Summer heat already have you longing for winter? If you’re one of those people dreaming about snowier days, you might be interested in the updated 2020 fat bike line from Salsa Cycles. While not much has changed for the bikes outside of the paint, all of the bikes do feature updated tires from 45NRTH – which is a pretty big deal since tires are arguably one of the most important components of a fat bike.
For the fastest fat ride, the Salsa Beargrease is still the ticket. Billed as an ultra endurance/fat bike racing/singletrack fat bike, the Beargrease rolls on 27.5 x 3.8″ tires with clearance for up to 4″ wide rubber on 80mm rims. It will also clear 26 x 4.6″ tires out back and 26 x 5″ up front. The carbon frame comes with a carbon Kingpin fork with four sets of three-pack mounts and the frame has top tube mounts as well.
Sold as a full rigid, the frames are compatible with 100mm suspension forks, internally routed dropper posts, and run 12 x 197mm rear ends.
Offered in five 1x builds in addition to a frameset option, each bike rolls on the newer 27.5 x 3.8″ 45NRTH Dillinger 4 tires which are tubeless ready and custom stud-able. Pricing starts at $2,499 and runs up to $4,699, with the frameset priced at $1,799.
Mukluk
While the Beargrease is all about going fast, the Mukluk is still about riding over anything and bringing along your gear. Still rolling on 26″ wheels and tires, the bikes are speced with the revamped 26 x 4.6″ Dillinger 5 tires that are tubeless ready, feature better cornering knobs, and are custom stud-able.
The frames will also fit 27″ fat bike wheels or 29+ wheels and tires, and can run 1x or 2x drivetrains in addition to singlespeed drivetrains thanks to the Alternator dropouts. Two versions of the frame are offered with carbon or aluminum options, each with multiple options for carrying cargo – though the carbon frame has more room in the front triangle for frame bags and additional mounts on the fork.
Offered in one build in carbon and one in aluminum, the Carbon NX Eagle is priced at $3,149 and the aluminum SX Eagle build will go for $1,999. You can also pick up the carbon frameset for $1,999.
BLACKBOROW
Finally, Salsa’s extended cargo fat bike, the Blackborow also sees new paint and tires. Like the Beargrease, the bike rolls on the 27.5 x 3.8″ Dillinger 4 tires that are tubeless ready and custom stud-able.
Sold as a complete for $3,099 or as a frameset with the rack for $1,599, the Blackborow is still ready to get you out of town with most of your belongings. The custom rack will accept four full sized panniers, and the frame will accept 100mm travel suspension forks, 29+ wheels and tires, and a ton of frame bags and fork mounts.
Pretty bummed they offer no Shimano builds this year. I’m not a fan of Sram at all. Beargrease looks nice though not a huge fan of these color schemes. It’s not horrible either though.
No Shimano, cause probably those are full sunringle wheels (not just mulefut rims with eg. DT hubs) and those don’t have micro-spline for shimano’s 12s cassettes.
No Shimano, no cry. Go for the frameset bro. Build it the way you like it!
I’ve already got a Trek Farley that I love. Just disappointed to see Salsa go full SRAM and drop their one shimano spec from 2019.
No point goin’ into 11s when You have currently a full spectrum of 12s drivetrains on the market. They could’ve used sunrace cassettes, however having another supplier would raise the cost.
wow… “all new colours”, it’s almost like they’ve taken a page from the Crank Brothers engineering folder.
and sram ,sorry change that to stickers
They still sell fat bikes…?!? Who knew?