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Soma Portfolder folds up a more compact porteur rack to haul pizza, beer & more

Soma Portfolder folding porteur front rack
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The alloy Soma Portfolder rack is a bit of a city commuter bike transformer, mixing up the benefits of a wide platform porteur-style rack with the compactness of a front pannier rack.  At the push of a button you can support wide loads, or stash it out of the way for daily riding or to carry a standard pannier bag.

Soma Portfolder folding porteur front rack

Essentially starting with a basic front rack, the Portfolder bolts a wing on each side that swings up and clicks into place to roughly triple the size of the rack platform offering support for larger or fragile loads. Soma says it’s great for hauling pizza or paper towels. We are thinking of equally important goods like a crate of beer or some firewood for the campfire (and I would probably end up pushing its 22lb/10kg weight limit on several occasions.)

Soma Portfolder folding porteur front rack

The alloy rack is built with adjustable length stays to fit 26-29″ wheeled bikes (with 29er clearance up to 2.25″ tires) and is ideal for a 72° or slacker headtube. That means you probably won’t get it level set up on your track bike or road bike if those happen to somehow sport rack mounts.

Soma Portfolder folding porteur front rack

The tubular aluminum rack weighs 830g and has an extended platform 16″/41cm wide and 13.5″/34cm deep. Use it with a bungee net like in the video above for max versatility, or with many regular panniers when folded down.

Soma Portfolder folding porteur front rack

BTW, if you were lusting over that white mixte, it is Soma’s Tange chromoly steel, disc brake Buena Vista frameset selling for $600 with slider dropouts and a lugged fork. You know you need one!

Soma Portfolder Pricing & Availability

Soma Portfolder folding porteur front rack

Is this new Soma rack named because it is a folding porteur rack? Or is it because Soma’s president is named Jim Porter? You be the judge. Can we also take a second to appreciate that the VP of ‘The Merry Sales Co.’ that owns the Soma brand (founded by Edwin Merry in 1906) is actually named Mary Sales (and is Jim’s sister). End of industry insider naming discussions. That is all.

Soma Portfolder folding porteur front rack

The Soma Portfolder rack has been a development project for Soma for quite a while so it isn’t super new. But now it is finalized and available direct from Soma’s online store in matte black or satin silver for $150. Or you can order it from independent bike shops across the US and via a number of international distributors.

SomaFab.com

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Kovas
5 years ago

Wait… Wait a second.. So you’re telling me you can just buy this super cool rack, like right now? I mean, there’s no Kickstarter or gofundme campaign or anything? So Soma just went ahead and designed and manufactured and tested and distributed this thing without some sort of consumer funding campaign that would take 18 months? Crazy. What are they thinking.

Mario Arias
5 years ago
Reply to  Kovas

Is the future!!

King County
King County
5 years ago

Looks like a winner.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

how much weight can it carry? I’m quite interested in a grocery pannier setup, similar to the picture, but with a pair.

Kyle Pennell (@KyleAPennell)

I got a portfolder to go with my Grand Randonneur because I wanted to try basketpacking and front loading in general. Anyway, I used it for a couple weeks over 6 months and noticed one of the legs broke (the aluminum tubing). I definitely didn’t overload it.

I still love the company and the stuff they make but this waste of $130 was certainly frustrating.

how I had it attached: https://imgur.com/a/cMWi7mz

broken: https://imgur.com/a/kkG58XT

Simon
Simon
3 years ago

Can I still set this up on my bike if it only has the axle and crown eyelets and not the ones on the side of the fork? Could I maybe fix the middle mount to the v-brake mounts?

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