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03-20-24, 08:33 PM

#23

Trakhak

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Quote:

Originally Posted by rekmeyata

The 014A tubing was associated with Soma Fabrications ladies Olympiad bike frames made in the early 70's as a low-end bike, the tubing was made by Ishiwata, it was their lowest end tube set.

Soma Fabrications, the modern San Francisco-based company, was established in 2001. Entirely separate company. (They mention in one of their blog posts that they'd been in business for two years before someone sent them a photo of one of the earlier Soma bikes. When they started their business, they were unaware that there had been a previous line of bikes with the same name.)

I think the earlier Soma bikes, bought from Kuwahara and wholesaled to bike stores by Shofer's, Inc., didn't appear in the market until the late '70's. I could be wrong about that, but I've never seen one from earlier than about 1978 or 1979.

I'm sure they were discontinued by 1983 at the latest.

Thanks for mentioning the Olympiad. I'd been trying to remember the name of the entry-level model in what I believe was a three-model lineup. Olympiad, Sport, Cosmopolitan.

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