I think I need to just stop for a moment and say how fantastic, and right for the job, my Salsa Fargo was. Starting at the front, the ride position was great - very upright. With the Carradice bar bag on and bottles, it was a little floppy while stationary, but once riding the steering was super stable - as I realised while scratching my nose at 30mph round a French switchback. The fork-mounted bottle cages work well (though I could see that you could stuff your bottle into the wheel by accident if you're not paying attention.
The Epic Designs bags worked well and I'll detail them in a later blog, but I was able to carry everything I needed and the bags kept everything in place and were reasonably weather resistant (and dry bags helped with the rest). The gears and brakes performed faultlessly and the Conti Top Contact tyres were impressively smooth and grippy, even on the odd broken road.
More of this later.
I think i'm going to have to copy quite a lot of that setup. Espeshially the Epic Design bags.
ReplyDeleteIt looks ideal!
Good blogg Chipps. Just stumbled across it after reading your (old) long term Fargo report. Here is a pic I took of Joe Meiser (Salsa Engineering) riding Tour Divide on his Fargo.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/41861339@N04/3859542497/in/set-72157622028097991/
Cheers, John Fettis
I'm gonna have to congratulate you on such a beautiful bike. Just one question, why no fenders?
ReplyDeleteAmen brother!! The Fargo is a fab ride and I'm glad to see you dig it too. I've been on mine here in the 'States for around 10 months now and have been riding it on all types of surfaces, from gravel "B" roads to heinous singletrack trails, and overall it's taken it all in stride. I'm running it with an On-One Mary bar flipped so it's got a negative rise. That way I can run MTB brake levers and shifters, which I like a bit better for the control they offer in technical situations. Otherwise, I think the bike is set up great.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great stories, blog and objective write-up on the Fargo. I was hoping someone over across the pond would give it a fair shake, because it really is the stuff, when you just get down to the nitty gritty and ride the thing. You can't deny it.