New website…
January 11th, 2008 Posted in bikes, website
It’s good to finally make some progress with structuring my online space. First post on the new format, so why not celebrate with a new bike!
After numerous bike projeccts and not nearly enough focus on getting things done at home (that means I’ve been super lazy in far too much lately), I did manage to finish my new cross bike, a Soma Double Cross. It replaces a Jamis Nova I’d been riding for years, which was a favorite bike of mine, super dependable during its thousands of miles of abuse.
The Soma came about out of a hate of another bike I had for a year or two – a Merckx road bike. The bike just never fit me right, a little too big and long, and a little too aggresive for my tastes (I’m a scaredy cat when it comes to fast downhills on skinny tires). After 2 years of hanging in the garage, it had a whopping 600 miles on it, 100 of which came during the Elephant Rock ride. It was too much bike to not ever get ridden, so I tore it down to frame and fork, sold those, and had a nearly new mostly Ultegra 9 speed grouppo in a box. After a few months of moving it from place to place in the garage, I finally sold the Jamis and ordered up the steel Soma and a few parts I’d need to turn it and that box of parts into a working bike.
I did that months ago. Again, I’ve been very lazy for quite a while…
During the few days I was here alone while the family was in Olympia, I got back to work on it and finished it up on New Year’s Eve. Got out for a quick ride on the ice covered streets, and it felt pretty good. This weekend I got two more rides in. After a bit of fine tuning to the seat positioning and handlebar height, I think I’ve got a winner on my hands. It’s longer and lower than the Jamis, and from initial impressions it’s going to smooth out road and gravel and trail imperfections as well as any cross bike I could imagine building. I can’t wait for it to dry out here so I can get it on the local loop and come up with some more impressions.
