Had this a while now, thanks to Chris for building such a great bike and sorry if you're looking for changing it a little, however as promised it will remain in this colour, with battle wounds. Unfortunately had to change a couple of bits to suit me as I've gone and bought another bike thats needed a longer seat post in an awkward size to find, this wouldn't be so bad but the one that was on it complemented the XC Pro groupset as did the stem making it a full suntour set up, so quite sad to remove these but it came down to, look at ait alot or ride it more!
First ride
And a few more teething problems, its name suggests a great climbing bike but due to a huge rear cassette and short cage mech I wasn't able to utilise the lower gears on some steep technical climbs and find out just how good :cry:
Also had problems with the size of the pedals, they're just not big enough to use without toe clips so will be on the look out for some suntour bear traps failing that it'll get a pair of Ho's out of the stock pile.
I threw some fairly gnarly stuff at it considering my lack of confidence in the pedals and gear but it just lapped it up loving the fast sweeping bends and front end being very responsive esp afetr swapping the stem, the suntour had loads of scary flex but the salsa has sharpened that up nicely and reduced the weight considerably.
The gearing is generally quite low but even in top gear with a long straight it's hard to maintain flat out pace and is one very comfortable bike, fork flex under hard braking less i think than the F7's on my prestige despite looking weedier.
So all in very impressed, the verdicts still out on suntour but I love the fact its diff and it suits the goat to bits so will def keep it that way.
Sorry to the purist thought, the post isn't period but it is long enough for me to enjoy what is one of my all time most wanteds.
Here's some more pics after a quick clean in teh back yard. Can't wait to get this flying as intended, hope you like.
Weight: 23.62lb
First ride
And a few more teething problems, its name suggests a great climbing bike but due to a huge rear cassette and short cage mech I wasn't able to utilise the lower gears on some steep technical climbs and find out just how good :cry:
Also had problems with the size of the pedals, they're just not big enough to use without toe clips so will be on the look out for some suntour bear traps failing that it'll get a pair of Ho's out of the stock pile.
I threw some fairly gnarly stuff at it considering my lack of confidence in the pedals and gear but it just lapped it up loving the fast sweeping bends and front end being very responsive esp afetr swapping the stem, the suntour had loads of scary flex but the salsa has sharpened that up nicely and reduced the weight considerably.
The gearing is generally quite low but even in top gear with a long straight it's hard to maintain flat out pace and is one very comfortable bike, fork flex under hard braking less i think than the F7's on my prestige despite looking weedier.
So all in very impressed, the verdicts still out on suntour but I love the fact its diff and it suits the goat to bits so will def keep it that way.
Sorry to the purist thought, the post isn't period but it is long enough for me to enjoy what is one of my all time most wanteds.
Here's some more pics after a quick clean in teh back yard. Can't wait to get this flying as intended, hope you like.
Weight: 23.62lb
... Hope you enjoy it as they ride lovely!
