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Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate something special, the 30th anniversary of Paul Component Engineering. Paul is a close friend, and when asked to come down for the weekend, tickets were booked quickly and preparations began in good faith.
I arrived with a crew from Salsa Cycles a few days before Grinduro Japan was set to go down. With the impending storm putting a slight damper on the length and rideability of the course for the weekend, I started to look for some alternative riding in the immediate area around the mountain. While the mountain offered plenty of dirt roads, they remained forested-in which didn’t do the Japanese landscape justice. On the map, I noticed that the coast wasn’t too far away and would be a big ole descent for most of the way. Once we secured some fellow folks to shuttle us back from the beach in our rental cars, I got to work cobbling together a GPS track for us to follow. I connected the small bits of off-pavement and tried to string them together with bike paths as well as a visit to a city park that had a castle, duh. Lets go to the beach!
In 2015, I was able to partake in the launch of the Cutthroat, Salsa’s Tour Divide Race Bike, a unique drop bar 29er and since then, I’ve had zero contact with it. That is until I unboxed the brand new 2020 Cutthroat, which is full of new updates and boy is it a long list. While I plan on reviewing this bike in more detail further down the road, I wanted to give you a look at the new model on its launch day. Read on below for a first look at the new Cutty.
Santa Cruz has no shortage of bike shops. This sleepy little beach town might be known for its surfing and pesky vampires, but the road and mountain riding is exceptional. With a myriad of dirt and paved roads snaking their way through coastal redwoods, and dusty, steep mountain bike trails, any cyclist can spend days upon days exploring the terrain. Spokesman Bicycles is one of the powerhouse shops in Santa Cruz and just recently opened up what they’re calling Outpost on the West Side of town, right next to their friends Sawyer and Co, a surfing lifestyle shop.
Salsa just announced their 2020 steel bike lineup including the Apex 1 Fargo (pictured here), GRX 600 Vaya, and Sora Marrakesh. From rugged bikepacking to all-road touring and bikepacking, these models are staples in the Salsa lineup, with their limitations being how long you can take off work for a tour. Head to the Salsa Blog to see more details.
After much speculation, Salsa has announced their complete fat bike lineup for 2020, redefining their three flagship models and fine-tuning their performances. With the Beargrease you can expect a race-ready geometry, a Mukluk is for winter exploration, and the Blackborow is a long-range tourer. Head on over to Salsa for the minutiae and your local dealer to see these paint jobs in person.
In response to this year’s Tour Divide controversy, Salsa just announced they have terminated Jay Petervary’s contract:
“Dear Adventure Community,
Some of you may be aware of the public debate of rules surrounding this year’s Tour Divide. While we appreciate a healthy discussion, we were disappointed by the behavior of Salsa Cycles sponsored athlete Jay Petervary. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to end our sponsorship agreement with Jay.
We would like to make clear that our decision was not based on the Tour Divide rules, nor the interpretation of those rules. During the conflict that surrounded this year’s Tour Divide, Jay’s conduct simply did not align with our brand values of empathy, community, and positivity.
Over the years, Jay has been an important partner for Salsa Cycles in supporting and growing Adventure By Bike. We wish him the best in his next adventure.
Sincerely,
Salsa Cycles”
Please, if you are going to comment on this, keep it civil.
Perhaps you remember this story from Salsa? I do! It all began with an inscription: “LIVE TO RIDE. RIDE TO DIE. MOUNTAIN BIKES FROM HELL!” Head to Salsa to immerse in this three-part photo epic.
Salsa hasn’t had a true road bike in their lineup for some time now. Sure, they have the Warbird, which is a gravel racing road bike, but with that, comes a more stable geometry with a longer wheelbase. The Warroad is a straight up endurance road bike, with two wheel sizes and multiple build kit options. Warroad is a new platform for Salsa, designed to take on chunky, imperfect asphalt, with what Salsa is calling their “Endurance Road Geometry.”
Snow in the High Desert
Hell, we need snow in the Southwestern United States, especially in what is called the Four Corners. All winter, riding plans have been put on hold for Mother Nature’s cool embrace as our landscapes get covered in a thick blanket of soil-enriching snow. With warmer temps, the crypto soil locks in as much moisture as possible, giving water to our desert flora friends. Needless to say, when it snowed over 14″ in Sedona I was a bit sad. You see, Salsa sent out an invite to ride in Sedona last week – to take on some of the best the area has to offer on their newly-designed trail bikes.
Salsa Cutthroat, Much More Than a Tour Divide Rig
Words By Spencer Harding, bike photos by Spencer Harding, with action shots by Locke Hassett
While I was able to finagle this incredibly snazzy bike solely for the purpose of reviewing a framebag on it, I figured why not squeeze a bike review out of it as well? First things first, I’m not a huge fan of riding drop bars and as I mentioned before I’m no ultra-endurance racer, which is precisely what this bike is designed for. So, I may be a fish out of water in that regard, but I think there is still plenty of potential in this bike for us humans who enjoy riding less than 200 miles a day and more than 2 hours of sleep a night. At face value, this bike is fast, when you point this thing down a dirt road and put some muscle into the pedals it fucking moves, it doesn’t much care for going slow. When using a combination of the magtank 2000 and two stem caddy style bags, the bike actually couldn’t turn sharply at low speed, but this bike was designed to haul ass on the Tour Divide, not make low speed technical turns. Lets delve into the specifications and all that jazz…
There’s something about a classic track bike that makes me get a little trigger happy with my camera. While I was in Tucson for New Years, I swung by Cicli Noe, a small bike shop in South Tucson. I’ve met Noe before over the years at trade shows and the like, so I was stoked to see his shop. As soon as I walked in, we began looking at his collection of vintage frames, including this gorgeous US-made Salsa track bike, with a full Campagnolo Pista group.
Noe exclaimed how he used to have it on display at the front of the shop but later decided to put it in his storage area. This bike is mint. Everything is perfect on this bike. My main question comes down to who made the bike? Ross Shafer built Salsa Cycles frames in the USA, but so did Waterford. Now, Ross was best known for his mountain bikes. I’m sure he built road frames too but track bikes? That’s news to me. Perhaps one of you reading this article will have a better idea.
We’ll look more at Cicli Noe next week, with a recap gallery from Tucson but for now, I wanted to give you this bit of eye candy to feast upon.
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Follow Cicli Noe on Instagram.
For 2019, Salsa revamped their all-road lineup, making some of the most capable bikes even better. Check out three of our favorite models and their upgrades below and see more at Salsa!
This video offers a glimpse into the life of Salsa’s team riders Eszter Horanyi and Scott Morris as they travel the country, shredding trails by way of their home, the Scamp.
Joe’ DKXL Prototype Salsa Cycles Warbird Carbon
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk
Joe’s proto Warbird has taken what Salsa has learned from their athletes and staff to refine what was already a fast gravel bike and give it some new features. The fork/frame is all new but with added versatility like dynamo routing in the fork, fender mounts, and a much cleaner Di2 setup.
Joe has already raced the DKXL aboard the new bird, proof that the new bike is ready to rip some gravel. This bike doesn’t just look fast, it is, but stays comfy over the roughest of b-roads thanks to the 2nd generation updated vibration reduction system. Aside from the entire suite of SRAM parts, including Zipp wheels, and SRAM Drivetrain and Brakes, the left lever can operate his dropper mid-race if needed making this, the most capable Warbird yet.
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Follow Jarrod on Instagram. and Salsa Cycles on Instagram
It doesn’t matter if you’re in a snowy region, or like bikepacking in the desert during the winter, having a good, lightweight fatbike will provide hours upon hours of entertainment. Salsa just announced their new fatbikes for the year, including this wild Beargrease, with a series of Razzle-inspired paint jobs. Head to Salsa to see more.
Deane, Sam, and filmmaker Dylan ride across the Main Divide of the New Zealand’s South Island, via the Harper Pass Route, loaded down with a week’s worth of supplies.
Out of the blue, Salsa Cycles announced the arrival of the new and improved titanium Fargo, with a Firestarter 110 fork. These frames are veritable do-it-all pack mules, offering a variety of cargo solutions for just about any excursion you could throw at it. See more details at Salsa.
