Bike test team member Ian Cleverly rode the Salsa

Love, Hate and Salsa I Love It!
It looks fantastic. The paint job on the scandium aluminium frame is gorgeous,
the carbon forks in matching orange (as opposed to the usual grey weave pattern
to show off their carbon-ness), the bar tape, again, matching orange. The 105
groupset, FSA chainset and Salsa in-house
finishing kit are all black, the perfect compliment for this striking frame.

What do you mean, you don’t like orange? Tough.

I Hate It!
Salsa hail from California which may explain why the bars are wider than the
Golden Gate bridge and more flared than the jeans of a Grateful Dead fan. They
are truly horrible, get rid of them. The wheelset pairs Shimano Deore hubs with
Salsa’s own Delgado-X rims, shod with Kenda Kross tyres, a heavy duty combination
that should survive any amount of abuse, but which weighs heavily on the bike’s
performance.

Click to see in BiggaVistaVision

I Love It!
Bottle bosses, mudguard eyes and, interestingly, disc brake mounts, suggest
Salsa have aimed this bike at the cyclist looking for a serious off-road machine
that will cope with anything thrown at it and the Salsa doesn’t disappoint.
Potholed commutes, several training rides and a good old-fashioned thrash around
the woods all passed pleasurably, with the bike proving itself a versatile beast
indeed.

I Hate it!
Squeaks and rattles can turn you against a bike in no time, so when the saddle,
bottom bracket and rear hub all started emitting hideous noises at once, I was
ready to call the whole thing off and send the Salsa back home. After a bit
of judicious fiddling with the offending parts, normal service was resumed and
I prepared the bike for the weekend’s race. However, the bright idea of swapping
over the cartwheels for something a little more racy was scuppered by the 135mm
MTB spacing at the back end, which basically renders any other wheels you may
have hanging in your shed unusable on this bike, a serious pain in the backside
and one which the manufacturers should address.

I Love It!
To the race, cartwheels and all, and the Salsa handled very well indeed. Sure,
my Rolf wheels and Schwalbe tyres would have taken it to another level, but
overall the bike was a pleasant surprise. The 105 transmission behaved impeccably,
the tyres never failed to grip and you could throw the bike around with impunity.

Confused?
The rear wheel spacing is an issue, the wheels and tyres will not suffice for
a racing machine, and yet…. There was something undeniably funky about the Salsa
which made me like it. It’s, well… different. Recently, the big US manufacturers
have all weighed in with cross bikes that can go anywhere, do anything, but the
Salsa Las Cruses is the one with attitude, the stand out from the crowd, ‘look
at me’ machine, and I like it all the more for it.

Test team
We are looking for volunteers to help us with the ‘New Bike’ feature – get
in touch

Verdict

Ex Three Peaks Champion Emma Wood took one look at this bike and commentated
that it was a bike for the mountain biker who wanted something different. She
wasn’t wrong as traditional cross riders or roadies may baulk at it’s styling
and general demeanor, but a MTBer will find it just the job.

Handles well and stands out, plus with disc brakes it would look really trick

Mountain bike hub spacings

Price – £560 for frame and forks

Click to see in BiggaVistaVision
Own parts and a trusty Flite saddle	MTB hub spacing	The Scandium frame is well made
Tough drop outs	FSA chainset	A carbon fork
Plenty of clearance	Ready to fit discs	or cantilevers
More Grateful Dead than bike sensible	Salsa badge	Tapered seat tube