Well, my main problem is that I don't have the bike, the racks or the panniers yet so its all just hypothetical... I will unfortunately not get a test ride on the bike I'm looking at because it lives in your neck of the woods (bay area) and I live in Toronto! However the frame is my size and if the deal is good enough I can sort out fit issues later and I have been reccomended the frame by a few people. Were I to get the tubus logo rack with special adapters that you reccomend I think that would probably make up for the 2.5cm shorter chainstays on the Soma... Who knows!