<===Salsa's 2009 product is waiting in the weeds, waiting to take the cycling world by storm. Much like Jason Boucher is down this ribbon of single track!
My Wednesday test ride session was a bit different yesterday! I drove up to Salsa HQ and had a visit with the Crew and Jason, the brand's head honcho.
Can you say "mayhem"? Well, if you'd have been there yesterday, you would have seen it. Getting ready for Interbike is no small task, and of course, there is a company to run as well. I admire all the hard effort Salsa's people put into their company even more. Amazing!
Of course, I got to see all the new 2009 bikes. You folks are going to be blown away by what is coming! It is fantastic looking, (and riding) product. Salsa Cycles is taking a big step up with it's 2009 effort, make no mistake.
I did get to ride something "very special" at the Murphy-Hanrahan trails yesterday too. While I can't talk about the bike, I can tell you that "Murph" is rippin' good fun! The single track is so flowy, with many a decent climb, downhill, and bermed turns. Oh my! Yes, the bermed turns are super fun!
They are also adding in an elevated skinny section for those free riders out there. They were out building it in yesterday as we were riding. It looks scary to me. I mean six inches of wood six feet off the ground? I coulda been a tightrope walker, I suppose, but I ain't, so I'll leave that stuff for those kind of folks.
So if that wasn't enough, I saw the un-boxing of the first production spec Fargo frame and fork while I was there. The paint is more of a silvery undertone metallic green than what we've seen and the graphics "pop" a little more than what I recall. It looks very classy. The fork drop outs are stainless steel, forward facing, with a little "Salsa" embossed into them. Very cool looking and as Joe Meiser explained to me, they are very securely attached to the fork tips with a "break line" added that acts as a point for painters to mask off the stainless drop out, so it doesn't look sloppy. Attention to detail? Are you kidding me? And that isn't the end of that sort of scrutiny on the Fargo, or on any of their products for that matter.
Take for instance the Gordo rims, which are coming in, by the way, some folks are getting them now. At any rate, the Gordo has details that most will never know. Like the highly scrutinized rim well, which was developed to help mount 29"er tires more securely and, in conjunction with the incredibly detailed bead seat on the Gordo, it should really tighten up your tires interface with the rim. I have a set of Gordo rims to build and test for Twenty Nine Inches, so look for more on those rims there soon.
Yeah, seeing how the run up to Interbike goes, even for just a day, is amazing. The trails at Murph........again, amazing! Salsa's 2009 line up............you guessed it! And the future products? Crazy!
A fun, fun day and my deepest thanks go out to all of the Salsa Crew, Joe Meiser, Jason Boucher, Bobby, Miker, and the Surly dudes. Also I wanted to mention the warm welcome and smiles from almost every single QBP employee I saw in the place. Nice! Think opposite of how Postal employees are, and you'll get the picture. (Ha ha! I'll bet some of the QBP guys feel like "going postal" about now though!)
Okay, back to my little corner of the world here being a bicycle mechanic! Have a great day, ya'all!
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