Soma is a small San Francisco company that makes steel bicycles frames. Check them out here. Really, they design the frames and have them built in Taiwan. They discuss this arrangement on their web site. If they didn't do it that way, I wouldn't have been able to afford one. From Soma, generally you just buy a frame and fork and build the bike yourself, or have someone put it together for you. I had Larry at Perfect Wheels build this one.
It was built as a touring, commuting, trailer-hauling machine. The DoubleCross frame is designed as a cyclocross frame, and it's great for a commuter, too. It has clearance for reasonably fat tires and fenders and it has plenty of lugs for attaching racks and fenders. Mine is set up with a triple crankset - it has three chain rings up front - and the gearing falls somewhere between a the low gearing of mountain bike and the high gearing of road bike. This one is 48-38-26. It works quite well.
I took this picture earlier this fall. You can sort of see my funky front fender and my dual headlights.
The fender I originally installed was a Planet Bike Freddy Fender. It worked quite well but I cut off the front of it just past the front brake so it would work better when I put in on the Seattle city bus racks. Later, in Michigan, when I installed headlight on the fork crown, the lack of fender at the top of the wheel meant I got crud all over my light. So I had this old plastic mountain fender that I attached to the upper front to extend it. The unexpected benefit was that it not only protects the light from road grime, but it stiffened the front fender and eliminated vibration that used occur on bumps. I've also added a white plastic flap to the rear of the front fender. This keeps snow from building up on the bottom bracket, and keeps my feet dry. It may look funky, but it's very functional.
The picture above was taken last winter after I got home from work one evening. The fork crown headlight is run by my a tire-driven generator. It's the least expensive dynamo unit from Busch&Müller. It uses a 6 volt 2.4 watt halogen bulb, and it puts out plenty of light for riding on dark roads at 15 to 20 miles per hour, even when there's oncoming gasoline-powered traffic using headlights. Check out Peter White Cycles to learn about these and lots of other cool, practical bicycling stuff. I'd like to get a hub generator, but for now this was all I could afford, and even then only because I happened across a highly discounted generator and light. The light on the handlebar is small LED battery light. I use it in the blinking mode most of the time just to help cars see me. I often use it when it's not really dark out, and I just want something to help call attention to me in dim light.
Pedals - Last year in the snow I road in my hiking boots, so I used Power Grips instead of clipless pedals. This year I'll try neoprene booties over my biking shoes and keep the clipless pedals installed.
The picture above shows my winter tires. Gotta love those carbide tipped studs. They work extremely well on slushy roads and solid ice. On the front I have Nokian Hakkapeliitta and the rear is a Kenda Klondike. I'd planned to get two Nokians, but there was only one available so I installed the Kenda on the rear.
The tail light on the rack is also powered by the generator. It's an LED light only. Both the headlight and taillight have stand lights, meaning they have a capacitor that stores some charge so that they stay on for a few minutes when the bike stops moving. The rack on the back is a super-hefty steel Burley rack that came with the Piccolo trailer. It weighs a ton, but I'm sure it will never, ever break.
The picture below is like a baby picture. It was taken in the back yard of the old rental house in Seattle when the Soma was brand new.
On my way home from work last night the Soma's odomoter had just reached 4600 miles. I'm very happy with it. I just hope the salty winter Michigan roads don't shorten the life of the frame.
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