Today’s Readers’ Rides comes from Bavaria, Germany. Benjamin walks us through his lovely SOMA Rush in detail below, in all its fixed gear elegance…

I want to show you (and perhaps you want to show it to your reader) my own built fixed gear Soma Rush. After building up an old Raleigh Eclipse Reynolds 501 as my daily bike in 2013 and buying an On One Pickenflick in 2019 which is now my favorite and hopefully eternal Gravelbike (only the frame, fork, and the Sram Force 1 groupset from the original bike is still existing and they sold it as a Cyclocrossbike, but the 47mm Terravail Rutland say definitely it´s not cyclocross anymore), I wanted to build up a new bike which allows me to ride a familiy-friendly and useful fun bike :-D

So family-friendly was the most important aspect in building up the new bike because having two children (our second child was born last Saturday) means that there is little less time for gravel, but more time for riding a bike on the side of my wife with her electric Tern H9, which also transports our two children, and the thought was that this would be much fun riding it with a fixed gear bike :-). So consequently the result now is the Soma Rush with a useful Pelago Commuter Rack and a Velo Orange Mini-Rando Bag (it can store many snacks for our three years old sons and little daughter, and maybe some for the parents ;-)) and many other useful and sturdy components. So for maximum safety, the bike is fitted with a Safety Pizzetta, B+M front, and rear lights, and for finding the right way to the kindergarten in our rainy and foggy city, the Wahoo Roam navigates us, and if there is trouble on the road, the Spucycle Compact Bell is very useful too.

The crankset of the bike is a Sram S300 Courier (48T) and the sprocket is an 8 bar (19T), that setup is perfect for riding next to the Tern or cycling up some little hills in our city, and for maximum control, the Thomson carbon MTB handlebar works perfectly. The wheelset is made by DT Swiss (my Pickenflick was upgraded with DT Swiss GR 1600 and they are very solid, so I joined the T1800 for the Soma) and the tires are Conti Grand Prix 4 Season. Last but not least the pedals are Eggbeater 1 which allows me to wear my Mavic shoes, I also wear them riding my other bikes.

Specs:
Frame and Fork: Soma Rush 53cm
Handlebar etc.: Thomson Elite X4, Thomson All Mountain (inspired by Tacklocross, which is not really existing in Germany), Deda Spada
Seatpost: Thomson Elite
Grips: Esi Grips
Brakes: –
Saddle: Soma Tabo
Pedals: Crankbrothers Eggbeater 1
Crankset: Sram S300 Courier (48T), 165mm
Sprocket: 8bar (19T)
Wheels: DT Swiss T1800 with Conti Grand Prix 4 Season 28mm
Accessories: Safety pizzetta, Pelago Commuter Rack, Velo Orange Mini-Rando Bag, Wahoo Roam, Spurcycle Compact Bell

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We’d like to thank all of you who have submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared over here. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!