Belt Drive Analog

Submitted by new Soma owner David.

Here's what he said about the build.

Hi Chris, Evan, and Steve,

You were all quite helpful to me in the process of building my belt-drive SOMA.  I thought you might enjoy a few photos of the completed project.  One photo shows the bike in with street tires and no fenders and the second shows it with fenders and studded snow tires (which is how I am riding it now).  It is turning out to be an awesome commuting machine!

Chris, you did a great job both from a mechanical and aesthetic point of view on splitting the frame.  I will certainly recommend your work to others!

Evan and Steve, thanks for the advice and parts.  It turns out that SOMA and the Gates belt-drive are a nice pairing.

Hope you all have a Happy Holiday!

Soma Juice 1x10 Hardtail Build

Have a look at Daryl's snappy looking Soma Juice.

View the full set at www.darylwatkins.com/somajuice/

Lovely Bicycle!: A Soma Buena Vista Redux

Lovely Bicycle!: A Soma Buena Vista Redux: Over a year ago, I wrote about a 650B Soma Buena Vista mixte that a friend built up for his wife. It was a large (58cm) frame that I was...

Soma San Marcos

Soma San Marcos, originally uploaded by Coda del Gruppo.

Another gorgeous San Marcos build!

Brand Spankin New Soma Caps

Hot of the presses!

In honor of our favorite team, we designed this new cap in our home town colors. Made in the USA by Pace.

These will be available soon in our webstore, and in bike shops everywhere. Maybe not in Detroit though...

All Built Up: Buena Vista 2013 - Pearl White

Our new Pearl White mixte built up for cruising about town. Features a 1X10 drive train with SRAM X5 shifter. 39t up front. 11-34t in back. Soma Deco Rack. Soma Oxford bars. Suzue RXC vintage looking wheelset, Rivendell Ruffy Tuffy tires. Tanaka hammer finish aluminum fenders, and Cardiff Cornwall saddle. Build courtesy of American Cyclery.

Ready for some Holiday Cheer: Soma Buena Vista

American Cyclery custom painted this mixte to show off how willing they are to offer customers something unique.

Spec. highlights: Sparrow bars,  cable housing in four highlighter colors, flower pedal, Origin-8 saddle, Osaka bell, Pake straight blade fork(stock color). Visit them for a test ride.

Super cute flower pedal

Sparrow Bars with Oury grips

Outside of Green Pawz Pet Boutique, which uses mostly  organic
and environmentally-friendly products to pamper your pets.

All Built Up: 2013 Double Cross Disc

Built with 105 STI's and rear derailleur, the new Sugino OX601D cranks,
and a smattering of Soma  parts.

Build courtesy of American Cyclery. They chose blue bar tape here.
It will look dapper with black, navy, or Bianchi celeste tape as well.

Decent clearance with Ritchey Speedmax 700 x 41c's.

In The Works: Saga Touring Disc Frame

[ UPDATED NEWS HERE]

Since we've started producing the Saga touring frame, we have gotten to hear a lot of great stories from adventurous folks regarding where they've taken their Sagas. We love hearing them all. It is the excitement in their words and voices that encourage us to keep on making Soma frames.

We also like hearing feedback on our products as well. One of the early suggestions was to do a disc version. That idea was not something that didn't cross our mind early on with the Saga, but general touring wisdom said having mechanical trouble with a disc brake would be more problematic and likely than having problems with cantilevers. That still holds true somewhat, but it hasn't stopped people from asking. More and more enthusiasts are tackling terrain where disc brakes would definitely serve them better. One rider shared that he popped a tube because his rim overheated due to extended braking on a long descent. That would never happen with a disc-equipped machine.

So here we are. Feast your eyes on the first prototype in all it caramelized orange glory. (Color and design details not finalized, though geometry will probably be the same as the current Saga.). We have no production date for these, but it will definitely be part of the 2014 line.

A Clarence alt bar on a tourer? Why not?

Whoops. A cable guide on the fork would be nice.

Sugino OX601 Cranks

Brand new goodies just in from Japan.

The OX 601 cranks are a more affordable version of Sugino's Multi BCD (Bolt Circle Diameter) cranks, which allow you to mix and match with a wide range of chainrings.

These are ideal for anyone who wants a super stiff outboard bearing crankset, but wants the flexibility to run a super low climbing gear and a mid range big ring.

 Modern ramped chainrings for smooth shifting even between large jumps.

They are also a good choice for cross racers who prefer a particular gearing, but can't find it in a stock configuration.

 Looks clean with the granny gear tucked in behind the big ring. No need to run a bash ring to take up space.

The chainrings are sold separately  giving you a huge amount of customization right out of the box. BB is included with the crank arms.

Coming soon to the Soma Store and a bike shop near you.

The Compact Plus+ is a double crank set
design with a 110 and 74 bolt circle which
opens a wide array of chainring combinations.

• Cold forged aluminum alloy
• Low 145mm Q-factor
• 24mm oversized BB axle
• MB-608-II BB cups included

Shimano 10/9 speed compatible and SRAM
10-speed compatible. CNC-machined. Pinned
and ramped.


The Sugino OX601D with its
Compact Plus+ spider design
allows set ups that mimic the
wide ratios of TA Specialties
Cyclo Touriste cranks.
The rings can be mounted to
either the 110mm or 74mm
bolt circle.

It allows you to break free
from the stock 50-34t set up
everyone offers and explore
a great hill-climb set-up like
46-30t (as discussed on Bike
Hugger) Thirteen possible
combinations.

650b BV love from biketouringnews.com

Via http://biketouringnews.com/touring-bicycles/650b-soma-buena-vista/

650b Soma Buena Vista:
Soma Fabrications is a company based in San Francisco, CA USA and they are responsible for producing practical, durable, comfortable bicycle frames, parts, and accessories and apparel. One of their frames is called the Buena Vista and I have really wanted to like this frame, but a couple of niggling design points kept me from it. The position of the brake bridge in the rear, combined with the semi-horizontal dropouts, and the position of the brake hole in the front fork made it difficult to mount fenders with normal side pull brake calipers. On Buena Vistas we have built in the past using 700c wheels we ended up using calipers with different reaches on the front and rear just to get clearances. The US distributor told me that long reach brake calipers such as the Rivendell Silver or Tektro 559 which accommodate reaches from 55-73mm will work with 700c tires up to about 28mm wide and fenders, but that is still sort of limiting.

The Soma Buena Vista is a mixte design. A pair of small diameter tubes run more or less parallel from the head tube past the seat tube and on to the rear dropouts providing stiffness and strength to the step through frame.

An astute customer and reader of the Lovely Bicycle blog brought to my attention that the frames could be used with 650b wheels with tires up to 40mm wide! Well, I thought, I’ll be dipped in shit and called stinky. The US distributor also confirmed that the frame has always been suitable for either 650b or 700c wheels.

Dry fitting the brake calipers and fenders. The brake pads contact the rims at close to the max 73mm reach. Plenty of clearance for the Berthoud 50mm fenders with Grand Bois Hetre 42mm tires.

The rear brake works too!

Yes the bike is complete and it turned out brilliantly, thank you very much. We are waiting for the VO Zeppelin fenders to become available and then I can include some pics of the finished bike. Now I’m happy to recommend the Soma Buena Vista 650b as a capable light touring and commuting machine.

2013 Frame News: Mixte Colors

The Buena Vista will finally get a refresh after 2 years.
Old Gold with black accent panel and Pearl White with minty fresh Portofino Green panel. Both will look dynamite with classic brown leather builds, but we hope to see some more imaginative builds from you guys.

The Buena Vista may look like other mixtes out there, but with its sporty geometry and butted CrMo tubeset, you can build it into a more upright "slow bike"or a fast commuter. So you might think about wearing a helmet for it.

Comes in four sizes: 42, 50, 54, and 58cm.
Dealers can order these in mid to late December.

2013 Frame News: New Color for Soma ES

We say "au revior" to the elegant Deep Red ES next year. (Our boss loves that color.) Replacing it will be a Nickel color, that will definitely open up options for those whose like to experiment with different colored bar tape and components; however we envision it to look bad-ass with just all black parts.


By the way, look for Momentum Magazine to be featuring an ES in its pages soon. They have Chris, the marketing guy from Rickshaw Bags, testing a 66cm ES currently for the "Bikes for Tall People" feature.

Soma ES

Soma ES, originally uploaded by sewm.

A clean, modern ES build.

TJ's Soma Rush from London

This Build is from Tony at the Rapha Cycle Club in London. Nice Build TJ!

Nice photography too!

Keep them coming!

We love seeing all the wild builds that people put together. If you've got one that you want to share email us or add them to our Flickr group.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/somabikes/

This one comes from Steve.

Soma Oxford Pedals

Check these out!

Soma has been making pedals for a few years now. We've got the Hellyer for track, the Highway 1 for road, and the Downie for mountain. But we wanted something specifically designed for commuters. The problem with most pedals for commuters is getting the right amount of grip. Track pedals aren't very grippy because they're designed to be used with a toe clip, tightened down. Road pedals work the same way, but they have a guard on the side to protect your foot in the event of a crash. The problem with using these for commuting is if you use soft soled sneakers they don't give a ton of support.

Mountain pedals are super supportive and grippy but the metal spikes can mess up nice dress shoes and many modern mountain platforms aren't made to work with toe clips.

We really like classic Japanese Touring pedals, but we wanted something a little more modern.

So we're introducing the Soma Oxford, our commuter specific pedal. It's designed with a angled grip patter that keeps your foot on the pedal but doesn't grind into your souls. It's got a wide, supportive platform on one side so you can use it as a platform without toe clips. The opposite side is cut away so that you can make a hard turn and not worry about your pedal scraping on the ground.

You can also mount it up with a toe clip and strap for a little push/pull action. Handy if you ride a fixed gear. Even works with double straps. The finish is nice and shiny, just the way you want. This is probably the nicest looking pedal we've ever made, and one of the best options out there for Urban Cyclists.

Coming soon to a bike shop near you.