Soma Juice in Manila

Soma bikes really get around. This build is from Cyril in Manila, Philippines.

Hey guys! Just wanted to share with you a few pics of my newly assembled Juice.

My name is Cyril, from Manila, and I have been scouting around for a new frame for half a year now. I used to bike heavily back in the day (1988-1993) and was really into road bikes until most of my bikes were stolen from a break-in in '92 (the one that was spared, a 1989 Team 7-11 themed Eddy Merckx roadie, was sold last year)

Anyway, my friends started biking a few years back and I never really thought about biking again until November of last year when they took me on a trail ride. I had so much fun that I decided that I wanted to   build a new one again.

 Since I haven't biked in ages, I wanted to make sure that the one I built up would be a keeper -- and one that would hit close to home. I was immediately drawn to the Soma brand because a record label, one        that I really liked, had the same name. But what closed the deal was the fact that it was a steel frame, and a SF based company at that too. I just knew that I was gonna get one when I visited my girlfriend again in San Francisco.

Dan at American Cyclery helped me source out everything except the groupset, rims and fork. I decided to go for a Chris King headset and their hubs, while Thomson was my choice for the cockpit (w/ the seatpost and clamp too) cause I wanted things to be uniform while also having some peace of mind that it will not crap out on me while out on the trail!

 I went for a RockShox Reba RLT solo-air with maxle 15QR, Velocity Blunt SL rims, and Schwalbe tires cause I wanted to keep the black/white/red-orange motif while also maintaining reliability/performance. 

In fact, I'm trying to look for someone who can change the blue lockout wheel of the fork to any of the three colors i plan to stick with (talk about being anal with motifs) Closing things out are Xpedo pedals, a WTB Silverado saddle and the XT groupset (which along with the rims, grips, AND the actual build itself was supplied by my friends here in Manila who have bike shops -- Gran Trail Cycles & MyNextBike.com)

Anyway, I have only ridden it 4 times since it was built up a few days ago, and I'm loving the feel of the frame! I still need to get used to biking a 29er, but I know as early as now that my experiences with it

will only get better. I will also be transporting it back to SF in the near future, which means I wont have to rent out a bike anymore when my girlfriend and I want to go to Tiburon or Mt. Tamalpais again. For now, it will have to endure the monsoon rains and humidity here in Manila.

        Cyril Y.

PS - I also procured a Gold Double Cross Disc at AC for my friend. He will be building it up in a month after he recovers from an injury. Can't wait to see it built up! At least I'm not the only one who will enjoy a Soma frame in Manila :)