Hanging at the back of the indoor booth for Salsa, was a new bike that had already attracting a lot of attention out at Dirt Demo. It was a 29 inch wheeled full suspension mountain bike with a frame that weighs in under 6 pounds with shock, and an incredible retail of only $999! The Spearfish is Salsa’s newest lightweight 29’r and is certainly worthy of some attention considering all of it’s features seem to greatly outweigh its price tag.
The Spearfish will feature an aluminum frame with a tapered head tube, Pressfit 30 bottom bracket, and a Rock Shox Monarch rear shock.
Close up shots after the jump!
For such a light frame, the Spearfish certainly has a burly tapered head tube including a decent guesser between the down and top tubes. Like most tapered headtubes, it will require a zero stack tapered headset.
The Monarch R (rebound) helps keep the price low but still receives Rock Shox’s brilliant sag gradients imprinted on the stanchion of the shock. Also note that the seat tube is curved to allow for greater tire clearance and serving to keep the chainstays as short as possible. However, it is plenty long enough to run a decently long seat post if you like to adjust mid ride.
Massive Pressfit 30 shell rules down below. Pressfit 30 is a technology that has been around for awhile, however it has been slow to catch on. I quite like the idea of Pressfit 30 along with BB86 and other press fit designs, due to how simple they are. There aren’t any snap rings, threads, shoulders, really anything that could cause creaks. Simply press in and you’re off.With the Pressfit 30 you still get all the benefits of BB30, including larger bearing diameter and the use of BB30 cranks.
Out back is a pivot less rear end that relies somewhat on flattened flex stays to provide the effect of the rear pivot. Salsa along with other companies have used this design to great success in the past, and it definitely makes for less maintenance.
Overall, due to the incredible amount features and low price you can expect to see these on your local trails, or out on the race courses next year for sure!
