The Salsa Fargo has been the go-to gravel/mountain/whatever bike for folks looking for adventure on a drop bar bike. Now Salsa has announced an update to the Fargo, as modest as it might be.
Quick hits: Six things to know about the Salsa Fargo
- Salsa Fargo is the brand’s drop bar mountain bike/monster cross/mega tire gravel bike
- Fargo is available with a steel or titanium frame or one complete steel build
- Max tire clearance: 29 x 3.0″ (size S – XL); 29 x 2.6″ (size XS)
- Five sizes (XS – XL)
- Fargo features one pair of three-pack mounts on the fork (rather than two pairs before!)
- For more: salsacycles.com
So what’s new?
Key changes to the Salsa Fargo include a move to flat mount brakes (rather than the post mount brakes it uses currently), a swap to the full-carbon Cutthroat fork, and new paint. That’s it.
The updates extend to both the steel Salsa Fargo as well as the titanium Fargo.
The move to a flat mount disc brake comes from a new Alternator 1.0 rocker dropout. Like the previous post mount dropouts (called the Alternator Dropout 1.5), the dropouts allow the rear wheel to swing forward and back to extend and contract the bike’s wheelbase and add tire clearance to boot.
The Alternator 1.0 dropouts also allow the Fargo to be run singlespeed or geared, with an internally geared hub, or with a Gates Belt Drive. None of that, however, has really changed from the previous generation bike.
Up front, the Cutthroat Deluxe fork has been modified. The main change is to match the flat-mount brake mounts out back. The brake hose is now inside the non-drive fork blade, and a set of protective plates is added inside the fork to help prevent damage from mud and debris.
Of course, there are new colors for the steel Salsa Fargo, while the Fargo Ti keeps its brushed titanium finish.
Not much else has changed
If you’re wondering if anything to the frame has really changed, the answer is no, not really. That means that current Fargo owners should be able to purchase the flat mount brake version of the Alternator dropout, buy a matching fork, and keep it moving.
It also means that geometry remains the same as when it was last updated in 2017. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Riders looking to match the new frame to a suspension fork (which almost certainly uses a post mount brake) will need to look to something like Wolf Tooth’s flat mount brake to post mount adaptor.
There might be some quality-of-life updates here that make the Fargo more compatible with existing bikes. But besides the new fork, the updated rear dropout, and the new paint schemes for the steel Fargo, the Fargo is still the same as before.
That means the Fargo still offers its massive 29 x 3.0″-tire clearance (size XS gets 2.6-inch clearance). The fork still uses Boost spacing up front, while Fargo riders can swap between Boost, 142 mm TA, and 135 mm QR spacing out back using different Salsa Alternator Reduction plates.
Builds, specs, and pricing
| Build | Drivetrain | Pricing |
| Fargo 610 GRX 1x | Shimano GRX 1x | $2,999 |
| Fargo steel frameset | NA | $1,199 |
| Fargo Ti frameset | NA | $3,099 |
The Salsa Fargo is effectively available in three kits: two framesets and one complete build. Pricing has changed, with the Fargo steel frame and complete bike seeing a price increase. The Fargo Ti sees a price reduction.
The lone complete build moves from SRAM Apex 1x to a Shimano GRX 1x drivetrain. It maintains the same Teravail Sparwood 2.2-inch tires.
Then the two framesets are available: the Fargo steel frame and the Fargo Ti.
