I’ve been asked a few times about my new Salsa Fargo Ti bike. Now that the Salsa Cycles website is up, I can share some info on my favorite ride. For those of you reading this that know me well, you all know how much I love the Fargo. If there ever was a bike that represents my personal riding style and passion, it is the Fargo. I sat down earlier this week to work on a story about the Fargo and my experiences with it for an upcoming trade show and I couldn’t believe all the places that a Fargo bike has taken me. I’ve done some really incredible trips on this bike and explored some beautiful landscapes from California, Oregon, North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois and of course MN. A Fargo also carried me through Japan earlier this year and I have a big trip planned for late October on the bike pictured below. The other thing about the Fargo is the friends that I have met through interest, and in some cases crazy exuberance, for the Fargo. I love this bike and I’ve been waiting patiently for this new Fargo Ti model to build my nicest Fargo to date. This frame is a development frame provided at no cost from Salsa, but it is very close to final production. Take a look.
This bike is nearly as light as my new Warbird and has big, big tire capability, more off road capable geometry and near endless braze ons for back country outfitting. It is sweet on the eyes too, at least I think so. At the moment, I am not going to go into great detail on the build as what you see here is not final. I built this bike up from scratch so folks shouldn’t look at the component spec and compare it to what is on the new Salsa Cycles website. This is an intentional build with my personal parts. Look for something a bit more complete and detailed when I get it all finished set up for bikepacking and back country touring. I was riding gravel a couple of days ago and snapped that skeleton picture of the Fargo. I’d say that version above is my gravel set up. Pretty light, pretty fast and so darn perfect.
I am guessing folks will immediately notice the tapered carbon fork on there. Yep, the new Fargo has a sweet 44mm head tube and I think it makes the bike better and more versatile. To be clear, the bike comes with a steel Fargo fork. I wanted to try this fork out and it has turned out to be both a blessing and a curse for me. In fact, I think I may actually remove it for my October tour. Why? Well, it is quite a bit lighter, but I miss the fork water bottle braze ons and where I am going, I will likely need the water bottle bosses. We’ll see.
Anyway, this is my favorite bike of all time.
ImagineGnat 
Very nice, Jason. Very nice indeed!!!
Nice Jason, thanks for the write up. You have now made my decision even more difficult 🙂 Love the looks of the Tube and that fork is just so sweet. I was thinking the other day how the only down side to that must be the lack of the water bottle/Anything Cage mounts, but still, oh so sweet. I look forward to hearing more about your component selection, and your big October trip.
Wow!
Great bike
what seat bag is that?
Duff that is a 20 year old Granite Gear seat bag. I love it and wish someone would make something like it again.
Very sweet bike. I love my 2012 Fargo Ti, too. One thing I noticed about the new 2013 frame on the web site is that the down tube and the top tube merge before they meet the head tube. In contrast, on the 2012 model and apparently also yours, the down tube and the top tube are disjoint. In fact, on your bike it looks like the gap between them is even wider than on the 2012 model that I have. I can’t really figure out what effect this change in geometry has. Do you have any idea how it affects the ride and feel of the bike? More or less aggressive? I’d love to hear any thoughts on this.
Mitch not really sure what you are getting at. I think what you are referencing is more due to frame size than actual geometry changes. The Fargo Ti n the website is a size small and mine is a large. Very different and the bigger size gives you more room.
The tube shaping is slightly different this year and that may add to your perception as well. The only thing I notice compared to last year is the more solid front end due to the 44mm head tube and e ability to run a tapered fork. That said, this too could be only my perception.
Good point. Looking at the geometry specs it must just be the different frame size.
Nice bike, but where’s your camerabag? 😉
Just wondering how I would mount a rear rack on this frame, it doesn’t appear to have bosses on the chainstays.
Gordon, there are eyelets at the drop out and to attach a rack, I would recommend a rack lock seat clamp such as this: http://salsacycles.com/components/rack-lock
Gnat,I think that bag would be perfect for rides where you dont need a backpack but regular seat bag is too small
Can you talk your friends at Revelate Designs to make something like your bag
Love this bike and how clean it looks
I agree with you 100%. We’ll ask nicely when we see Eric next week!
What kind of carbon forks are you mounting on? I am having trouble finding the right one
Michele, for this model Fargo with the 44mm headtube, I used a Whisky No 7 carbon fork for that bike.