Sandworm: May His passing cleanse the World

Words and Photography by Spencer J. Harding

Essay by Edward Abbey "I Loved it...I Loved it All" from Ned Judge on Vimeo.

Go to that link, watch the first few minutes of that piece by Ed Abbey. After a week of cavorting around the Moab desert I started to appreciate what ole’ Ed had to say about the desert.

But we aren’t gonna get into conservation and all the politics right now, just look at what he’s driving. That beautiful Cadillac, not some souped up jeep, a classy as hell convertible Cadillac. When trying to review this frame it has been hard to figure out what to highlight, this is the most versatile frameset for off-road riding that I am aware of at the moment.

So this is the point I want to make, you could go buy the fancy carbon fiber plus tire full squish mega bike, but if you are reading this that is probably not your thing. You are a dignified off-road cycling enthusiast, and this my friends is your Cadillac.

This is a convertible Cadillac meandering down lonely desert roads kind of bike, its about looking damn good and feeling even better. Sure there are more specific bikes, but trust me, this bike can be made to handle almost everything (Captain Ahab was a little gnarly rigid but I managed). You don’t need to ride in the desert for long to be stoked that you have some plus sized tires, and you can run just about any tire you can image on this thing (26/27.5/29).

The chain stays are longer than bike publications would deem noteworthy (fear not this thing wheelies no problem) but, this thing is a freaking Cadillac, its not gonna turn on a dime, but you don't need to when you look and feel this good.

So get that stem up nice and high and put some wide bars so you can really take in the landscape, you don’t have to watch every rock and sand patch with this beauty, just let the 3”+ air suspension handle the imperfections. I’ve yet to see anyone ride this bike without a shit eating grin on their face the entire time.

Are the type of person who; likes to get way way out in the great outdoors, enjoys the challenge of crawling through spreadsheets of mountain bike parts measurements, rides slower than the average Strava roadie who just discovered mountain biking, has an appreciation for fashion over function, and wants to build up a plus bike that is so classy that even ole’ Ed Abbey would tip his hat?

Then my friend, the Sandworm is for you. THE SPICE MUST FLOW.

Sandworm Marin Test Ride

We had a little break from the rain this week, so I took the B+ Sandworm out to Marin to play in the mountains before it started up again. Here's some photos from the ride.

Fort Point SF

San Francisco Marina 

Wave Organ

Alcatraz 

Tennessee Valley 

Mt. Tamalpais 

Panaracer Fat B Nimble

Marin Headlands 

IRD Sylvan Brake Lever 

Soma Clarence Bars 

Muir Beach

Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco Bay 

Crissy Field Marsh

Palace of Fine Arts 

Soma Sandworm

Soma Sandworm 650B+ Build

It's been a long, long time coming, but the mythical Sandworms have finally emerged from the bled to take their rightful place at the top of the food chain.

We built this one up with 650b wheels and 3" tires for a more "lively" trail oriented ride.

The Sandworm is made with sturdy Tange Infinity tubing, making it stiffer than the other Soma MTB frames. With tires this wide you don't need the frame to dampen the ride much, so we built it for loaded bike packing and rowdier Enduro routes.

Like several other Soma models, the Sandworms feature a splitter for installing a carbon belt drive.

Originally designed as a single speed crankset, more people have been using these IRD Mjolnir cranks on 1X drivetrains. Since the cranks arms need a bit more clearance to wrap around the wider chainstays, we used the Wolf Tooth 94mm offset chainrings to achieve a perfect chain line. Since it's a square taper design, it offers more flexibility for unusual chain lines such as you'll often find on internal gear hubs.

The outer diameter of these wheels is about the same as the 26" fatbike tires that are popular for softer terrain and snow. This allows the frame to accommodate multiple wheel set if you want to change up your riding style. This carbon fork offer plenty of clearance for even wider tires.

The 55mm IRD Sawtooth 650B+ rims really take advantage of the Panaracer Fat B Nimble's added volume, giving the tires a wider contact patch and better cornering performance.

The hourglass headtubes allow you to run both tapered forks, or straight steerers. Even though we began developing this bike before there were any true fatbike suspension  forks on the market, we knew that we wanted to make sure it would accommodate them when the fork makers finally caught up.

For the cockpit we used my favorite MTB bars the Soma Clarence and a Soma Shotwell 31.8mm stem with Palma Sutra foam grips.

In addition to enabling single speed and Rohloff compatibility, the IRD sliding dropouts allow you to adjust the effective chain stay length to suit your riding style and tire choice. There are so many fat tires on the market these days that we haven't had a chance to test them all, but we have yet to encounter any that don't clear it's curvy stays.

Weather you're building up your first fat bike or swapping out a old one, we think the Sandworm offers a great feature set which allows you to build it the way you want.