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Our Randonneur Frame Set Gets More Grand
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The Soma Buena Vista Honored with "Most Supple Bike of 2021" Title
The Path Less Pedaled is a YouTube channel and blog that has been showcasing the non-competitive side of cycling for over 5 years now. The channel focuses on gravel riding, bikepacking, bicycle tourism and just riding #partypace.In the strange year that was 2021, TPLP looked for unusual and unexpected bikes that could excel in gravel. And we were very happy that he asked to try one of our disc
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Cape to Kapp: Bicycle Touring in the Norwegian Winter
Teresie Hommersand grew up near Stavanger, a city known as the oil capital of Norway. She remembers eating supper every evening off plates with the logo of the national oil and gas company on them. Somehow she became the "green sheep" of the family. She has lived in Uganda, Oregon, and Australia. Learn more about her 13,700 km ride going from the most southern part of South Africa to the
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Crossing Off "Crossing the Arctic Circle" Off the Bucket List
Teresie Hommersand grew up near Stavanger, a city known as the oil capital of Norway. She remembers eating supper every evening off plates with the logo of the national oil and gas company on them. Somehow she became the "green sheep" of the family. She has lived in Uganda, Oregon, and Australia. Learn more about her 13,700 km ride going from the most southern part of South Africa to the
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Cape To Kapp: Reflecting on Sexism on the Road and Her Own Socialized Views on Gender
Teresie Hommersand finished her multi-year trek from South Africa to Norway this month to spectacular joy and feelings she couldn't quite put into words. She wrote this piece for us before that focusing on some of the things that pretty much wiped the perma-smile off her face and made her feel small and alone. Initially you wouldn't think this could not happen to a woman who has already braved
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Our Dream Riser Bikepacking Handlebar Gets Some Siblings
The original Dream Riser Bar hit a chord with bike packers and other riders with its comfortable 25° sweep, which not only keeps your controls away from a big handlebar bag, but just feels very natural. It also had an unusual 50mm rise to help get the bars up, which is sometimes better for all day exploration.The two new versions are significantly different.• The Dream Lowdown has a 20°
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Cape to Kapp: Prejudices Everywhere (Kindess Too)
Teresie Hommersand's recently wrapped here Cape to Kapp, finishing her ride at the North Cape in Norway. Four years in the saddle, across 25,000 kilometers, through 26 countries. Distance and time are just two of the measures of a journey. Maybe the most memorable parts of any journey are the people you meet along the way and Teresie has made so many friends and have had to rely on the kindness
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The Path Less Pedaled Channel Reviews our Grand Randonneur Disc Frame
Russ Roca's Path Less Pedaled channel embraces the non-competitive side of bicycle riding...especially touring and gravel riding.We sent him a 49cm partially built bike with gearing he is partial to on his rides in Missoula. We weren't able to get him a set of wheels, but Russ was nice enough to swap in DT Swiss set off of his personal Crust rig. The wider 50mm tires Russ used, the trail was
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Cape to Kapp: My New Definition of "Beauty"
Teresie Hommersand's recently wrapped her "Cape to Kapp" adventure, finishing her ride at the North Cape in Norway. Four years in the saddle, across 25,000 kilometers, through 26 countries. Distance and time are just two of the measures of a journey. Maybe the most memorable parts of any journey are the people you meet along the way and Teresie has made so many friends and have had to rely on
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The Smoothie HP: New "High Protein" Endurance Road Frame
Our Smoothie road performance frame model is as old as the Soma brand itself. It started out with a classic looking level top tube design and a curved unicrown fork. The tubes were a combination of Reynolds 631 and 4130 butted chromoly . It was an affordably-priced, solid road frame aimed at commuters as much as at seasoned road cyclists.First generation Smoothie. 2001Later iterations included a
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New Alt Bars: Soma Clarence II and Hwy 17
With long-distance gravel events and bikepacking continuing to gain popularity, Soma has decided to add functionality and comfort to two of their most popular handlebars, the Highway One and the Clarence.These bars will be sold with custom-designed extensions under the names Highway 17 and Clarence II.The extensions can be angled up/down just like other bar ends or extensions, BUT also allows
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The Soma Gullwing Bar: The Answer to One of the Most Asked Questions on Bike Forums
There are inventions from the 20th century that - when you first look at them - you aren't sure whether they are super cool or a little wacky. The "gullwing" feature on 1950's era Mercedes 300SL is one of those inventions. Of course some of these 300SL's go for over a million dollars to collectors and then there is the Delorean and the new Tesla, so maybe cool has won out.The Soma Gullwing Bar is
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Meet the Adventure-Ready Soma Jawbone
Over the years, we at Soma have been truly amazed at how the modern bicycle has allowed all types of folks to travel the across continents and be immersed and mesmerized by the great outdoors even as much of humanity is often living in more and more in urban and suburban sprawl. Whether you enjoy the camaraderie of a weekend bikecamping trip or are hooked on doing week-long solo adventures, we
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2023 Colorways for the Soma Wolverine
New Wolverine 4.1 A-Type Build by Jon Bobel/Beat CyclesThe Wolverine, our gravel/monster cross model, is almost 10 years old!For its 10th birthday, we decided to bring back the popular Pumpkin Orange paint we introduced the model in. It just has a sunny, positive vibe that we always loved. The Pumpkin Orange is going on only the A-Type, non-belt-drive model that has adopted more modern hub and
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Adventure Cyclist Reviews the Soma Jawbone B-Type Bikepacking Frame
Northern California native Corey got a chance to review our Jawbone earlier in the year for Adventure Cycling Association's print mag for members, Adventure Cyclist.We don't want to print the whole review, but here are some highlights:The B-Type is for parts-bin tinkerers, single-speed devotees, and world tourers who may be attracted to the internal hub compatibility and the simplicityThe frame
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Our Riff Hardtail Frame Gets An Overdue Update
If you've known Soma Fabrications for a while, you know we don't go by model years.We don't want to refresh our frames every January just to say we have this new thing to plop in front of your eyeballs. We don't like being forced to adopt every trend or new standard either, some of which we feel is planned obsolescence. We think changing colors every year is basically making folks who just
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Introducing Rufus: Our New BMX Wheeled Mini Velo
We at Soma Fabrications made an attempt to introduce North America to the mini velo style of bicycle way back in 2010. Back then very few people here (except Mark V from Bike Hugger) were interested in mini velos or even knew what they were. Fast forward to 2024 and there is a mini velo Reddit group with 3500 members and Velo Orange as well as other designers have continued to push what mini
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Soma Rufus Mini Velo Bike Check
Just a quick dive into our first build up of a production Rufus frame set.This is just one way to do it. You can build yours up anyway you want.Bars: Nitto Higher Level 5" rise BMX'ish but aluminumStem: Soma Shotwell 90mmBrake Levers: Dia-compe SS6 short pullBrakes: Yokozuna Motoko Hybrid Hydraulic Cable Disc Brake, 160mm rotors. These are probably nicer brakes than you really need on this type
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15 Years of Mixte Bikes
The mixte bicycle has a history that isn't too well documented. As far as we can gleen from our internet research, it first made its debut in the Peugeot bicycle line-up in the 1940's. And they had mixte-type frames built up as city or light touring bicycles for decades (along with Gitane and few other French brands). They were sold only in France for the most part. Mixte style bicycles
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The Bike That Seduced Me Into Bikepacking
Catalina and her partner Jose Pacheco are currently bikepacking through some beautiful and remote sections of the High Andes in Bolivia. They are capturing their experience on their blog monteadentro.cc. The bikepacking bug has got them constantly seeking new destinations and routes. Starting in Valdivia, Chile, they have travelled over 10,000 km since October 2023 over varied landscapes that are
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