Building a Salsa Fargo to go far. Bike weights at certain stages of the build. Reliable parts list. 

Will check it out. I am putting on some bones bars with the approx two in rise so I will be able to get rid of some spacers. I am also converting both Fargos to Rohloff when funds allow. The Fargos are going to be used for touring duties. I have a Solace Cycles Pinion OP1 coming that I am putting my Pike 130mm travel on and that is going to be my rough stuff bike 👍🏽 I will use that in the Colorado Trail next year ✌🏽

Hi, yes I was very surprised by the weight when I put it on my hanging scales. I was expecting it to be heavier. But I can definitely tell it is lighter than some of my other bikes. It was just by chance as I was using parts I had it was not a weight prioritised build at all but it worked out great. The 27.5 by 3” tyres on your bike will add a bit more. They are only 2.1 on this bike. I have a set of 27.5 by 3 and they are a bit heavier. But 27.5 by 3 is a nice ride and worth it 👍🏽

No it is a good weight considering the weight it can carry. We fully loaded ours up for a trip in the forests of Germany/France and they handled the load perfectly. Rock solid. I have a Ti and my partner the steel with similar parts and they come out at near enough the same weight. I have converted it to flatbar and I have been commuting on it this week as my daily bike needs a bit of tlc which I am doing at the weekend. I have been loving the ride to work and back. Snow no problem, pot holes and cobbles, no problem. It has made me want to use it has my daily bike. So I have some mud guards in order and I will save up over the summer for a Rohloff and gates carbon drive and it will be the perfect low maintenance machine for daily riding and touring.

@@RidingBicycles Was thinking the same! Ti is a big price increase and the matte black steel actually looks cooler to me. Rohloff + Gates would make it a true anything bike.

Yes my partners Matt black looks ace. Plus I also like the look of the thinner tubing on steel bikes. As I am not into speed or having the lightest Carbon bikes, I really do think I have found the bike that will suit all my rides.

Many thanks! Ours are both size small 👍🏽

I get roughly 2770 for my size large naked frame

Hi. It has internal wire routing for the cable. It does not have a light mounting hole going through the fork just above the tyre, so any light mount needs to be on the bars. Cheers

The steel fork will have a mount for a light at the crown.

@@RidingBicycles thanks for the info! Could it be that the previous generation had a light mount also for the carbon fork?

It must be. I have seen pictures with the carbon fork with the hole for the mount at the crown. I think there is even a picture on the gear page of the Salsa site with the hole. Mine or my partners don’t have the hole though.

Hello, bearing in mind my partners steel one has 650b and my Ti frame has 29er. I think I prefer the ride of my partners steel one. It could be down to the wheel size. I don’t have cartilage in one of my knees and it could be the fact that the smaller wheel is easier for my weaker joint to spin up to speed or grind around up a steep hill. Looks wise I prefer the look of the steel. The thinner profile straight tubes look nicer than fat Ti ones. Weight wise they are about the same with similar bits but on them. The advantage of the Ti is the corrosion resistance and the fact you don’t need to worry about your paint. £800 compared to £3000. If I could of ridden both bikes for any length of time before buying I might of gone steel for mine too.

@@RidingBicycles Thank you. I appreciate your feedback and videos.

I will add it here tomorrow. cheers

Salsa Frameset inc headset, thru axels - £1200 Cowchipper Bars - £48 Stem - £30 Hunt Wheels - £349 Terravail Tyres - £100 (£50 each) Shimano 12sp Cassette SLX - £115 Shimano Deore 12 speed Derailleur - £57 Shimano 12 Speed Chain £28 Grip Tape - Brooks £20 Saddle (Selle Italia) £30 (sale) Brakes Avid BB7 - £120 (if buying separate about £62 per calliper) Cable/Sealant/Misc - £30 Total = £2127 (not bad for this cool spec) You can get all the Salsa and bikepacking / touring stuff from these guys, they are ace! keeppedalling.co.uk/ For all the other parts I just look for the best deals online.

Not on them frames, they are built rock solid

@@RidingBicycles Sweet thanks for the reply. I built up a Surly Krampus and added a rack to the back, five days into the trip the eyelets were ripped out of the frame. Trying to prevent that with my next choice of bike :) Which in this light will probably be a Fargo!

Mine is the Ti and and my partners is the steel. We are off road touring with them at the moment doing the TMV in France. I struggle to lift them but they are riding fine. Have in mind with the Fargos you will need to use spacers to accommodate the width of the alternator dropouts, or just use their rack. I can’t believe the Surly did that as they are meant to be rock solid too. Did you mention this to your dealer or did you source the frame yourself?

If you follow my Instagram you can see images of the bikes on tour. ridingbicycles.co.uk is the handle. Cheers

@@RidingBicycles Yeah they're sending me a new one, so that's at least that. But I'm going to switch to a Fargo, as the seatstays are much higher it will be a much more stable frame under load I expect. Do you think the extra cost for Ti is worth it? Under what circumstances would you recommend either the steel or Ti one? I sure will check out your Instagram for the pics. I appreciate the feedback!

It has the same sized wheels. It is just the wide lens making it look that way. Some mountain bikes do have a larger front wheel. They are called Mullet bikes. The reason would be a lighter more manoeuvrable rear end and a big front wheel to bounce over things. I have never ridden one.

@@RidingBicycles ah, good to know. Thanks 👍🏼

Depends on your terrain. If I was mainly tackling single track and rough terrain I would like flat bars. Suspension optional as it depends how fast I would want to go. All down to terrain, luggage, desired speed over said terrain, confidence and personal preferences

It does have loads of mounting points. The only one that is missing which I wish it had was the one at the back of crown of the fork. There are work around for that though with racks that use different attachment points

@RidingBicycles yeah but either way the weight limit for the front carbon forks is less than steel or aluminum forks. I'm looking at the fargo as my touring bike for long cross country tours but I'm also looking at the priority 600 mainly for the pinion gearbox and carbon belt drive system....it has a 600% gear range which is greater then the rholoff BUT the bike has a 275lb weight limit due to the aluminum frame. I like the split rear axle of the fargo which would allow a gates belt to be used on a rholoff but I also want an alt handlebar on the bike like moloko to have a more upright riding position for my lower back and wrist issues.

@stevemullin1195 You can buy nice steel forks for the Fargo and we run ours with alt bars. You have lots of options for Pinion bikes. Check out Nua, Solace, Tout Terrain, Etc I have had quite a few of them you can see them in my videos. The Solace does everything I need from a bike. 👍🏽

Hi, still have the Tout Terrain and use it most days on my grotty commutes. Don’t own a car so I do get out to ride as well as tinker with them. I have my Advanced Mountain Bike Leader and Multi Day Tour Leader Certificates that I make use of. In fact I am taking a school group on their 5th coast to coast ride next month. They carry their own gear, put up and take down their own tents and make their own food, give them a proper experience. The reason I went for the Fargos is so we can have another wheel-set built up with Rohloff and belt for long distance touring. I also have a Pinion bike coming from Solace Cycles as I am doing the Colorado Trail summer 2023. I think the Pinion and the Rohloff are the best for zero maintenance cycle touring and commuting but I do like to tinker with parts that have been made in small metal machine shops like White Industries and Paul Components etc. Because Rohloff of Pinion are so good you never need to tinker, they are fit and forget. By the way their is a new kid on the block that has an advantage over Rohloff as the gear hub removes from the wheel and fits into a hub sleeve so it means you can have multiple wheel set ups and one wheel gearbox that you interchange between the two, the link is here. kindernay.com they are made in Norway. I have these coast to coast trips planned with the students and we have a tour of eastern France coming up so there will be lots of videos of riding bikes coming too.

@@RidingBicycles Unfortunately the Kindernay only has a narrow belt line making it incompatible with most gravel and hard tail touring bikes.

Yeh, I have not looked into them properly as I would always stick with Rohloff and pinion that have been doing this stuff for more years.

@@RidingBicycles Have you done the rohloff belt drive combo on the Fargo?

Not yet, but it is the plan to do that on mine and my partners when I have the funds for the hubs.👍🏽