11-05-07
Soma Launches New Blog

It is just easier to update y'all using a blog than this standard HTML web page. We will no longer be updating this page.

When we get the time, we will update the NEWS link above. For now just follow this link: somafab.blogspot.com

10-29-07
New November Arrivals

• Our 29er, the Juice, gets some improvements. Frame brake bosses will be removable. A new box section gusset strengthens the frame and clears any suspension fork knob. This new production will also move to 135mm hub spacing, which will make it easier to install the rear wheel. These will be available early next month in 18" and 20" sizes. Colors: Midnight Silver and Spice Red


• Oppy-X Double Toe Clips will be available soon in powder coat black, pink and white. The pink will coordinate decently with our hot pink track grips or rose pink bar tape.

• Our Hemp Bags will be available in khaki green.

10-2-07
2008 Frame News

• Our Kamisori and Ensho saddles hit the warehouse today. In October, just as we said! That's a first. These are slick looking colored saddles with a CrMo rail price instead of a Ti rail price that most colored race saddles have.

• We have a Flickr page: It is mainly for posting older frame pix and Soma owner pix, but we did post a a pic of the new 650b MTB concept bike over there.

• 2008 Soma Rush: We will be phasing out the Fiery Red color and introducing a Pearl White. If you think white is a little 'played out', you can still get it in black. But our new Japanese distributor, Tokyo San Esu, really wanted to see white Rushes. Downtube decals will be removable on the new stock.

• 2008 Double Cross DC (i.e. "disc/canti"): We will finally be releasing a Double Cross with disc mounts. Cantilever bosses will be removable. Some of you are probably saying, "It's about time." It will be in the matte Midnight Silver that's been popular on our Juice frames. For the time being, this model will be offered in only 50 to 58cm.

There will still be cantilever-only Double Crosses in 2008 --for those who don't see the need-- in a full size range.

• There is a brand new road frame that we plan to release mid-2008. We will release more details after evaluating our prototypes.


9-26-07
Why the 'Walker Racer' is not named the 'Lawson Racer'

When we were looking at names for bars last year, we began looking at names the Torrington company had used. 'Lawson' and 'Kramer' were names we were looking at. Upon further research into the names, we found out the two were contemporaries of Major Taylor. Andrew Ritchie's biography 'Major Taylor' painted talented American racers, Iver Lawson and Frank Kramer as the bitterest of rivals to Major Taylor. Supposedly there was a time Kramer, Lawson, and a third racer named McFarland tried going after him after a race. So you can see how we could not have a bar named 'Lawson Racer' in the same stable as a bar named 'Major Taylor'.

Major Taylor gave racing in Australia a try because it gave him a break from his American rivals and being a deeply religious man, he didn't want to race on Sundays. Australia didn't have races on Sundays. Don Walker, an Australian champion, also a Christian, hit it off with Taylor.

What struck us at Soma was Walker's strong disgust for the racist sentiment in America at that time. In order to get served in a restaurant in San Francisco, Walker went into a restaurant where Taylor and his wife had already been refused service and ordered lunch for three, saying that his companions would be coming shortly. The food came. He paid the bill...then he brought the Taylors in. Great story. That's why our last track bar is named the 'Walker Racer.'

9-19-07
Picture of 650b MTB concept bike painted

Here is a sneak peek of the B-Side with paint on.
We will post a pic of the complete bike after the Interbike show. To see it before you need to go to BTI's booth (#4745)at Interbike. Soma will not have a booth at Interbike this year.
If you want to read about the first on-trail test of a 650b MTB wheelset, head over to the blog of Haro's brand mgr. Jill. She put a set of 650b wheels/tires onto a frame made for 26" wheels. They barely fit, but she was able to get a good ride on them. bikebizbabe.blogspot.com

Also in Issue #131 of Dirt Rag, the editors review Pacenti's prototype 650b ti hardtail.

9-15-07
New Hellyer Crank and Pedal

• We have released a new track crank and track pedal. Named after the velodrome in San Jose, CA. The cranks are cold forged and shiny silver. The pedals have sealed cartridge bearings and a CNC'd cage.
• Also check out our new Oxford handlebar, which is the third bar we have released this year. Our Kamisori and Ensho saddles are up on the site but not yet available.

8-24-07
650b MTB concept bike in progress

As you may have heard some builders are unveiling 650b (27.5" tires) MTB prototype/concept bikes at this year's Interbike.
Here is ours–currently codenamed the "B-Side". It is a steel single speed hardtail. We chose a single-speed format, because we think SS folks are a little more stoked to try something different. This was built locally and will be used for testing as well as showing at Interbike. We plan to have it displayed at premier distributor BTI's booth. No production frames are planned yet. It really depends on public response.

The opportunity to explore the new platform was too easy to pass up. Tires, rims, suspension forks are being made available as we publish this. Pacenti's Neo-Moto 2.3's tires and Velocity's Blunt rims both look like winners. White Brothers forks are a proven design. Certain 26" suspension forks like Mavericks already work. If you can't find 650b tubes, 26" tubes will suffice. If we decided to pump out 50 frames, we know there will be parts to build them with.

While we acknowledge most big wheel enthusiasts are too still in love with their 29ers to consider a third wheel size, from a frame designer's standpoint 650b is territory definitely worth exploring. When designing the Juice 29er frame we did notice we had to make certain 'compromises' to get things like standover height and bar height to come out reasonable. Builders will continue to have to deal with design issues as customers demand more travel. Though the 650b size is roughly in the middle between 26" and 29", we found we could use proven 26" wheel geometries, which is sweet. Chainstay length is very close to 26" wheel bikes.

The 650b platform also promises stronger, lighter wheels, and other theoretical advantages over the 29er platform, but we won't open our mouth too much here until after we get in some rides on our B-Side.

Click on picture for a larger view

7-18-07
Soma Morning Rush Selected "Best of SF"!

7x7, a San Francisco magazine covering the flava of our city put our bike coffee holder in their annual "Very Best of SF" issue. Category: Best Way to Have Your Coffee and Ride Your Bike" Thanks 7x7! Do we get a trophy or something?

7-12-07
Track Grips in P!nk and Clear!

In stock now. Ask your shop to order them for you.

7-11-07
New Saddles in the Works!

There are dozens of saddle choices our there. Why even look to Soma who has never even produced saddles to go on their own bikes?
What we've noticed is when you look for a non-black saddle, usually you are limited to really expensive saddles. So we wanna offer mid-end saddles in a few colors...specifying high performance-level profiles with high performance-level padding, but without ti rails to jack up the price. Most of you don't need ti rails. This way you can try a saddle and if you get tired of the color, after a year, give it to a friend. It's not like you spent a fortune on it.

Two models to start. Graphics are deliberately low key--reminiscent of Selle Italia 1996. All under $50.

7-4-07

Crane Bells!

Check out the Soma Shop for some new retro brass 'jitensha' bells. Made in Osaka by some outfit called Crane.

5-15-07

Spankin' Soma Speedster Build!

Kirk Pacenti turned us onto this Flickr page where Ed Braley converted our 700c Speedster into a 650B ride with fat tires and fenders. Great photos... really shows what an incredible bicycle you can turn this frame into. He had some great things to say about the ride quality of his creation, which we won't go into on this page... cuz this page is for news, not for bragging.

5-01-07

Groove with 4 chainring crank!

We like to scan the internet for any buzz about us. Lot of times we are the last to know. I was looking for a site where two guys trekked the himalayas on our Groove frames. Instead I found this blog, the Spokin' Sportsman, where this guy built a Groove with a Mountain Tamer Quad, a 4th chainring. Never heard of such a thing, but it looked like a nice purposeful build.

4-9-07

Dear Barhoppers....new BARS!

We are unveiling 3 new bars in the next couple of months. Ad below will be appearing in the new downloadable / online Urban Velo magazine, a project of Brad and Jeff formerly of Dirt Rag.
- The Walker Racer is another retro style drop bar design. Named after Don Walker, an Australian champion who was a good friend of Major Taylor. Features wide sweeping bends. Best for those who like riding in the drops.
- The Sparrow is a narrow cruiser bar more useful in traffic than super wide cruiser bars. A possible alternative to flat bars on fixies.
- The Oxford is quite similar to the Albatross or North Road bars with minor mods.
Try one out on your next project bike.

4-3-07

More photos of Speedster and Delancey added.

1-3-07

Speedsters & Delanceys are available.

They just arrived at the distributor and will be shipping to stores who have them pre-orderd this week. They look pretty nice. The "Seaweed Black" of the Delancey is a little more "seaweed" than "black" but still a very pleasing color that goes well with the chromed lugs and decal colors. Apologies for the typo on the frame listing....sizes are 52, 54, 56, 58, and 60cm. There is no 50cm at this time.

11-1-06

New Products

If you already downloaded our new brochure, then you already know about these.
• We have just received our new re-designed Somax track hubs.
• We also have our new Anti-Jack U-locks with hardened CrMo shackles and more keys and more competitive pricing.
• Last and sort of least, is our ultra compact Lo-Pro Multi-Tool, which is smaller than most multi-tools out there, so it is convenient to carry anywhere. You can put it in your jeans coin pocket and forget it's there.

10-25-06

New Brochures

Available for download on the frames page or here!
(4.7MB PDF) >>>

9-28-06

Update on Lugged Frames

As some of you have heard we are launching two lugged frame models. Specs were finalized over the summer. We expect frames in stock by late December.

> the Speedster: a traditional road frame similar to the Smoothie ES with clearance for 28c tires with fenders. Geometry is somewhere between our Smoothie and Smoothie ES.

> the DeLancey: Uses the same geometry, but has horizontal dropouts. Designed for standard short reach brakes.

Please don't e-mail us with geometry questions or picture requests. We will get these up on the site by late October.


9-21-06

Soma Helps Out Breast Cancer Fund With Crystal Polypropylene Water Bottles

The Breast Cancer Fund organized the Bike Against The Odds Charity Ride in Oakland, CA on Sept. 10. (If you missed it, they are doing a Mt. Tam charity hike on Sept. 30) Soma partially sponsored 1000 of our Soma water bottles. Why did the BFC insist on our water bottles?
The Breast Cancer Fund is about prevention and keen on exposing and eliminating the environmental causes of the disease. Since popular polycarbonate bottles have been shown to leach harmful chemicals, they could not in good conscience offer those types of bottles to their volunteers and participants.

The BFC believes that most breast cancer can be prevented, and has adopted the bold mission to eliminate the environmental causes of the disease.  Through public education, policy initiatives, outdoor challenges and other innovative campaigns, the Breast Cancer Fund mobilizes the public to secure the changes needed to stop this devastating epidemic.

The fight against cancer does not begin after you get it, it begins at prevention. Here's some quick info.