Fancy some adventure touring? Then Salsa have the bike for you, the Fargo – which incidentally gets Day one’s WTF! Award. What we have here is a rigid 29er mountain bike with drop bars, Avid discs, yes, drop bars, five (count ’em) bottle cages – extreme touring being thirsty work apparently – Shimano XT Deore drivetrain, Shimano bar end shifters, and Salsa’s own 29in wheels sporting WTB Vulpine 2.1in tyres. Sounds crazy, but it might just work. After all some of the early MTB legends raced bikes with drop bars, and although the absence of suspension might raise a few eyebrows it wasn’t that long ago the downhillers were racing on rigid steel steeds. And those big volume tyres are going to soak up a fair bit of trail shock. Steve Johnson from Salsa confirmed that it had been extensively tested in some very wild country over some very technical terrain and we could see that it might well have something to offer long haul expedition riders going to places where the roads might be bad to non-existent. It is steel so it’s repairable, although spare tyres might present a problem. You can see one in the flesh at the London Cycle show in October. In the US the Fargo sells for $1600, UK prices have yet to be confirmed.
Salsa Fargo
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@chrisonabike Mercedes was acceptable, but the second one (old Toyota people carrier/ex-taxi) was a prosecutable offence.
I wasn't saying that nor talking about people who say that. I said it was silly to claim that wearing a helmet indicates acceptance of dangerous driving and poor infrastructure. I choose to wear a helmet; I also regularly report dangerous driving to the police and correspond with councils and road authorities about ways infrastructure could be improved for cyclists. I rather doubt I'm the only helmet wearer who does so.
@JamieT (a pedant writes) she's a London Assembly member, not an MP.
@Rendel Harris ".....but the claim that wearing one is somehow to be accepting dangerous driving and poor infrastructure is silly." Not that silly. Demanding that cyclists wear a helmet is seen by many people as 'the answer' to cycling safety, so there's no need to put in infrastructure. The difference between infrastructure and helmets is that infrastructure works. Helmets are a distraction from what really works, and the more time we spend talking about them, the less time we spend on things that do work. Helmets should be consigned to the dustbin of history as a failed experiment, and we should cease even mentioning them.
@Mr Blackbird Hats off to George Hall My hat's not coming off- despite this touch of cycleway-washing, Hall still bears the Mark of Cain, until he repudiates his party altogether
Perhaps an article showing a) what is available in the uk as cargo bikes and) comments from real life scenarios from those already using bikes or cargo bikes as one gentleman has done in the comments. Perhaps road.cc could follow up with this. Even the London Assembly member said not every business should use cargo bikes but suggested a more nuanced approach suitable for certain trades or companies....
@mdavidford Clearly the end of the sentence got deleted by mistake and it's meant to finish "...devices in their pockets."
2 thoughts on “Salsa Fargo”
i like it
but i reckon it needs one or two more bottle cages.
re: i like it
you could get at least another four along the top tube