Bike Check: Piotr’s Somec Tempest
The Somec Tempest! Let’s talk about it! Already pretty uncommon as a road bike, it is even rarer as a track bike. Truth be told, I’ve only seen three in my life and that includes the two I saw online. It’s probably part of those “deviant” frames that were never intended for track use, but because an athlete or a very special customer asked for it, they made a fixed gear version. So today is a very special day! Even more so, because I used to own that bike (well, that frame at least) and ended up selling it without ever building it up.
So you can imagine how happy I am to see it again, and even more as a street shredding machine.
In the early 2000s, Somec was going absolutely ham on aluminum and ultra-light, ultra-stiff bikes. (Here is the link to their catalog for 2000.) The Tempest was based on the light and robust Zona tubing. These are the result of Columbus’s partnership with Nivacrom which led to creating a durable, yet lightweight tubing set with the addition of the very specific “diamond shape”.
Even though I didn’t sell the bike directly to Piotr, it ended up back in Paris anyway and with some serious character to it. Knowing that he has a quite similar vibe to me regarding how he builds his bikes, I had to make a bike check on it. To be honest, seeing it again and taking a few shots, I was kinda regretting selling it...And then I promptly remembered that you can only fit 23c on it so it wasn’t meant for me anyway.
When I first imported the bike from Australia in 2018, I had no info on it whatsoever apart from it being directly pulled out of a velodrome. And after two years of collecting dust, I finally asked Somec directly and did some research of my own. They couldn’t find anything and I made some hypotheses based on a few pictures I saw, but the precise story is yet to be determined. The easiest guess would be a custom frameset built for some American team of some sort. The eagles, the stripes, the little stars on the fork and those colors are not gonna fool anyone, it is as patriotic as it can be.
Detailed Parts List
Frameset
Somec Tempest
Chainring and Cog 48T Sugino Zen, 15T DuraAce cog
Crank 165mm FSA Carbon Track
Seatpost and Saddle
Thomson Elite, Flite Titanium
Stem and Handlebar
ITM Eclipse “Italmanubri”, Funn Fatboy
Wheels Zipp 404 with Zipp T2 Hubs
Tires 23/25c Continental Sprinter
With a mix of American, Italian, and Japanese parts, you could well imagine this bike as an Italian mafia dude, working for the Americans and armed with a Katana.
Let’s start with the drivetrain then. An FSA Carbon Track crankset paired with a Zen chainring on the front and a DuraAce cog in the back. I remember seeing those cranks when they were still produced and telling myself “there is no way this isn’t gonna start shredding itself to pieces after a couple of years.” Well, guess I was wrong! Piotr has been spinning these for a while now and they are still holding up.
For the wheels, we are on a genuine pair of 404s track with my personal favorite Zipp logo, laced on the now-infamous Zipp T2 hubs. If you one day decide to buy these hubs, just know that Zipp did a massive recall back in the day because they were quickly developing play between the shell and the bearings.
I also want to point out that beautiful Titanium Flite and how good they look when new but also after being used and baked in the sun for years. If there is a science on how to develop a beautiful patina on your saddle by rubbing your butt against it, please, let me know where I can find that book.
For the seat post, Piotr went for the reliable and discrete silver Thomson Elite, but pairing it with a Thomson X2 stem or something similar would have been such a waste considering how beautiful the 1” carbon fork is. So the stem choice had to be unique and SPICY. Needless to say that things are looking clean as hell with that ITM eclipse
I’m a big fan of “no-front plate” stems and I am begging for more!
Finally, the scratched-up Fatboy riser bar can complete the perfect “Slave bike” style of this build.
I wouldn’t say that it’s an easy bike to build, especially with all those colors and the wild amount of possibility they create. But Piotr made something pleasing to the eye with a lot of coherency and taste. To close on a few details, let’s appreciate that well-placed Hotline sticker, the OG 1” treadless Campagnolo headset, and how much of a mad lad you need to be to ride egg-beater pedals on a brakeless fixed-gear.
If you want to follow Piotr on some of his adventures but also his amazing photography, here is his Instagram account: @piotr_widelka. Hope you enjoyed this bike check, and I’ll see you in the next one!
