The Lunch Time Grind: Soma Juice...

The new Soma Juice I mentioned way back here. is finally done. Actually, it has actually been completed for a month or so. Thus far it has been mostly ridden around town and with the family 'trailer bike in tow', though it has also been on a couple Forest Park rides (Forest park is a huge urban park here in Portland. The trailhead is about 1 mile from my new office, so hitting the trails at lunch will become a sweet summer time activity). The first time in "The Park", I basically stayed on the dirt road that leads through it cause everything was pretty mucky. Today however I rode with a coworker (on a geared bike no less) and we hit the firelanes - Up firelane 1 to Skyline, down ~~firelane 2~~ firelane 3 and then down lower firelane 1 to hwy 30 and back to the office. It was still pretty muddy on the firelanes, but all in all worth it as I really got to get the feel for the bike.

I love the way it rides - I'm really not seeing much in the way of rear wheel drag (some people complain about 29er bikes feeling like boat anchors when you get them going). The thing climbs like a monkey on crack! I opted for a rigid carbon fork on the bike, so that definately makes it feel different, climbing is much much nicer...

Anyway, I'm stoked on the bike. A shout out to Stan @ Soma and to the guys at Cyclepath for helping me pull together all the missing components.