Thursday, December 16, 2010

Introducing the Soma Analog


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Our new 26" wheel cross-country trail bike doesn't feature any never-thought-of-before pivot locations. It doesn't have any acronyms tacked to its name. Its tubes don't have fancy bloated shapes. BUT neither does it require a mechanical engineering degree to explain how exceptional a ride it can be. While most bikes flaunt their technology (being "digital"), we search to bring out the soul of a bike ("analog").

The Analog features our time-tested spec of Tange Prestige double butted heat-treated CrMo tubing with modern XC geometry. It has a longer top tube than our Groove frame and is optimized for 100mm travel forks. We did put fender eyelets on, but we don't feel many of the buyers of this frame will use them. This frame is more about off-road fun than utility. We do want to point out the elegant Tange stainless steel Sliding Dropouts, which greatly simplifies your ability to change the build from single speed to geared. Maybe the look isn't as clean as using an eccentric bottom bracket, but they are a few grams lighter, plus this is mountain biking... how much do we care about clean?

We gave it a classic look with the panels and the blue we picked will look really nice with a Fox fork. (We are calling it "Pacific Blue" after that award winning TV show from the 90's.... with (hubba hubba) Paula Trickey and Mario Lopez) The ride is balanced and compliant and rides lighter than it actually is. It won't have the clunky overbuilt feel of some entry to mid-level steel bikes you might have tried.

Available to our distributors and shops next week.
UPDATE 12-21-10: Geometry is up.

3 comments:

bloaker said...

Seems very appealing! Where are the geometry numbers?

I love my baby blue groove.... but you never know when I will get the itch for something new...

Velocodger said...

'Way cool...and great big huge tires fit I bet!

Mark Barnett said...

Would love to see those sliding dropouts on the Juice!