Salsa Fargo - Anyone own one of these?

[GuyGadois]

Looking at a bike that I can take on fire trails do so touring and around twon stuff. This bike sure looks nice. Anyone ever ridden one? Love the disc brakes and 29er. Not sure I need 6 bottle cages :-)

http://salsacycles.com/bikes/fargo/

Would love to hear if anyone has one and their impression.

Guy

[gdw]

I've never used one but it should be perfect for rough touring, fire roads, commuting, etc judging from the posts on Bikepacking.net. Read some of Outsider's trip reports, he's in Finland, and takes it offroad regularly.
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,848.0.html

[fourflys]

Fargo (http://salsacycles.com/bikes/fargo/)

click on the review tab...

This is a pretty awesome bike for the intended purpose...

this to... http://salsacycles.com/culture/topic/Fargo/

[Volant]

A guy in our club rides one. He uses it as his commuter. He's taken it mtb'ing as well and says if it was a few pounds lighter, he'd get rid of a few of his other bikes and ride it full-time (with the exception of his road machine). I'll see if I can find his posting where he wrote a review about it.

[BengeBoy]

I've seen lots of good things about the Fargo, but haven't ridden one. Have seen a couple set up with less-rugged tires for around-town use.

If you want something a *bit* lighter duty, but still suitable for fire roads and gravel, Salsa just came out with the Vaya a couple of months ago:

http://salsacycles.com/bikes/vaya/

[Volant]

That Vaya looks cool. But, you'd have to ditch those BB5 brakes and upgrade to BB7's. Or, at least, my experience with BB5's has been way-less-than-acceptable. YMMV.

[gemship]

I want one! Sick bike :banana:

[Peter P.]

It's just a 'cross bike on chemotherapy.

Get a real 'cross bike instead; one with rack and fender eyelets. Gunnar has a good model.

[Birddog]

I have a Soma "Double Cross". It has most of the same features (canti or disk, eyelets for fenders and racks, steel or CF fork) and is made of better gas pipe.

[Marcusaurelius]

If you wanted something light and fast get a cyclocross--if you want something rugged then I suppose the fargo might be a good choise. I had soma double cross and although it's good for trails and commuting it doesn't work well for loaded touring (they now offer a frame for loaded touring).

[GuyGadois]

On a whim I bought the Fargo XT model today from Bikeman. They discontinued the bike so it has been marked down to $1340 out the door (was selling for up around $1950 according to Salsa). Not bad for an XT bike. It was the last XL out there I could find. It should be a fun bike for the fire trails around my cabin. This review sold me: http://road.cc/content/review/16254-salsa-fargo

Cheers

-Gadois-

[fourflys]

good choice! I've had two Salsa's and loved then both (still have the cross bike...) Great bikes at great prices and I don't think Salsa's steel is any better or worse than anything else at the same price point... at least not that I'd be able to tell a difference... ;)

[csm]

I have one.
it is da bomb.

[csm]

rode around town this evening. found a trail that lead onto an old rail road bed that no longer has tracks on it but is near an active one. this jaunt lead us onto a couple old bridges and ultimately into a boro park.
lots of fun.

[Dustin]

Hard to beat for the price, though I am partial to my custom adventure bike! You can do a lot of fun stuff with a bike like this. It's like a swiss army knife. If I had it to do over, I'd probably do mine with disk brakes though.

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww336/dn_sharp/Cuyamaca%20May%201/2meonclimb.jpg

[csm]

I've been thinking of a fargo-esque frameset in ti....

[MerckxMad]

If you want a Fargo-light, check out Kona's Dew Drop. I have an '09 version that I bought on closeout. I absolutely love this bike as an all-rounder (and I have everything from a svelte CF racers to crossers to steel randos). It will cover every type of terrain and is a blast to ride.

[fourflys]

If you want a Fargo-light, check out Kona's Dew Drop. I have an '09 version that I bought on closeout. I absolutely love this bike as an all-rounder (and I have everything from a svelte CF racers to crossers to steel randos). It will cover every type of terrain and is a blast to ride.

I was looking at the Kona site... what's the biggest tires you can throw on the Dew Drop?

I think the size tire that the Fargo and Vaya can accept is what helps to set it apart from other bikes...

[Lurch]

If you go to MTBR and search on Fargo, there's about 10 threads, and a semi-official cult. Also search "Monstercross" and see the nearly 1000 post deep thread.

[csm]

the fargo thread is pretty deep over there

[IXXI]

i have had my fargo for about 6 months now and have been riding it about 4 days a week. i love it. its a great mad max commuter.

[MerckxMad]

I was looking at the Kona site... what's the biggest tires you can throw on the Dew Drop?

I think the size tire that the Fargo and Vaya can accept is what helps to set it apart from other bikes...

I run 37mm Contis with fenders on my Dew, but you can easily go to 42mm slicks or knobbies and probably still get fenders mounted.

[fourflys]

I run 37mm Contis with fenders on my Dew, but you can easily go to 42mm slicks or knobbies and probably still get fenders mounted.

cool, thanks!

[dogdriver]

I built a similar ride out of the Surly Traveler's Check for max flexibility when traveling (the Fargo would have been on the short list but for the need for S&S couplers), and swapped to a beefier fork for off-road riding. I like the genre-- mine does everything pretty well. The Woodchipper bar is worth the extra few $$ if you plan on riding off the piste...

[GuyGadois]

Got my Fargo XT in the mail this week and took it out for its first ride. It was a blast. I only had time for a road ride and it handled great on the road. Frame looks really well built and the XT components are nice and probably over built for it. I have some 29'r fenders on order (Planet Bike Cascadia).

It was an unbelieveable deal. I look forward to taking it out on the trails.

Guy