tip eyelet.


The radio was solid-state and bulky. Bungies would've probably
worked fine, but we got creative and fastened it down with
a mini U-lock and speaker wire.

The horizontal strut under the platform will fit a Zimbale
or Carradice roll bag and perhaps a pannier with
narrowly space hooks.



It is made out of CrMo steel. We found CrMo less temperamental
to work with than stainless steel. It is also stronger, stiff and
easier to repair than SS. Will be available in
black or chrome-plate -- by the end of the month.
Price to be determined.