Helsinki Underground Bike Shop Building red and white Soma Smoothie

Helsinki Underground Bike Shop made this warm and wonderful time-lapse video of them building up a Soma Smoothie with a number of fine red and white components.

Anton and Henri of HUG Bike Shop in Finland.

Meet Freebird Velo's New Bike, Mabel!

 

Jennie who blogs and screen-prints t-shirt under the moniker FreeBirdVelo just sent us pics of her newly completed ivory [color retired for 2012, sorry] Double Cross. What caught our eye first were the custom panniers by VeniceVelo. She writes: "Thank you for making such an amazing, affordable product. I haven't ridden steel since my first Mtn bike 20 some years ago and it's awesome to ride. Couldn't stop smiling."

On  her blog she muses: "I knew she was going to be a special bike because on the way home there was a full moon. The kind where you expect to see a witch or Elliot and ET flying across. It was then that I agreed upon Mabel as her official name. Actually her name came about because I was kind of hungry and I was thinking about donuts. My favorite is a maple bar, her frame has a similar color to the icing. Also, she's steel and kind of heavy, she's not going to take shit from anything, so Mabel sounded like a big 'ol southern lady. Perfect."

A Soma is Born

This is my new Smoothie, still nameless, that was birthed this Sunday. Up until then I had been trucking around on a Peugeot mixte (a lovable bike until you're cursing it as you scaling one of SF's hills) . It's not fair to compare these two bicycles but I will say that since Sunday I have been a born-again biker.
First a few words on the Smoothie:
Let me preface this by saying I'm one of the graphic designers here at Soma. I've been here for 5 months now and before then my bike knowledge was scant. I'm at a conversational level in bike language. I love riding though, and I've started to appreciate the technical aspects of biking more since working here.

Smoothie definitely lives up to its name, my neighborhood is rife with potholes but since Sunday, riding's been a whole lot more enjoyable. While my Peugeot (Lucille 2) lagged on hills, climbing with the Smoothie is a breeze (maybe I should name it Ms. Moss). I love it so much that I keep it in my office with my all day-it's too beautiful to be tossed about in the communal bike parking area.

Why did I wait 5 months for biking bliss? As I mentioned above, having just stepped off the plane in Bike Land, the idea of building a bike was intimidating. I have become more comfortable with the parts, knew what I wanted in a bike and felt I was at the point when I could make a thorough shopping list.

My Shopping List:

Soma Smoothie Frame 54 cm (I'm 5'7") in Pearl White
Soma Fork 1 1/8" CroMo Lug White
Soma Thick and Zesty Bar Tape in Pear Green
Soma Toe Clips 2-Gate Chrome
Nitto Dynamic 626 Seatpost
Tange Headset Threadless in Black
The new silver Soma Shotwell Stem
Nitto Noodle Handlebar 41/26.0
Soma New Express Tires 700x26 w/ Skin Wall
Soma Ensho Saddle --the new Electric line in "Mutha of Pearl"(ridiculous saddles call for ridiculous names)
The SRAM Apex Group
and Velocity Deep-V rims

I love the Smoothie in Pearl White because of the versatility you have with handlebar tape and saddle color (as I mentioned, I'm a designer). I chose kind of crazy colors, I know, bright colors please me. My coworkers have given me a lot of grief over the tape/saddle combination... there's quite a variety of white Smoothie builds out there-check out our flickr pool. The possibilities are endless!

Having never built a bike before but wanting to get a taste of the process, I lured my coworker Keith (the resident mechanic) into helping me (his only currency is beer). We listened to some Lisa Lisa and Keith built my bike-explaining the process along the way. If you're a novice to building, I definitely recommend having a mechanic help you-it's pretty complicated and involves a few of odd/expensive tools.

Here are some pics from the process:


The first trimester



Keith pressing the headset



Shotwell Stem and fork... lost without their frame


Prepping the fork...


The third trimester...OOO!!!

Yes, building a Soma is intimidating to those unfamiliar with the process (me and many others). Yes, it would have been easier to head down to the local bike shop/shop the interwebs and pick up a Trek or Specialized bike already built. But when you assemble your own, every time you ride it you will be in heaven-relishing every decision you made. And Somas are so much more awesome!!

That's all....I promise. Have a great weekend, and for the love of Mike, go test ride a Soma!

New Soma builds!! Better than a truck full of watermelons..

Pedal Revolution in SF is responsible for these gorgeous builds.

...the Groove in cappuccino. With Soma Odin bars, IRD suspension corrected rigid fork and Shimano Deore/SLX drivetrain...






















The ES...a work of art! Nitto stem, handlebar and seatpost. Soma Hisou saddle, Sugino Crankset and Tiagra Controls and derailleurs.. the white saddle and handlebar tape do wonders! Don't worry, we will be adding pictures on these builds to our flickr and website, we were just SO excited about them we had to put them up somewhere in the meantime.






















The Rush in green...hey there fancy pants! Cinelli Priest bars, Tange straight blade chrome fork, Gatorskin Hardshell tires, IRD Defiant Track Cranks, Suzue Promax Disco hubset on Sun M13 rims, Cardiff saddle, Lugged Nitto setback seatpost and Lugged Nitto stem. Pedal Rev did a great job on this one...





















Behold...the Stanyan! Nitto OS heat-treated Handlebar, Suzue Classic Road hubs on Open Pro rims (decals removed). A handsome fellow, don't you agree? Thanks again to Pedal Revolution, bang-up job guys!