Soma Rush Winter Bike Refurb

I thought I might as well give this a page all to it’s itself … back in July I stripped down my knackered old Soma Rush fixed gear winter bike (post here) to ship it off for a ‘refresh’ ready for another few years of winter training abuse. Argos Cycles in Bristol (nothing to do with the catalogue chainstore!) did a wicked job of refurbishing the frame and turned it around in super quick time (see here) but since then I’ve been too busy to actually get around to building it back up…. Summer kind of came and went however in a two-week burst earlier this month and with it’s rapid departure I found the motivation to get this thing back on the road.

With a bunch of new parts plus the rather high spec wheels that used to be on my Condor Pista before it became my dedicated TT bike it rides like a new bike, as well as looking like one. The biggest change I suppose is that the old Super Record crank has gone, to be replaced with an off the self Stronglight Impact road chainset. It’s not intended for single ring/track use but in reality it’s perfect – it has no tabs on the inside of the spider so with just the outer ring there are no chainstay clearance issues, using it with a Stronglight 107mm bottom bracket gives as near as dammit perfect chainline with a 120mm spaced rear end and track hub, and perhaps most important on a training bike – it’s as cheap as an aging tart, but better looking. Mine came from Spa Cycles for £44 with 46T outer ring – perfect. Just as an aside the old Super Record crank isn’t in the bin, despite some 25yrs of service (it came to me second or third hand, or fourth…) it has now gone on to a new home on someone else’s fixie.

Anyway, here’s the pics, almost looks too nice to hammer again this winter (n.b I haven’t fitted the mudguards yet because it’s my least favourite job of a build… ). I won’t bore you any more with details but if you’re thinking about building something similar drop me a line and I’ll do my best to help you out ;o)