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FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure

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Salsa’s tagline reads Adventure by Bike, so naturally their product tends to skew that direction. With their latest refresh of their cockpit component line, Salsa is adding to the adventure theme with bars that are better built for off and on road adventures – especially bikepacking.

FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure

One key change that you’ll see on the new carbon bars is a wider 31.8mm clamping section. Bars like the aluminum Cowchipper above have a 120mm wide section, but the carbon bars bump up to 140mm. Why? More room for stuff. Whether that’s aerobars for a Tour Divide attempt, or extra mounting space for a front bag system like the Salsa EXP Anything Cradle, the bars offer more real estate to clamp things down.

FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure

All of their bars are now offered in three levels as well – standard, Deluxe, and Carbon. The standard bars are made from 6061-T6 aluminum, while the Deluxe see lighter/stronger 7050-T6 aluminum with a polished center section. The carbon bars have been designed to be lighter, stiffer, and more comfortable, all while offering the extra bar space as mentioned. Salsa puts these bars through the ringer on the testing side as well, noting that the Cowchipper and Woodchipper carbon are tested to the same ISO 4210 mountain bike standards as their aluminum mountain bike bars since they’ll be subjected to the same kind of abuse.

While the exact weights weren’t given, Salsa said that the carbon bars should come in about 75g lighter than their aluminum counterparts. Pricing for the Cowbell, Cowchipper, and Wood Chipper is $50, $75, and $215 for standard, Deluxe, and Carbon respectively.

FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure

It’s a similar story for their mountain bars, with the carbon versions getting an extra 20mm of mounting space in the center. Both the Salt Flat and Rustler rise bars will be available in both 750 and 800mm lengths, and in standard, Deluxe, and Carbon for $39, $69, and $140. Note that these bars have a slightly more aggressive sweep than most with an 11 degree backsweep and 6 degree upsweep, which felt surprisingly comfortable in the short time we had to check them out at Frostbike.

FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure FB18: Salsa offers three levels of cockpit parts w/ nod to bikepacking & adventure

Salsa is filling out  their lineup with the Guide seatpost in standard, Deluxe, and Carbon, and two versions of the Guide stem. The seatposts are a fairly simple two-bolt head design with zero and 18mm offsets available and will be available in the standard three sizes for $50, $65, and $90. The Guide stems are the same that Salsa have offered previously, just with updated graphics and a $40 retail.

salsacycles.com

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Garrett
Garrett
6 years ago

Carbon flared bars… yummmm.

Kenneth
Kenneth
6 years ago

Can you explain how the Carbon Mtb bars have a more aggressive sweep than others bars that have 11 degree sweep? Isn’t the angle the same?

Phred Pedals DDS
Phred Pedals DDS
6 years ago
Reply to  Kenneth

It’s more aggressive because it’s carbon also stiffer, springier, lighter, stronger, better damped, less fatiguing, and infinitely sexier

Nasty Nick
Nasty Nick
5 years ago

No. They are saying the 11 degree sweep is more aggressive than most bars, which are typically 7-9 degrees. The extra sweep will help your elbows stay in for comfortable climbing, but still allow for elbow out descending. I’m gonna have me a pair cuz I’m old and wrists hurt 😉 Another thing to note is you want your hand placement on the bars to be inline with the center of the fork steerer (this means your hands follow a natural round arc while turning. And in turn will allow you to better control your bike especially when you on the edge of control). With my current 8 deg back sweep bar and 40mm stem my hands are still ~15mm in front of the steerer. So these should do the trick!

John
John
6 years ago

Nice that the flat bars have 11 degrees backsweep. I was recently looking for some new handlebars and was disappointed that 90% of what is on the market is 9 degrees. Now that bars have gotten as wide as they’ll get I expect more choice in backsweep the coming years and 11,12 and up to 16 degrees getting more popular.

Gram Killeen
Gram Killeen
6 years ago

The Cowbell looks decent, but I miss the old RPM bar that had almost no flare at all. True 46cm road bar. Some of us barrel-chested folk don’t dig on bars that are even remotely narrow. I’d dig on a classic drop short-and-shallow 50 or 52 that wasn’t hip and nichey.

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