new builds

this is long, but a shocker.

i almost ALWAYS build my own bikes and here is why.

this new Soma is to replace the below pictured green Soma that has given me nothing but headaches and broken bones. below is is the thread detailing my experience with the previous bike.

NOW I just noticed that the dish on the front wheel that i pulled of the green Soma for this new one is off by about a cm. I thought, "great the new fork isn't straight."

So, like any normal human, i pull another wheel down and put it in the fork and it was centered. This means the FUCKING shop that put together the bike i am replacing with this one re-dished the front wheel to sit center in the fork. Which means the fork wasn't straight and they didn't tell me OR reach out to Soma for a different fork. i'm pretty pissed off.

Why am i so pissed off?

For the past year, I've always looked down at the fork and thought "that doesn't look straight" and never made much of it because the wheel was centered. Now i see the fucking wheel was re-dished. The said previous green Soma (pictured below) has given me nothing but trouble:

• 50 miles into the first overnighter, i lost 4 of 5 crank bolts and had to limp to the nearest shop in hill country in a big ring.
  
• 75 miles into the same overnighter BOTH brake calipers loosened
  
• the handling of the bike has been so poor that i've crashed on it three times almost inexplicably mid high-speed corner. in fact, the bike was bat-shit crazy in corners. two of these crashes have laid me up, the last one i ended up in the hospital. Here is thread detailing two of those crashes that i thought were just because the bike was low trail and i was riding way too aggressively.
  
  

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/388054/

In fact i called Soma just to lament over my regret at buying a low trail bike... Literally just to chat.... and they were so unbelievably receptive that they sent me this new frame at a fraction of the cost. I never would have expected that and now i see the fork was faulty.

all of this can be chalked up to the shop that assembled the bike. loose shit everywhere in the first 100 miles, and a faulty fork that was ignored.

You might say, well if the wheel is centered then it shouldn't affect handling. And you might be right, unless fork was so faulty that the trail badly affected or who knows what. and franky the laziness of the shop is intolerable.

good on Soma. they're getting a call from me with praise. outstanding customer service.

the shop is getting a call from me today also.