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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The pros and cons come from the reviewer, not the manufacturer. And they do explain in the review why they think the lack of MIPS could be viewed as either/both a positive or a negative. Less so with the shape, but it's easy to see how that could be considered a good or a bad thing, depending on whether it suits your head shape. If anything, it's a deficiency of the review template - that it doesn't have a section for something like 'other considerations' that aren't pros or cons.
Could always reduce the size of Pogačar - shrink him down by about half - that might level things up a bit.
Why is the Cube Litening Aero, The Specialized Tarmac and the Van Rysel RCR-PRo marked with a (TBC) pricetag but the Canyon Aeroad isnt considering the teams will no doubt ALL be riding the new as of yet unreleased CFR? The price of a currently superceded (as far as the pro peloton are concerned) looks cheap but its a 2 year old model. The new one is as unreleased as the other 3 bikes.
Wow, if anything shows the utter contempt for customers is this shower. A Gravel specific helmet. Really? Does it only work on gravel or do I need to consider swapping on those occasions I'm on tarmac? Gravel bike? ok Gravel tyres? Sure Gravel Helmet? You're taking the pi$$ now. But were that not ludicrous enough, I love the pros and cons: Oval head fit Not a mushroom No extra Mips weight Integrated and removable rear light Easily removable pads Oval head fit No Mips Buy it cos its oval but don't cos its oval, and the has and hasn't got MIPS is a +/- point. When will they introduce gravel specific bib shorts for reviewers who like to sit on the fence?
Bruyneel calls for UCI to stick to doing dubious deals - like the good old days, eh Johan?
Smaller teams in order to rein in the winning capacity of the only rider capable of making and sticking solo attacks from 80 km plus, not sure we've thought this one through, have we sir? The only way at the moment the team size could affect Pogacar is if you reduce the size of his team and let everyone else keep the status quo.
Maybe so, but I'm not clear how that leads to being a superhuman being part of the 'spirit of the ride'.
@mdavidford You don’t have to be a superhuman to ride it Riding up there, where there's generally only one road, as a tourist is going to be a massive-campervan-horrorshow since the whole route has been TikTok-ed. Unless you go in January.
This sort of box is not for the people who want to go touring (I used to take a bag and bury it as near as possible to the airport), but if I were to require this type this is the one I would get. My daughter's experience when cycling the Lofotens last year is that UK baggage handlers (in Manchester at least) are likely to be of the fashionable Mail/ Telegraph/ Clarkson/ Reform cyclist-hating persuasion and will destroy a bike if at all possible. Don't they just see this type of box as a challenge and simply put it at the bottom and hurl everything else on top of it? The comments of actual users above suggest that this is not always the case!
@mdavidford Whereas Kittelgrams are measured in retired German sprinters.

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