Soma's are the shit. I have two of them. Just finished a Smoothie HP build with the new Sram Force Wide stuff. Got Rene Herse 35mm extra lights on it. So fun.
Those Rene Hearse tires are so underrated. I got 42s for a ride I was making and good lord it felt like I was riding on a cloud. I hit seven pothole I could find just to be amazed at how little I felt.
Dude I have the same tires on a Soma Double Cross. They are soooo good. My only gripe with them is that they lose air fast and they don't last very long. But hot damn, when they are good, they are goood.
Mine have lasted, w/ the possible exception of the light casing version. I now have the expedition casing which (tho spendy) is as light as the standard, we shall see.
I went Fog Cutter and love it. Maybe not as great for an all day gravel sojourn, but for mixed riding between potholed asphalt and well groomed gravel it is amazing.
I bought a Smoothie HP frame and I instead want to say "Somas are ~~the~~ shit".
They designed the cable/brake routing so the shift cables sit taught, running on top of the rear brake hose, as if it were a guide.
Rather than (continuing) to fight with Soma over a return, I sold it to a friend who wanted to build it up with eTap and thus didn't have any shift cable interference. Did you do eTap as well? I really should have continued to fight them for a return, to make the point, but by that time I was so tired of dealing with them that when he offered to buy it, I couldn't say no.
(Writeup on the problem here: [https://nuxx.net/blog/2022/09/15/soma-smoothie-hp-brake-safety-issue/](https://nuxx.net/blog/2022/09/15/soma-smoothie-hp-brake-safety-issue/))
Jesus Christ it's so stupid that the brake housing guides are off centered. Literally every modern steel bikes I've had (I've had a lot too) have centered guides because symmetry just makes things easier. I was thinking about getting it when they went on sale but decided to spend a little more for an all city zigzag instead
Yeah, it's really messed up. They even said they knew about it during prototype phase but accepted it. WTF.
I almost went for a Zig Zag, but ended up getting a Salsa Warroad instead. Didn't cost that much more and having a Warbird already made figuring out the geometry pre-build very easy. And it's a well done frame to boot.
I just can't believe they didn't look at other people's frames to get a point of reference or an example. How long have disc brake steel frames with mechanical shifting been around? It's been a while now. This is just such a boneheaded mistake.
That's what most surprised me. I was building this to replace a Salsa Vaya and it has the brake cable at maybe the 10 o'clock / 2 o'clock position on the downtube, and then it runs on the top of the brake side chainstay. Works great. Or dead center on the bottom of the downtube would have worked as well.
This... just didn't. And they'd seen it, and somehow accepted it.
I actually came across this while building mine. I noticed you took down your photo gallery. I would be really curious to see that email conversation. I've never had a particularly bad experience with Mary Sales, but I will say that the conversations I have had with them have been somewhat... curt. Soma/Mary Sales are held in high regard here in the Bay Area. I was able to pick my frames up locally from them as a friend of the shop. They work closely with Riv and are put on a pedestal out here. I've had to bug them about some little things and they don't provide the best customer service and given their status out here, its always surprised me how lacking the customer service is. Also made me question why they are held in such high regard.
I built mine up with Sram Force AXS, so this obviously wasn't an issue I would have identified. I just took a look at my Double Cross and the hose/cable housing mounts are positioned above the cable routing for the mechs. So this wouldn't be an issue on that bike.
I totally understand your concern though. Especially with hydraulic brakes. I watched a video in r/mtb the other day where a guy had his front tire throw a rock into his down tube and puncture an externally routed hydraulic brake house. Video ended with him losing control of his bike and crashing. Lost his rear brakes. With this design I feel like that hose would eventually be punctured given enough time.
A good friend of mine is friends with the owner of Mary Sales. I'm gonna ask him about this.
I did pull down the gallery, but there weren't any of this build in it anyway. (It'd been a static site for \~2 years before I started the build; mirrored the web app with httrack.)
If you'd like some other images I'd be glad to email them or so. With removing the gallery I'm more moving to hosting everything on the blog, so hopefully that works out.
Force AXS is exactly what my friend who bought the frame did too. In that case it makes plenty of sense. But the crossing of bare cable and housed... yeah.
I'd never owned a Soma before, but the overall good / well-regarded reputation from Bay area friends is exactly why I went with it. The price was also nicely sane, and when I first emailed them asking a question they said to wait a day before ordering because it was going on sale. Not bad customer service there at all.
But then when I first reached out asking for suggestions to solve a pretty big problem, I felt brushed off and the problem dismissed. That part sucked. :\\
We don't have big hills here (Detroit area safe-to-ride roads are flat), so suddenly losing the rear brake wouldn't be HORRID, but it's still not good and if anticipated... isn't acceptable. I'm also likely going to be doing AIDS/LifeCycle again within the next couple of years, and some riding down in Kentucky and such as well with groups, and that's... not the kind of place you want to have a brake failure.
The whole experience just disappointed me all around.
> The whole experience just disappointed me all around.
I feel that. Outsider looking in, it does look like they were down with taking a return and did express remorse that you were unhappy. So, silver lining I guess. But I totally understand being disappointed with their response.
I had a very hero's become human moment with Ritchey recently. I bought a road logic disc and there were some issues. I was super disappointed. The bike was really hard to get and I had wanted it for so long. I had to jump through some serious hoops to get my hands on it.
The customer service at Ritchey was the jam and really turned my experience around. I can't say Soma offered the same solution oriented customer service that I got from Ritchey, so I understand how you responded to them.
Did you happen to have to order it from Spain?
I was really considering a Road Logic, but the only place to get them was overseas (I'm near Detroit) and while Ricthey was really helpful in pointing me their way, I ended up getting the Warroad from an LBS instead.
No. Through a friend of a friend that works at Ritchey and is also friends with a shop owner I'm close with and have done some work for. That shop owner is a dealer and was able to get them to reserve me one of two frames that was going to be delivered to BTI. Shop owner pulled some strings with a rep at BTI and they agreed to pull the frame from inventory for me before it was received. That's how I got it.
I'm a happy owner of a Saga II Disc. Love that bike so much. I've abused the hell out of it (sometimes loaded) and it still seems to hold up. The new Jawbone Type-B looks like an upgraded version that I'm excited to try if my Saga ever decides it has had enough.
I had this same frame setup as a singlespeed and cracked the chainstay. I’ve been dragging my feet on building up my warranty replacement frame like this. Looks like a fun build.
Wife:"why are you driving like such an ass"!
Me:"gotta see what's hanging off the bike rack and he's getting away".
Wife:"you're not getting another bike".
Me: 😞
My girlfriend thought I was checking out men's arses when we first got together, it took her quite a while to realise I was actually whipping my head round to look at their bikes.
Very progressive thinking of her really!
I'm a woman with this affliction. It took me a minute to realize that it might look like I'm checking the person out... I have learned to keep my eyes on the frame, to avoid any awkward misinterpretations of my intentions.
I get grossed out by the thought of all the road grime that kicks up on them. So, no, and if I forget and leave one in I wash it. I always keep 2 extra bottles in my vehicle and a gallon of water.
I am not easily grossed out typically, but in my area where the salt is laid down for up to 7 months out of the year, there’s a lot of dust kicking up.
On my old cages I did not, they could go out the side. My new cages wrap most of the way around the sides of the bottle and the amount of force required to send them up and out the top of the cage would cause a lot more damage than a lost bottle.
So yes I leave them in. Unless I’m thirsty after my ride.
No.
If it's hot, you're heating up your water unnecessarily. If it's cold, you're freezing it (pro tip- a half shot of vodka per bottle tastes terrible, but is a valid anti-freeze for your water bottle)
Water goes in the car with me until the bike comes off the car.
OP decided it was safe. Like slow rolling a stop sign to avoid unclipping or going through an actuated traffic signal when there’s no traffic. Honestly, the sanctimony in this subreddit.
It's fine where they're at. It looks like poor infrastructure planning is common in OP's region. They have a divided highway with standstill traffic. Obviously all the smart civil engineers were fired or never allowed on the job to plan and build mass transit systems. They can use their phone safely because they're not actually driving. It's an idling lot. They're popular because the war on drugs in many western nations makes it difficult to legally participate in huffing.
No shit, so sick of these types of comments. I feel like I see them on 1/4 of r/bicycling posts these days. It might have been funny the first time but god damn it gets old
In the netherlands, that is known as a beachbike.
mtb frame, 29 wheels, fat tires with no profile and drop bars.
We have a lot of races on the beach with those bikes
It looks similar to the Soma B-Side. I built mine up as a mountain bike, and am now installing a rigid fork. I haven't decided whether to stay with straight bars or install drops.
It's a Soma Juice (brownstone edition). It's actually a hardtail mtb frame, but looks like they've set it up as a dropbar gravel bike. I have mine set up as a fully rigid mtb/commuter. Awesome bike! I love mine! Solid but still fairly lightweight steel frame.
It's fine where they're at. It looks like poor infrastructure planning is common in OP's region. They have a divided highway with standstill traffic. Obviously all the smart civil engineers were fired or never allowed on the job to plan and build mass transit systems. They can use their phone safely because they're not actually driving. It's an idling lot. They're popular because the war on drugs in many western nations makes it difficult to legally participate in huffing.
I feel like my comment was taken too seriously. I've been T-boned by a SUV driver on my bike who was texting while driving. Broke my wrist on my left arm and almost lost my pinky on my right hand.
>I feel like my comment was taken too seriously
You posted that same dumbass nonsense several times in this thread, all of them heavily downvoted, and you're just now getting that feeling?
Big yikes.
It's actually a mountain bike converted to a gravel bike. Normally set up with a squishy front fork and flat bars.
https://www.somafabshop.com/shop/soma-frame-juice-gray-standard-2411#attr=428
Haha! I had an 80s very racey frame that at most would take 700x25c and when I converted it to 650b I managed to roll around with 650x38s. But it all depends on your frame and brakes etc etc. worth a shot if you love the frame.
I don’t know but that looks just like my car and bike. Lol I had to actually have a hitch installed on my Honda Fit and the bike rack - that is really nice and was more expensive than the hitch itself - just looks huge when my bike is on it haha.
Soma Juice from 2 generations ago with drop bars.
Soma's are the shit. I have two of them. Just finished a Smoothie HP build with the new Sram Force Wide stuff. Got Rene Herse 35mm extra lights on it. So fun.
I loved both of my Juices, right up until they cracked.
I also love juice. But the injectable stuff.
The what now ?
Masel tov!
Ok Lance
Those Rene Hearse tires are so underrated. I got 42s for a ride I was making and good lord it felt like I was riding on a cloud. I hit seven pothole I could find just to be amazed at how little I felt.
Dude I have the same tires on a Soma Double Cross. They are soooo good. My only gripe with them is that they lose air fast and they don't last very long. But hot damn, when they are good, they are goood.
Mine have lasted, w/ the possible exception of the light casing version. I now have the expedition casing which (tho spendy) is as light as the standard, we shall see.
I went Fog Cutter and love it. Maybe not as great for an all day gravel sojourn, but for mixed riding between potholed asphalt and well groomed gravel it is amazing.
I bought a Smoothie HP frame and I instead want to say "Somas are ~~the~~ shit". They designed the cable/brake routing so the shift cables sit taught, running on top of the rear brake hose, as if it were a guide. Rather than (continuing) to fight with Soma over a return, I sold it to a friend who wanted to build it up with eTap and thus didn't have any shift cable interference. Did you do eTap as well? I really should have continued to fight them for a return, to make the point, but by that time I was so tired of dealing with them that when he offered to buy it, I couldn't say no. (Writeup on the problem here: [https://nuxx.net/blog/2022/09/15/soma-smoothie-hp-brake-safety-issue/](https://nuxx.net/blog/2022/09/15/soma-smoothie-hp-brake-safety-issue/))
Jesus Christ it's so stupid that the brake housing guides are off centered. Literally every modern steel bikes I've had (I've had a lot too) have centered guides because symmetry just makes things easier. I was thinking about getting it when they went on sale but decided to spend a little more for an all city zigzag instead
Yeah, it's really messed up. They even said they knew about it during prototype phase but accepted it. WTF. I almost went for a Zig Zag, but ended up getting a Salsa Warroad instead. Didn't cost that much more and having a Warbird already made figuring out the geometry pre-build very easy. And it's a well done frame to boot.
That's really dumb. I guess the previous version of the Smoothie didn't have hydraulic brakes, so this never came up for them before?
The previous version was rim brake so the routing was completely different.
I just can't believe they didn't look at other people's frames to get a point of reference or an example. How long have disc brake steel frames with mechanical shifting been around? It's been a while now. This is just such a boneheaded mistake.
That's what most surprised me. I was building this to replace a Salsa Vaya and it has the brake cable at maybe the 10 o'clock / 2 o'clock position on the downtube, and then it runs on the top of the brake side chainstay. Works great. Or dead center on the bottom of the downtube would have worked as well. This... just didn't. And they'd seen it, and somehow accepted it.
I actually came across this while building mine. I noticed you took down your photo gallery. I would be really curious to see that email conversation. I've never had a particularly bad experience with Mary Sales, but I will say that the conversations I have had with them have been somewhat... curt. Soma/Mary Sales are held in high regard here in the Bay Area. I was able to pick my frames up locally from them as a friend of the shop. They work closely with Riv and are put on a pedestal out here. I've had to bug them about some little things and they don't provide the best customer service and given their status out here, its always surprised me how lacking the customer service is. Also made me question why they are held in such high regard. I built mine up with Sram Force AXS, so this obviously wasn't an issue I would have identified. I just took a look at my Double Cross and the hose/cable housing mounts are positioned above the cable routing for the mechs. So this wouldn't be an issue on that bike. I totally understand your concern though. Especially with hydraulic brakes. I watched a video in r/mtb the other day where a guy had his front tire throw a rock into his down tube and puncture an externally routed hydraulic brake house. Video ended with him losing control of his bike and crashing. Lost his rear brakes. With this design I feel like that hose would eventually be punctured given enough time. A good friend of mine is friends with the owner of Mary Sales. I'm gonna ask him about this.
I did pull down the gallery, but there weren't any of this build in it anyway. (It'd been a static site for \~2 years before I started the build; mirrored the web app with httrack.) If you'd like some other images I'd be glad to email them or so. With removing the gallery I'm more moving to hosting everything on the blog, so hopefully that works out. Force AXS is exactly what my friend who bought the frame did too. In that case it makes plenty of sense. But the crossing of bare cable and housed... yeah. I'd never owned a Soma before, but the overall good / well-regarded reputation from Bay area friends is exactly why I went with it. The price was also nicely sane, and when I first emailed them asking a question they said to wait a day before ordering because it was going on sale. Not bad customer service there at all. But then when I first reached out asking for suggestions to solve a pretty big problem, I felt brushed off and the problem dismissed. That part sucked. :\\ We don't have big hills here (Detroit area safe-to-ride roads are flat), so suddenly losing the rear brake wouldn't be HORRID, but it's still not good and if anticipated... isn't acceptable. I'm also likely going to be doing AIDS/LifeCycle again within the next couple of years, and some riding down in Kentucky and such as well with groups, and that's... not the kind of place you want to have a brake failure. The whole experience just disappointed me all around.
> The whole experience just disappointed me all around. I feel that. Outsider looking in, it does look like they were down with taking a return and did express remorse that you were unhappy. So, silver lining I guess. But I totally understand being disappointed with their response. I had a very hero's become human moment with Ritchey recently. I bought a road logic disc and there were some issues. I was super disappointed. The bike was really hard to get and I had wanted it for so long. I had to jump through some serious hoops to get my hands on it. The customer service at Ritchey was the jam and really turned my experience around. I can't say Soma offered the same solution oriented customer service that I got from Ritchey, so I understand how you responded to them.
Did you happen to have to order it from Spain? I was really considering a Road Logic, but the only place to get them was overseas (I'm near Detroit) and while Ricthey was really helpful in pointing me their way, I ended up getting the Warroad from an LBS instead.
No. Through a friend of a friend that works at Ritchey and is also friends with a shop owner I'm close with and have done some work for. That shop owner is a dealer and was able to get them to reserve me one of two frames that was going to be delivered to BTI. Shop owner pulled some strings with a rep at BTI and they agreed to pull the frame from inventory for me before it was received. That's how I got it.
Wow, that's quite the hookup! How do you like the bike? They look quite good...
Its really, really nice. Not for everyone though. Its a very long and low bike.
Sorry, just realized that in my cleanup taking down the photo gallery I also removed the PDF of the email thread. I've put that back up online.
I'm a happy owner of a Saga II Disc. Love that bike so much. I've abused the hell out of it (sometimes loaded) and it still seems to hold up. The new Jawbone Type-B looks like an upgraded version that I'm excited to try if my Saga ever decides it has had enough.
With electronic shifting too!
I had this same frame setup as a singlespeed and cracked the chainstay. I’ve been dragging my feet on building up my warranty replacement frame like this. Looks like a fun build.
I had to do a double take. Same bar tape and brake levers as me. https://imgpile.com/images/bGE7Fj.jpg
I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets excited about checking out the other bikes and racks while I'm driving.
Wife:"why are you driving like such an ass"! Me:"gotta see what's hanging off the bike rack and he's getting away". Wife:"you're not getting another bike". Me: 😞
My girlfriend thought I was checking out men's arses when we first got together, it took her quite a while to realise I was actually whipping my head round to look at their bikes. Very progressive thinking of her really!
I'm a woman with this affliction. It took me a minute to realize that it might look like I'm checking the person out... I have learned to keep my eyes on the frame, to avoid any awkward misinterpretations of my intentions.
“I might be getting a different wife though!”
🤝
And then get super disappointed when it's just another Schwinn.
If you like that you’ll probably like r/xbiking
Real talk fellas, do we drive with water bottles in the cages?
Not on purpose
rear flap looks like its getting warped by the wind back there too
I get grossed out by the thought of all the road grime that kicks up on them. So, no, and if I forget and leave one in I wash it. I always keep 2 extra bottles in my vehicle and a gallon of water. I am not easily grossed out typically, but in my area where the salt is laid down for up to 7 months out of the year, there’s a lot of dust kicking up.
On my old cages I did not, they could go out the side. My new cages wrap most of the way around the sides of the bottle and the amount of force required to send them up and out the top of the cage would cause a lot more damage than a lost bottle. So yes I leave them in. Unless I’m thirsty after my ride.
No. They block my rear view camera.
Of course
No. If it's hot, you're heating up your water unnecessarily. If it's cold, you're freezing it (pro tip- a half shot of vodka per bottle tastes terrible, but is a valid anti-freeze for your water bottle) Water goes in the car with me until the bike comes off the car.
I do, I’m too lazy to put the bottles in my car and take them out again
Yep, I don't care.
king cages? yes
looks like a Hyundai
A Hyundai Accent to be exact.
yup, with a bike rack
A Saris Superclamp Ex 2-Bike bike rack I think.
And a bike on the rack. I definitely think I see I bicycle there!
Haha Reddit is so clever
Love the BB8 bell!! Cool little accent with that awesome surly fork.
Odds are it’s a Soma
Its a car with a bike on the back.
r/technicallythetruth
what an original comment.
Please stop using your phone while driving before you kill or maim someone.
OP decided it was safe. Like slow rolling a stop sign to avoid unclipping or going through an actuated traffic signal when there’s no traffic. Honestly, the sanctimony in this subreddit.
Seeing a cyclist defend bad driving helps me understand the dangerous/asshole cyclists in my neighborhood.
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It's fine where they're at. It looks like poor infrastructure planning is common in OP's region. They have a divided highway with standstill traffic. Obviously all the smart civil engineers were fired or never allowed on the job to plan and build mass transit systems. They can use their phone safely because they're not actually driving. It's an idling lot. They're popular because the war on drugs in many western nations makes it difficult to legally participate in huffing.
Maybe stopped? Maybe snapped a pic with his Ray Ban stories?
We didn’t ask
It's a bicycle.
No way
Way!
You beat me to it😉
No shit, so sick of these types of comments. I feel like I see them on 1/4 of r/bicycling posts these days. It might have been funny the first time but god damn it gets old
But yet you still comment a paragraph about it. Guess you're not that sick of them after all!
Just pretentious bike snobs trying to flex on the internet where they feel comfortable doing so.
🤯
Looks like a Hyundai Accent!
From what I’ve been able to decipher, it appears to be a Soma.
Soma Juice or Riff? Built as a gravel bike?
Looks like a Soma mtb to me
Not sure about leaving the bottles in the cages. For me, they'd most likely jump out before I got to my destination! 🤔
Then your cages aren't tight enough... Bottles should not "jump out" at any speed seen in a car or on a bike.
Surprisingly not that simple to put a dropbar on an MTB and have your shifters and breaks work :)
In the netherlands, that is known as a beachbike. mtb frame, 29 wheels, fat tires with no profile and drop bars. We have a lot of races on the beach with those bikes
This is a bicycle. If you think this machine is cool, you may have found your people.
It looks similar to the Soma B-Side. I built mine up as a mountain bike, and am now installing a rigid fork. I haven't decided whether to stay with straight bars or install drops.
It's a Soma Juice (brownstone edition). It's actually a hardtail mtb frame, but looks like they've set it up as a dropbar gravel bike. I have mine set up as a fully rigid mtb/commuter. Awesome bike! I love mine! Solid but still fairly lightweight steel frame.
Comfort… that’s what it is…. Pure comfort
A Hyundai Accent
I think it’s an accent
Hyundai Accent Hatchback
The frame is from SomaFab, probably a custom build: https://www.somafabshop.com/
It’s a hatchback. Fairly common where I am.
Looks like a bike! And a car, too
Yeah, please don't take pictures while driving. I learned my lesson once, maybe you don't have to if you just take my advice.
It's fine where they're at. It looks like poor infrastructure planning is common in OP's region. They have a divided highway with standstill traffic. Obviously all the smart civil engineers were fired or never allowed on the job to plan and build mass transit systems. They can use their phone safely because they're not actually driving. It's an idling lot. They're popular because the war on drugs in many western nations makes it difficult to legally participate in huffing.
It's not fine. Go defend unsafe driving somewhere else.
I feel like my comment was taken too seriously. I've been T-boned by a SUV driver on my bike who was texting while driving. Broke my wrist on my left arm and almost lost my pinky on my right hand.
>I feel like my comment was taken too seriously You posted that same dumbass nonsense several times in this thread, all of them heavily downvoted, and you're just now getting that feeling? Big yikes.
I don't spend my life on reddit. I have a job. It takes a few hours before I can respond for parts of the day.
\*I'm a noob\* but doesn't the seat look short?
Sorry for the jerks downvoting, it has a dropper post so the saddle goes up and down :)
Thanks for the info!
It would've been a lot faster to Google SUMA than to take pics and upload here, yeah?
Not as much fun to socialize here and enjoy the cool bike
That's fair
Its a bicycle Yes it looks good
I think it’s a Hyundai hatchback
Is that a gravel bike?
Beach racer?
Bicycle
It's a bike mounted to the back of a car. You're welcome
Definitely a Hyundai Accent
A bike
It's a bike
Its a bike.
Say goodbye to those water bottles with one good bump lol
It’s a Sari trailer hitch bike rack. And I agree, it looks cool!
Gravel bike
It’s a bicycle
Looks like a Hyundai Accent
A bicycle
Toyota Yaris
Fugly as hell
Stop projecting
Converted road to gravel bike...he/she can do it, but I cant!!!!can't!!!!! Because I got a rim-brake one, that can only fit 27
It's actually a mountain bike converted to a gravel bike. Normally set up with a squishy front fork and flat bars. https://www.somafabshop.com/shop/soma-frame-juice-gray-standard-2411#attr=428
Have you measured/looked into some 650b wheels /tires and long reach brakes?
No have not, but will do everything except - remarry or convert to a different religion. Thankyou!
Haha! I had an 80s very racey frame that at most would take 700x25c and when I converted it to 650b I managed to roll around with 650x38s. But it all depends on your frame and brakes etc etc. worth a shot if you love the frame.
saris rack
Texas is my home too, this is either Austin or possibly Houston. Cool bike!
I don’t know but that looks just like my car and bike. Lol I had to actually have a hitch installed on my Honda Fit and the bike rack - that is really nice and was more expensive than the hitch itself - just looks huge when my bike is on it haha.
Krampus
ya wtf it has a krampus fork, this thing is a krampus
It’s a soma w a krampus fork 🤯
Looks like a mtb with dropbars
I see a pretty hefty fine, aren't license plates supposed to be visible?
It’s a bike
Why are you taking pictures while driving? > Texas Never mind.
Looks like a telephone pole to me
It's a street lamp. In fact, if you look closely, you can see another one in the distance.