Originally Posted by
Ryder1
The Salsa has fatter tires, a steel frame, longer chain stays, and taller front end. Very different bike. Less racy, more comfy, more off-road friendly.
If you don't have Salsa in your area, there are gobs of similar bikes like the Kona Rove or Sutra, Specialized Sequoia or AWOL. Raleigh has a whole fleet of them!
Yes -- they are totally different bikes. For me, I like to understand what aspects of the design make a bike "less racy" etc. Obviously test-riding is important, but that works better for me if I can understand why a certain bike feels a certain way. The folks at the LBS can rarely explain that to me.
I've found a couple of bikes locally that I'll test ride in the next couple of weeks at the shops. I'll check out Soma, All-City, and Kona. And I watch Craigslist and hope that Raleigh puts up the Tamland again for $799 like they did a few months ago. Plenty of time and plenty of options . . .