I have always been a bit leery of the whole love-at-first-sight camp but having just seen this new bike by Salsa, I have to admit that the old Monkee's song "I'm a believer" is starting to make all kinds of sense!
So, you may remember me considering various folders and small wheel offerings in a recent post and while I still think they have their place, I have not been able to find one that actually walked the talk. I'll admit that I'm not the average guy where bikes and touring are concerned, as all of my best memories of bike touring have been in the 100-200 miles a day zone and the further away such silliness as sag wagons are the better.
Mountain bikes with their various suspension systems have never quite felt right for me partly because it makes bags and panniers problematic but it always seemed to me that a well designed frame should absorb most shocks and that suspension for a bike used for hard touring was just too "mushy" with a load on.
Which brings us the the object of my affection which Salsa is aptly calling the Fargo (as in Go Far). No little toy wheels but 700C or 29" wheels and as I'm 6'5" there are all sorts of reasons that big wheels make sense. Throw in disc brakes and drop bars and you have a bike that really is a go anywhere machine.
Since we mentioned drop bars as being a good thing, which it is, it's just another example of popular opinion being way off base and for the life of me I have never been able to fathom where the whole drop bars are uncomfortable came from as one of the big advantages of drop bars is that you have so many possible hand positions and that spells comfort in my book.
Of course trying to find a means of storing a couple of these beasts on a thirty-four foot sailboat is no easy matter and I can detect all sorts of cunning plans and projects to be able to make a pair of these part of the So It Goes experience... Oh well what's another project or three in the name of true love and sweet rides?
Over Jammer
3 days ago
