A Twofold Anniversary: The Story Of The Warbird & A Disclaimer

The Salsa Cycles Warbird in titanium as ridden in 2012

 Ten years ago today a couple of interrelated things happened which have had big impacts on the blog, my life, and likely your's as well if you are here and are into gravel riding. First- Let's remember the Warbird's debut.

The first time anyone had a chance to ride and check out the new Salsa Cycles Warbird gravel bikes was the Summer of 2012 at what was then called "Saddledrive", which was the Quality Bicycle Products dealer only Summer show. 

Afterword, a small demo tour across the U.S. was held by Salsa and one of the visits was in the Twin Cities and I made an effort to attend to see this important development. The gravel scene had its own bike now, and this was a historic occasion. 

The line up consisted of a titanium model and an aluminum model. These bikes were developed over several years at gravel events like the DK200, Trans Iowa, and over miles of Minnesota and Mid-Western roads. The design was informed most by what racer's needs were. A larger front triangle to accommodate the popular "half-frame bags and still have room for water bottles. A slightly slacker, lower, and more stable geometry than the previously popular cyclo-cross bikes had. A taller "stack height" which placed the handle bars in a bit more relaxed position. It was exciting to have a "gravel specific bike" and I wanted to check out and see if Salsa had really understood what I felt the "all-road" bike idea should be.

The Warbird in Aluminum

So, this is where the whole gravel scene really took off from. Previous to the summer of 2012, you "made do". You had to find everything for gravel travel that worked for you, and that was really meant for other cycling purposes, and then mold that into the package for all-road riding that you could use. 

With the debut of the Warbird, a bike already set up for the purposes of all-road/gravel travel at a fast pace was here. From this point onward, the gravel scene gained traction at an ever increasing pace within the marketplace until this day where you can hardly turn around and not put your hands to something or another marketed as "Gravel®". 

Now the second bit I wanted to mark is tied up into this Warbird introduction and has affected this blog down to this day. It all started ten years ago today on August 23rd of 2012. 

My trip to see the Warbird resulted in a mixed review. The bike had some things right, but I was really pretty disappointed in a couple of important details. You can go back and read all about that HERE. 

That opinion spawned a sometimes heated exchange of emails back and forth with one particular individual who was employed at Salsa Cycles at the time of the Warbird release. That individual did not appreciate my pointing out that the Warbird had limited tire clearances and did not take to my assessments on sizing, materials used, and a few other nits, but mainly it was my beef with tire clearances that caused the dust-up behind the scenes. 

The argument on the Salsa side was that my "dismissal" was presented as factual for everyone. My take was that I had explicitly said it was not a review and was labeled as a "ride impression", although the lack of tire clearances was a proven, and shown, fact on that post. That was a fact I had found out myself at the demo. Myself and a friend I met there surreptitiously removed the wheel set from a Vaya they had at the demo which had Clement (now Donnelly) MSO 40mm tires on it. We swapped that wheel set out with the Warbird Titanium's which was set up with 38mm tires. The 40's barely cleared as I showed on the blog.

That was a big problem, in my opinion, because I felt that a "real gravel bike/all-road bike" should have clearances for 42mm with fenders. Clearly, the Warbird did not measure up.

The impasse over the post I published was settled when I agreed to place a disclaimer on that post which would describe the piece I wrote as only my opinion. However; I made it a bit smart-alecky. Maybe you've seen it here over the years....

"NOTE: Large doses of "my opinion" will be handed out in gloppy dollops today. You've been forewarned....."

So, there is the backstory to that statement, and the bike that inspired it all. Both things which have been around for a decade now.