adaminlc

Maybe its just me, but it seems like Salsa become the new cool framebuilder. Not that one is better than the other, but one is cooler than the other. There for a while, you weren't cool unless you had a Surly. Now that brand seems to be Salsa. Anybody else notice this, or is Salsa finally getting its true reward for being a great framebuilder.

CliftonGK1

Salsa and Surly are both QBP brands. Maybe QBP is pushing Salsa more for 2009?

AsanaCycles

bingo

plus Salsa is more "fancy" for lack of better term
i mean... Surly is more durable, more utilitarian
while Salsa, is more "performance" oriented, with all those fancy carbon, this that and the other.
i think BMC is also part of QBP
so i guess, you could say Salsa is midpoint in niche between Surly and BMC.

while I would imagine that the crew at Salsa and the crew at Surly are separate, but under the QBP umbrella.

for lack of better analogy
i suppose

Pontiac, Buick, GMC

me?
personally?
I had a moto rapido, i sold it
I'm a Surly type... Pug, and Dummy
I'm not too hip on the new Fargo... thats just my taste.

i think the Casserole is pretty cool.
along with Pistola
Salsa has a bunch of nice stuff.
i liked my Moto Rapido for what it was worth, I simply decided to ditch it, and swap the parts over to my Hunter 29er.

bragi

Aren't Salsa and Surly both owned by the same parent company, QBP, in MN? I wouldn't be at all surprised if they weren't all made in the same factory in Taiwan, and maybe even designed by the same group of people back at the office. Or, if they weren't designed by the same people, then designed by people who know one another pretty well, since they work in the same building.

I'm also not sure if anyone has ever thought that either Surlys or Salsas were that cool. I bought a Surly last year because it was a solid, comfortable frame with decent components for a fair price, i.e., a really good bike for the money. Coolness was never part of the equation; if it was, I'd be commuting on something much less practical right now.

Abacus

Salsa Fargo is a cool bike. I'm seriously considering trading my 520 for one.

2mtr

Fargo...

these people just seem to be trying to think up the most out-there builds. disk only, sloping top tube, six water bottle mounts... that's just...

Abacus

Fixed.

lambo_vt

I've only ever seen a few Surlys and one Salsa in person. It seems like the only place either is considered a must-have frame is the BikeForums Commuting forum.

MulliganAl

I checked around Atlanta and no one seems to have either one of them to test ride. As soon as I've had a chance to test ride both I think I'll have my new commuter; I'm really liking that Salsa Casseroll a lot as my every day bike.

JeffS

I've always preferred Salsa. I guess more people did start talking about them more when the La Cruz and Casseroll came out. My Las Cruces still continues to be my primary ride.

I was recently complaining to Salsa though about the direction of their designs. The new, what I refer to as "dust cloud" look really bothers me. I believe it may have started with the Clif Con Crosso. Now it's on the Podio, con Crosso, as well as a number of their mountain frames.

It's really obvious on the Crosso though. I count at least eight "dust clouds" and the bike would look better with none. The old Crosso (green) and Las Cruces had a lot of stickers on them too, but it made for a nice looking two-tone look. The current bike just doesn't do that.

I like bright colors though, which is the reason I know about their bikes. A black podio, silver pistola, ginger beer casseroll all do nothing for me. I went so far as to buy a singlespeed Caseroll and convert it to gears to get what I considered a decent color (which looks much better in person than online). A lot of people have purchased one of their orange bikes in large part because of the color. For the people who like grey/brown/maroon, Surly seems to have an endless supply of blah lined up.

MulliganAl

I'm with you on that one, the Salsa line has some nice colors. The Surly colors never did much for me but they seem to make some fine bikes. If I ended up getting a Surly it would probably be black, but I do like that orange Salsa Las Cruces; better to be seen in downtown traffic.

Question, how would the Salsa Las Cruces rate against the Casseroll for commuting?

cbchess

Here in Richmond Va - TONS of people ride Salsa. Almost as much as the the big brands like Trek and Specialized. The Salsa frames seems to be very popular in the 29er mountain bike community. Surly is also a "go to" frame for cheaper but strong stlye bike. I've owned a Surly Pacer and it was a very nice frame that rode well.
I swapped it for a Waltworks 29er mountain frame.
I think the appeal of most of these frames is they are steel. Salsa make a few that are scandium frames which is an aluminum alloy.

Most of the surly frames are 4130 cro mo and most of the Salsa are true temper. Both are great "bang for the buck".

hartsu

I am not one of them, I buy LaCruz frame regardless of it color .
A little paint (), and i am satisfied . White is always cool.

fuzz2050

I know it's not for everyone, but the Fargo is a really awesome bike. How many touring bikes out there can double as a mountain bike. Sure, you can take just about any bike offroad, and you can have a lot of fun doing it (My fixed gear commuter gets as much offroad time as any mountain bike I own) but the limitations of your equipment are always on your mind. I'm always a little fearful when it comes to drops, lest I damage my rims, and mud is a major issue.

A bike that you could load up with your camping gear, bike for a bit, set up camp, then go for a ride on without having to fear doing damage would be really cool. About the only thing I can object to is the price, (ok, and it looks really funky)

AsanaCycles

the thing that blows my mind about the Fargo
is the bar-end shifters
and all the cable housing that is exposed
begs to be broken off
catch on things like small branches, etc...

and the barcon shifters, do not easily facilitate a very common/essential mtb move, that being, braking/shifting at the same time. i.e. down hill, slow, prep to transition into steep uphill.

props to Salsa for coming up with something new

i approached the idea from a different way...
https://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.ph...67#post5168467

but The Hunter 29er is a custom bike, and the price isn't the same...

the thing is with a touring bike
and especially being off road...
it needs to be built in such a way that it facilitates impacts, glancing by.
it doesn't take much

imagine a fully loaded bike, lean it against something, it rolls, maybe someone walks by, and it catches on their clothing, bike falls over, breaks off barcon shifter

or maybe a raccoon crawls all over your bike while you're sleeping, bike falls over, breaks shifter.

any of those kind of silly things, can potentially screw up your day

or maybe the bike falls over, and the bar slams into the top tube, and dents it... bike is loaded, a day later, the top tube crumples...

but thats just my 2cents...

i've done a bunch of touring
and a bunch of being in the dirt all alone with my bike.
anything that hangs out, anything that can get snagged, hard angles, sharp edges, none of that is good...

rather than "what touring bike can double as a MTB"
how about, "what MTB can double as a touring bike?"
and that... I'd say, a lot of 29ers can handle it, and just use Old Man Mountain racks.
take your pick of tyres... tons to choose from.

ok_commuter

Very nice. Hideous bars. I like it.

tcs

...specifier.

The romantic paradigm of Ernesto Colnago or Bob Jackson brazing the frame their name is on doesn't fit our modern world. Salsa frames are built in a generic Taiwanese factory - NTTAWWT.

tcs

JeffS

I'm someone who prefers to buy domestic product when possible, but the frame makers make it too difficult sometimes. You've got:

- the people with a 5 year waiting list
- the new guys you've never heard of (or the ones you don't know exist)
- the guys who don't normally build the kind of bike you want
- the ones who want $4000 for a frame
- the ones with junk websites *cough*waterford*cough*

Sometimes it's just easier to buy off the shelf. Even more so when you can buy one used.

JeffS

The Casseroll isn't on the road yet. I bought it on sale, but right as they ran out of '08 stock so I had to wait SIX months to receive it.

Shouldn't be long.