Soma Speedster

I am very sorry to report that my husband has found a workaround. He thinks we can use something as a spacer -- a big nut, or something -- and that will work.

Okay, I'm not sorry at all. Back off my beautiful bike, you vultures! Heh.;)

Oh, that's great! (I guess.)

Wow. This bike is so smooth! I finally got my first ride today and it is pretty awesome. Totally different from my Bianchi, much more comfortable but not as fun to ride. Super stable, even on muddy leaf-strewn streets after a rain storm.

Still haven't worked out how to attach the trailer but we will make it happen. As soon as the bars are wrapped I'll post a picture. (We are deciding between black and tan bar tape because I am deciding between a Vitesse and a Brooks B17.)

This has really been a nightmare. Do any of you even remember that I was first going with a Smoothie ES but when the frame finally came in (after months) it was dented?

The Speedster is built but my husband has taken it on a couple of test rides and has not been happy with the way the headset feels. He took it apart last night and determined that either the headset was installed incorrectly (we had that done by the shop where we bought the frame) or the head tube was not cut straight.

Arrrggghhhhh. I really wanted to ride it this week. We got the trailer hitch issue fixed but back to the shop it goes. (We are probably taking it to our regular bike shop, not the one where we had the headset installed.)

I never came back to update this. The Speedster is completed and rides like a dream. I don't have any really good photos but here is my current rig:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3494/...6d93448b53.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3422/...6c4be2fa8e.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/...4ef16eceea.jpg

It's strictly a trailer-hauler ... if I am riding alone I ride my Bianchi. I don't have the vocabulary to describe the differences in how the two bikes ride, but the Bianchi is faster and more fun, particularly through turns, and the Speedster is more comfortable, more of a check out the scenery bike. Which is what I wanted. The tires are beefy enough to handle some gravel.

I have lots of low gears, which I need for the trailer on windy days. I love, love, love the shifting on this bike -- it's newer Campy Veloce than I have on my Bianchi, and shifting is so easy it feels like cheating.

You can't really see the crazy spacers we had to use to get the bars up as high as I wanted them. It was comfortable with the bars lower, but I wanted a very upright ride for pulling the trailer in traffic, etc., and the Soma has a really short head tube for some reason. It looks kind of silly but it is a great fit so I am happy with it.

It is a very pretty bike and gets lots of compliments. The downside is the saddle. I love my Fizik Vitesse but this one is squishier than the one on my Bianchi and it turns out to be really uncomfortable after fifteen miles or so. So I am going to try my Brooks on here if it does not mess up the fit too much.

Oh, yeah: Soma wound up using one of my photos with Penny and the Speedster. She refers to it as her bike, which is something I did not think I'd have to contend with for a few more years!