CastIron

U-G-L-Y.

As to the concept: Close, but no banana.

Danre

Slope!

novacommuter

Complete overkill for a commuter, unless your commute takes you 30 miles each way through the boondocks, over logging roads, in intense heat, in the rain, at night. Oh, and while carrying a load of tools a NASCAR pit crew would envy.

Methinks the extra water bottle holders could be useful for some monstrous lighting setup using the bottle holders for batteries while still leaving enough room for hydration.

Donkey Hodie

So what about this bike don't people like besides the sloping top tube and 2000 dollar price?


It definitely comes with nice components.

HardyWeinberg

You know what that bike needs? A Rohloff.



Well, and Ape-Hanger bars instead of drops to really go w/ that headtube angle.

CastIron

Tubeset and ambiguous function. Looks more like a design exercise than something useful. Perhaps a park ranger rig or some other highly specialized task.

tate65

I still think (see my post from last week on the bike) that this would be great for weekend tour/camping/MTB trips you could ride to you favoriate trail, camp and ride the trail, or if your lucky enough to have a epic trail you could ride to it ride parts during the day, and camp along the way. All with one bike. Overkil for commuting yes, but if you only want 1 bike to do it all this would be it. On or off road, weather be damned.

kvojr

It isn't designed as a commuter, it's designed to be an off-road tourer. The extreme sloping top tube is to allow for the drop bars without spacers and high rise stems. This to me is purely a funtion over form bike, perfect for it's intended purpose.

HardyWeinberg

I don't see it as meaningfully different from a Karate Monkey, yet w/ goofier geometry. I know the KM has no rack braze-ons but there are lots of workarounds for that.

Danre

No doubt that it was built with a specific function in mind. I bet it's one hell of a nice off-road tourer, as well. The bike is just so....extreme, that one has to make a comment.

nowheels

It looks almost like my old El Mariachi .... but with a drop bar. Not sure I'm buying into this one.

JonathanGennick 

I'm geeked out by the new Fargo. Except maybe for the drop-bar, it's exactly the bike I've been looking for these past few weeks:

* Drop-dead simple fender install - check

* Easy rear rack install - check

* Ability to run high-volume, 29er tires for comfort and safety - check

* Can run my Nokian Extreme 294 29er studded tires in winter - check

* Clearance for fenders on those big tires - check

* Won't fall apart when I run it up and down curbs - check

* Will stand up to rough pavement, potholes, fireroads, being slammed into uneven slabs of pavement - check

* Disk brakes - check

* Able to stand up to most singletrack where I live - check

I've never had drop-bars before, but am willing to give them a go in return for all of the above. And lately, on my longer rides I've begun to see the utility of drop bars for their added hand positions.

I am very excited by the Fargo. Roads where I live aren't all nice and smooth, and I don't like to stay on them anyway. I would probably destroy a road bike by riding it up and down curbs. Cyclocross bikes would hold up better, but still lack air volume in their tires, and they won't accept my Nokians. With the Fargo I can mount high-volume tires for comfort, and I'll have a bike that can wallop all the bumps my area roads have to offer, and no worries either if I run off the road.

Boston Commuter

Who could possibly drink that much water?!? or wait, maybe you put your luggage in the bottle cages on the front fork, since it doesn't look like you could support front panniers on that rack?

Donkey Hodie

Thats just a small nitto rack. The racks in the picture are not included. I assume any front pannier rack can be attached to the fork. I think you can see more braze-ons for it in the picture if you look closely.

Boston Commuter

OK, then -- with a sturdy front rack, plus fenders, etc., this would look like a bike for third-world loaded touring. Then you'd need all the water you could carry.

bdinger

The Fargo is my next bike. With it, my LHT, and my soon-to-be-xtracycled Hardrock (winter project), three bikes that can go anywhere. I've been wanting a 29er, so this is flipping perfect. Great work, Salsa!

stripes

This thing looks like an awesome adventure bike. I've been looking for a go-anywhere touring bike for awhile, and I think this is it. It just vaulted to the top of my list, ahead of the LHT and WAY ahead of the raleigh sojourn.

Who cares about the sloping top tube. I'm going to be riding the thing, not ogling it.

sinner

One of the ugliest bikes I've ever seen uke:

juggleaddict

i think i'm in love <3 this is the bike for the tour, besides, imagine all the fun you could have mid tour, take the bags off, and hit some of the best trails in the country! what if you don't want to take the mule down the side of the grand canyon?! take the fargo!, this looks like a magnificent bike, not fast, but that's not it's intention either.

RAPIDCITYRACER

How can anyone think this is ugly? If you do, than this bike was not marketed to you in the first place. One guy in my shop and I are just drooling over this bike and cannot wait for its arrival in February. This is not just an off road bike. The previous post running through the checklist of features he was looking for hit them all on the head. If you live in a snowy place (Buffalo) and want to run tires to deal with the winters you need to have a frame that allows you the clearance for wider tires. Bravo. I will be switching my beloved Crosscheck for this frame.

littlefoot

It's complete overkill, I admit when I first saw it I thought, hey this is kinda cool. It's almost like the evil polar oppisite of the xo bikes Grant Peterson was doing at Bridgestone in the early 90's. Well I ragged on those back in the day now I ride one, so who am I to say. Application as a offroad tourer far as I see, still isn't gonna be able to handle real singletrack loaded, but then again most bikes can't. I'll stick with my xo-2 till i can get my Waterford custom done someday. As a commuter? maybe if you haul large amouts of fluids to work...cassarole is a far more suited machine to commute on in my opinion. Fargo is like the 'spruce goose' of touring bikes.

Ken Wind

This is the perfect commuter for those that need the option of carrying panniers and using large tires. I see this as a more practical/mainstream Surly Pugsley.

knobster

I think this would be a great commuter and touring rig. Put a low rider rack on the front and some 700x32's on there and you're good-to-go. The water bottle mounts are kinda interesting. I can understand the 3 that you would normally see on touring bikes, but the one's on the fork and one near the head tube are unusual. The one near the head tube is pretty useless for a water bottle, but might be great as an accessory item like a light battery. The one's on the fork might get in the way if you had paniers, but maybe they'd fit behind them ok.

I like this type of bike. Shows some good thinking and listening to their customers.

fuzz2050

I kinda wonder why this is in the commuting forum at all. If you commute is under 3 days, and you don't carry a tent and sleeping bad, it is almost certainly overkill. When I finally get around to dropping out of college and bike touring the world, this is the bike I would take, give or take.

It's not a cross bike, it would probably be lousy for racing, not to mention disks make it uci illegal.

It's not really a commuter either, as I said, way overkill.

it is a hard-core expedition tourer, and is rather well suited to that. It has a sort of rugged ugliness that endears me to it. I don't think I could ride it properly if if I bought it, neither could most people on their daily commute.

positron

meh, ugly as sin.
stupid straight blade forks.
Doesnt do anything my vintage 700c allrounder or 26 inch touring bike cant do better.

Ill wait for the second iteration to get excited, but i really dont see how this is anything novel or exciting, aside from the 'novelty' of rather useless waterbottle brazeons... if you really need that much water, its much easier to use a MSR drom bag.