Salsa Night at NCC

It wasn't long after moving out of town that I came back. Not even a whole damn week. E-Fred from Salsa Cycles hauled a truck full of new 2014 bikes into town for a demo at North Central Cyclery, so I came back to check them out, eat some pizza, drink some drinks, and hang with some of the good folks I had to leave behind. I headed over after work and arrived just as things were winding down. Or maybe not, because the pennyfarthing emerged shortly after my arrival.

Salsa tends to attract a certain type cyclist. These people, to put in the least offensive way possible, are super-nerds that love geekin' out about all the little specs and gadgets and most likely own an REI Visa card. There's nothing wrong with that at all. It's ok to enjoy adventuring by bike just as much as researching bike stuff on the internet. However, if you're that kind of person, this is probably not the blog for you, because you will find no technical babble or product specs here. 

I will say this, though: The 2014 Salsas look like some of their nicest yet, and the graphics on these bikes look better than ever. I like that they decided to add some paint to their titanium frames. I can't deny that a raw titanium bike is indeed beautiful, but after a while they all start to look alike. I think Salsa made a wise choice and avoided the potential boredom. Also, the new carbon Beargrease is light as hell. I took it for a good spin, and when you crank hard in a low gear, the front end effortlessly pops right up. It doesn't even feel like you're riding a fatbike. It handles like a relatively lightweight 29er.

Graphics on the new carbon Beargrease. 

The Double-Wide Boyz

Dang. Wide bars, dude.

Local brews

Joel mounting the pennyfarthing with the aid of the Blue Demon.

Joel's Vaya with Bruce Gordon Rock N' Road tires. One of the coolest rubber things I've ever seen.

Nice blurry one of Darrien shreddin' on the carbon Beargrease.

Joel admiring the new Salsa Colossal.

Custom painted ENVE carbon fork on the new Colossal.

Ti Mariachi

Nice paint on the new Mariachis. 

Titanium Mariachi

Titanium Mariachi's rear end.

Aluminum Salsa Warbird.

Salsa Warbird.

Darrien and "Ross's dad". Aren't they adorable...

Not a Salsa, but pretty rad. Olive drab Surly Pugsley with digital camo frame bags from Revelate Designs.

A new Salsa top cap.

Baller Bikes at the Shop

We've been building up some real fancy bikes lately at NCC. It's been cool. I snapped some photos of a few things we had sitting around and utilized our freshly painted chalkboard. Above is a Project One Trek Domane. I actually really like the look and feel of the Dura-Ace 900 stuff and the clear "red smoke" paint over the carbon looks fantastic in the light.

We've recently became a Moots dealer too, and this PsychloX frame is the first one we're building up. The craftsmanship of this thing is phenomenal. It will be getting an Enve fork and a bunch of other nice things.

We've still got a few Beargrease hangin out, and this one received some "icy cool" touches.

The Portland Design Works Dios Thronous saddles are made from the same material that those Crocs "shoes" are made of. This means they're completely waterproof, scuff resistant, durable, lightweight, and surprisingly comfortable. The perfect fatbike saddle.

E-Thirteen pedals. Durable, grippy, wide, nice bearings.

Covered in Beargrease.

The shop is currently covered in a thick layer of Beargrease. They arrived yesterday and we've been busy building them up since. They're big, light, and beautiful. Check 'em out before they're gone.















Built with love by Dan, Llama, Marcus, Ross, and myself.

El Dia De La Salsa @ North Central Cyclery

Almost two weeks ago, North Central Cyclery hosted a big Salsa demo, in which Jason and Eric from Salsa Cycles came out to debut a ton of new 2013 Salsa bikes and products. This was followed by a showing of the new film "Reveal The Path" at the Egyptian Theater down the street from the shop. I'm a bit late on posting all of this, but I've been busy. And by "busy" I probably really mean "lazy". Anyways, it was a really good time, the bikes were all awesome, there was a keg of homebrewed IPA and our dear old Otter even swam up from Atlanta to join us for the weekend! I'm not going to bother posting descriptions and details of all the new bikes. There are other blogs out there that are much better at doing that sort of thing, but here is a massive dump of photos to feast your eyes upon:





























































Bikes shown include: Salsa Warbird, Titanium Salsa Warbird, Colossal, Titanium Colossal, Mukluk, Beargrease, Fargo, Vaya, Travel Vaya with S&S Couplers, Titanium Selma, and Peter's custom built touring tallbike (shown being ridden by Agatha)... I bet I forgot something.