Chasing The Storm

Copper-like and single speed.

Last March Salsa Cycles introduced the Stormchaser single speed gravel bike. I was, to be frank, pretty amazed that anyone would introduce a single speed racing bike for gravel, but Salsa Cycles did it. Single speed mountain bikes used to be for sale new for several years in the '00's, but now? Surly Bikes has a few, Kona, but yeah. Weird to see anything beyond a fixed gear bike for sale as a single speed these days.

Of course, RidingGravel.com has gotten in a Stormchaser to review, and I am pretty fortunate to be able to be one of the first folks to ride one. You can read what I have as an opinion about it here.

I'm a pretty big fan of the single speed. I have had several, and still have too many. So, a single speed gravel bike makes total sense to me. Besides the fact that I used to race a single speed on gravel a long time ago. Just using a single speed for any sort of riding was something I had no issues with. Still don't, although I usually ride a geared bike these days.

But Salsa Cycles positioned this bike as a rig for severe conditions. It makes sense. Derailleurs and mud don't get along well. The most bullet-proof bike in situations like that is a single speed. So, the Stormchaser is meant to tackle such conditions. Nothing to get ripped off and screwed up by the conditions. Makes sense to me. Plus they added in a TON of clearance with this bike. Especially up front where it looks like the fork could easily swallow a mountain biking tire.

That's a 42mm tire for reference. Note the dynamo routing port.

The rear end gets a lot of clearance, but not like the front end. Salsa Cycles claims a 50mm tire will slot in there in both 700 and 650 sizes. I have a 700c X 50mm Donnelly MSO here which we will be trying out. Yeah...... If it clears the rear there won't be a lot of room left in the back, I'm thinking by the looks of things.

Funny story: So the day this bike shows up at Andy's Bike Shop I had ridden my Fargo. Of course, I rode the Stormchaser home and left the Fargo at Andy's. I was so excited about trying out the bike I forgot to put any flat repair stuff on it! I had a Topeak saddle bag full of everything I would need on the Fargo, I just forgot to transfer it over. What I didn't forget was to mount bottle cages.

Now the Fargo had a couple of those nice Blackburn stainless steel cages on it which I moved over to the Stormchaser. It also had one of those original Velocity five piece aluminum cages I've had since the, sheesh! I cannot remember now. Since the 90's? I think so. I have a purple one as well on my Surly 1X1, but that was NOS from Velocity courtesy of Adam Lorenz, when he worked there. Anyway....... I digress.....

The Velocity cage is all aluminum. Remember that. It is important here. So, I rode home the first day. No issues and the next day I went to work I rode the Stormchaser again. Now I had ridden straight through some muddy, water soaked spots. The bike definitely got wet. Then it started.

cree-creak...cree-creak.....cree-creak! 

With even very little pressure on the pedals, it would make this noise. GAH! I hate creaking bikes! This was not going to do! So, I probably would have ridden the Stormchaser on Saturday, but I didn't, and I instead planned on detecting and eliminating this creak from my life before the Sun set Saturday.

Flat mount brakes made them do this. Ugly but effective.

Okay, so I got to work and my first point of attack was the crank. It is a Race Face direct mount style chain ring crank. I tore it down completely and greased where there wasn't grease. (Chain ring interface and lock ring, in this case) Then I took the bottom bracket out. No grease there. just a tad bit of thread lock. Nope! Grease all the things! Test rode.....still creaking. 

Seat post collar? No grease there. Greased. Test rode. Still creaking......

Rear sliding drop outs? The through axle was dry, and there was absolutely zero grease on any part of the drop out assembly. By the way, the nuts which the bolts go through and the chain adjuster are not captured. If you have a Stormchaser and take that apart, be prepared to have those bits fall out. Anyway, greased, test rode.......still creaking! 

Pedals? Re-greased. Test rode. Still creaking. 

Running out of bullets here. But I noted something while test riding. The creak would occur, just not rhythmically, but sometimes just when coasting. Ah! So.... This may not be related to the drive train at all. Seat post/saddle? Swapped. Test rode. Still creaking...... 

Those bits that make up the fasteners/tensioners for the drop outs are not captured pieces.

 Dang it! So what is it! Okay, so I got off the bike and tried torquing  different areas of the bike. I finally was able to recreate the creak at will by pulling on the end of the handlebar and simultaneously pushing out on the saddle or on the seat post. Then I could do that when grabbing the top tube, but it was harder to do. (Less leverage) I stood over the bike thinking. "What could it be?"

I reached down, tightened the top bolt of the Velocity bottle cage. Creak gone! Yes! The seat tube was flexing juuuussssst enough to move against the aluminum cage mount to cause a creak.

I laughed out loud.

Glad that's over with!  

So, the weather is supposed to get .......ah....interesting... So, I will probably be out doing stupid rides to test the abilities of this bike to handle the worst that Mother Nature has in store for us. It is about that time Trans Iowa would happen, so.....yeah. Makes sense, eh?

 Note: Salsa Cycles sent the Stormchaser to RidingGravel.com for test and review at no charge. We are not being paid, nor bribed for this review and we always strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.