The Soma Fab Blog

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Road Bikes for Kids: The Soma Bart and Lisa

Kids don't have your passion for the bicycle.
Kids don't have your training discipline.
Kids don't have your long strong legs.
Kids don't know a thing about cadence, Campagnolo or Cavendish.

But when you take them out on a charity ride or tour, you stick them with a ~~crap~~ bargain department store bike with fake suspension forks and Pop Rock quality bearings –
and then wonder why aren't they keeping up with you or enjoying themselves more?
Ay, caramba is right!

In your young, single days you may have lovingly built a nice bike for your significant other (or had one built for you), because you wanted them to love cycling as much as you do. Soma asks you to consider whether it is time for your kids (or your sister's kids) to get a quality, lovingly specced road bike.

Introducing our 20" wheel road frame sets... The Lisa is a potent Pink. The Bart sports bad-ass Chrome Plating. Both have a classic road bike look with skinny tubes and level top tube, but are compatible with modern components like 9-speed cassettes, threadless headsets, and 27.2mm seatpost. Fork crown and dropouts are investment cast just like our other frames.

An optional Mini-Kit includes harder to find kid-sized parts:

Shallow drop 33cm road bar
140mm double road crank (40-34t, cold-forged aluminum, polished finish)
20" aluminum wheelset, with Kenda Kwik tires installed
IRD B-57 dual pivot brakes

Everything else is up to your imagination or your bike shop's.
Frame set has a 24.5" standover height and should be fittable to kids and short adults 48 to 58 inches tall.

Soma Lisa built with the Mini-Kit. This is currently only orderable
through your local bike shop. It won't be on the SomaFab Shop.
So call them up soon.

This little lady is fine on drop bars, especially with cross levers on top,
but feel free to use whatever bars you like.
I'd like to see Nitto All Rounders myself.

Here's a build with the Mini-Kit except with chopped down riser bars.
(Furry cow saddle from Origin8)

The Bart would make a great boy's bike or girl's bike. .
Remember this is custom – you can add pink bar tape, a camo saddle, whatever!
We aren't pushing the Lisa, strictly as a girl's bike either.


Does your kid appreciate cold forged cranks with CNC'd and polished chainrings? No? Then it's your job as a responsible adult to instill sound values. (This crank is available in the optional Mini-Kit. Highly recommended since kid's short legs can't spin adult sized cranks)

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

OG Soma Product Tester

In case you thought we only hire professional models, here is conclusive evidence that we've got experienced product testers putting our products to work.

She would not be deterred from riding, even in the subarctic climate we're currently experiencing. Dig those stylish riser bars!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

FreeRange Grand Randonneur Build

For those of you who haven't been compulsively searching for Grand Randonneur build pictures, here's the first complete shots we've seen from FreeRange up in old Seattle.

I really like the contrasting green touches! If I know my brickwork, then that there is the Theo Chocolate factory in the background. Some people have all the luck.

If you look close you can see they picked some nice parts for this build. Our Soma B-Line 650b tires, IRD Defiant Crankset, Nitto Quill Stem + Bars, Grand Compe brake levers, Velocity Synergy Rims, and of course the matching leather saddle.

If you're in Seattle, or even if you're not, you should definitely make the trip over to Fremont down by the giant leafy Brontosaur and check out all the lovely bikes they have in stock. More pics of their other custom builds can be found on the Flickr.