Salsa Fargo Review: Long Distance Hauler

I have a Gen1 Fargo XT build and its the coolest bike ever. It handles any terrain with ease, from dirt to pavement. I put on Salsa’s Woodchipper handlebars(now standard on the Complete bike), Mallet1 pedals, and a Brooks saddle and can ride this thing all day. I’ve used these tires: 2” Schwalbe Big Apples, 2.35 Big Apples, Bonty XDX, and Maxxis 2.4 Ardent(great for the Iron Range of MN). Next I may try the Race Kings, but am still looking for the perfect tire that allows me to ride the ‘necessary’ pavement in order to get to the gravels and dirt.

I also have a Gen 1 Fargo. Set up with flat bar & barends (shock horror). I love it. I’m also running a Shimano Alfine 8 rear hub which makes the bike the perfect tourer/commuter.

I’ve just bought a new ti Fargo which will be a more multi use machine. Woodchippers, suspension fork and lighter wheels.

Mike – Try the WTB NanoRaptor. It’s the original 29er tire, nice low knobs and big round casing. I’ve tried all of those tires except the Ardents, and WTBs seem to do the job for me. Fast enough on pavement and able to run low pressures on the gravel.

Kenda Small Block 8’s work excellent on or off-road.

I have this bike with a SLX build. What junk! I was told by Bikemanns that I couldn’t get it built with XT components for the $1650 price tag. So I got the SLX build and paid $1600. As time went by things kept going wrong. I kept having to adjust the rear derailer and the brakes wouldn’t work properly after the first 50 miles. In addition, the bike was slow. After other problems, I replaced everything to the same specs as the XT 2009 build except for the frame. No more problems. If I had purchased the frame and components seperately I could have built the bike for $1650 and that is with custom made wheels. Now if I can build this bike purchasing the parts from retail sellers for $1650, ( I used ebay and Amazon.com )why can’t Sulsa build it for that instead of changing the build every year with other less worthy components? Save yourself the trouble and get a Surly LHT frame and build it up with xt components for even less. I purchased this bike because of the great reviews. I didn’t notice that every review I read was about the xt build until I went back and reviewed them with a more critical eye. Of course that was after I purchased the SLX build. I couldn’t believe that many people were that wrong about this bike. They weren’t, I was reading about a bike that didn’t exist any more. In fact, I couldn’t find a SLX review. I haven’t seen one with their 2011 build either. Wonder why? Bikemanns is not at fault here. They gave me what I asked for. And I paid for my mistake. I did get something for my money though. I know a great deal more about building bikes and I bet I that will save me some money down the road. Funny how things work out.

Terry

I found my Fargo in a bicycle shop in Manhattan, KS purely by accident. Not looking for a bike in particular, but a set of road pedals. I road the bike around the area for a test ride and found it the most comfortable non suspension bike I have ever ridden. I am a roadie and have really never desired to have a off road bike, but my wife and my plans are to move to Kansas to retire in a couple of years and I needed a bike to be able to handle the crushed rock roads of rural Kansas and the incredible short but steep (>10%) hills and to be able to carry a lot of fluid for those hot days on the road. I purchased the bike without any hesitation, although I’m not real keen on Sram components, I’ve had to replace an entire groupo on my Specialized Roubaix due to excessive wear, I’ll give these a try and hope for the best. So far so good. If there was one suggestion that I might offer to Salsa or to the shops that sell Fargo’s is to equip one bike with all the accessories that might fit on the frame to give the purchaser ideas on what to use. I really like the bike.