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The Salsa Fargo Thread

2M views 6K replies 794 participants last post by  hankj 
#1 ·
Here's the Fargo in action. post yours when you get it here...



 
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#3,418 ·
Hi.
thanks to this thread I decided to bought a salsa fargo and I couldn't be more satisfied, here I found everything I needed to know about the fargo and because y live in Chile in South America was tremendously helpful knowing what frame size buy.

So I make this video with a friend



I hope you'll enjoy it and keep riding
 
#3,424 ·
Thanks, Singlefin! I've been scouring the internet for some info on the Fargo from Saddledrive. This is the first that I've seen. Looks like the head tube angle is different; though, I could be wrong. Also, it appears that they moved the Anything Cage mounts to the front side of the fork and got rid of the midfork lowrider rack mounts. Looking forward to more reports and photos!
 
#3,436 ·
Hey, thought I'd pop in and maybe help clear up some vagueness here.

The carbon fork does have Anything Cage mounts, but as has been discussed here, Salsa moved them to the front-ish side of the fork as the engineering analysis shows this is going to alleviate stress and failures of cages/mounts that may have happened. (I assume they know, I have not heard about any failures besides the Anything Cages) There are no bottle bosses on the back side.

The carbon fork question: Okay, I get that many are leery of carbon, but I have years of use on carbon forks of various designs and I have witnessed others as well doing mountain biking and road biking with carbon forks for a couple decades.

Specifically, a friend just completed Tour Divide on a titanium Fargo with a Niner Carbon fork with zero issues. He had all the attendant bikepacking gear on board and from what I have heard of his stories so far, I would not hesitate to ride a well designed carbon fork off road either, including this new Fargo fork.

Carbon forks are not an issue. Poorly designed carbon forks- yes. Those seem to be rare these days. That said, a steel fork made to your liking is only an e-mail or phone call away. Many custom builders will make whatever you need there.

I wish I had the entire spec list, but I don't seem to be able to find it at the moment. I do know that many items folks groused about on older Fargos was addressed with better spec for 2014.
 
#3,432 ·
It'll be interesting to see the geometry and parts spec on the new Fargos. GT says more Shimano (yay!) but I would have thought the new SRAM 10 speed hydraulic road disc levers and brakes would have been a good thing; it looks like the bikes in the pics have SRAM levers and derailleurs at least. I guess the switch to a carbon 100mm-corrected fork reflects reality as 80mm forks are almost extinct these days, and a few people here have wanted CF. Presumably new geometry means new frame bags too [sigh]. It appears the yellow bike in the back of GT's picture has rack mounts on its (steel?) fork, but too indistinct to tell if they are there on the CF fork too; maybe not. Hopefully the forks will clear Knards.

The real question is what gear shifter to use with a Rohloff and drop bars...

PS: I'm with Doug about liking bottles on the back of the fork.
 
#3,434 ·
^ Thanks for posting that - some interesting ideas. I think I'd be inclined to run the Rohloff shifter inside the RH brake lever using something similar to a Kelly Take-Off lever mount with a bit of 22.2mm tubing to attach it to. Still, first I'd need to be able to afford another Fargo frameset, frame bag and Rohloff hub = it won't happen anytime soon!
 
#3,435 ·
would love me a frame with alternators.
not sold on the switch to rotate the anything mounts forward. but it bottle bosses better still be to the rear (or they are useless) - maybe its a good move, more capacity up front then.

steel actually is quite strong in tension, when detailed and designed correctly. the flipping about argument, with the anything cage load pulling on the cage to break them seems weak. properly designed they should handle things fine. i don't know why they do the 3 part for the clamps. should be 1 single piece, with a long, consistent weld. thicker base plate would help too.
 
#3,444 ·
I do like the addition of Alternator dropouts. I've been wishing my Fargo had them for quite some time. Sometimes I even thought I should have gotten an El Mar instead, with a Fargo fork perhaps.
I ended up with both el mar and fargo. my el mar is my single speed mountain bike and my fargo is my go to commuter. I have two sets of wheels. I built up a pair of mountain bike wheels and i used the stock wheel set with some touring tires for commuting. so i have a geared and single speed mountain bike and a touring bike using just the 2 frames. good times. Oh and my el mar has a fargo fork.
 
#3,445 ·
Well stayed tuned for 4 days and seeing nothing! Really have held off buying a 2013 Fargo but there are other alternatives which I may have to look at more closely.

Culmination | Salsa Cycles

Hate this carrott dangling that manufacturers do. Fair enough release when stuff is ready but hey I might just go and get myself a specialized as I can't see being able to pre order anything in the UK and there is no info from Salsa. Stayed Tunned and zero details released,

Need to see specs prices etc well I can for the Specialized which leaves zero to compare against,
 
#3,448 ·
Not very complete info yet. So far it seems to me that the CF fork has attachment points for Anything Cages, but nothing else - zip, zero, nada. No fender mounts, no hole in the crown to attach lights, no rack, no bidons.... Geometry is still unknown and I suppose Salsa won't update their site any time soon, etc. The only definite win so far is the Alternator Dropouts, and maybe the longer fork if you want to run suspension, otherwise not much (good) happening IMO. Let's see those geometry charts ASAP!!!

Also, is there gong to be a Ti Fargo next year? (Not that I can afford one, but I am curious.)
 
#3,452 ·
#3,454 ·
I just noticed that the new Fargo does not seem to have seat stay braze-ons to attach rack struts. I assume this means that you would have to use a Salsa Rack-Lock seatpost clamp to attach a rack (as Salsa has directed for current El Mariachis). While I am really happy about the Alternator dropouts, one downside is that you are limited to using Salsa's Alternator rack, which does not have a great maximum weight limit.
 
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