Salsa Cycles has been putting a lot of energy into new bikes lately. Recently, they’ve released everything from adventure gravel ebikes, to a refreshed MTB lineup (which is surprisingly good).
Now, Salsa is teasing a new bike, and it’s bound to get some attention. After posting a silhouette of the bike with the caption, “Curioser and curioser,” Salsa had added very little detail, only stating that it’s coming in January 2026.
By the outline, there are a few things we know for sure: it’s a full suspension bike, and it has dropbars and a dropper post. The tires appear to be of MTB size, but with how big gravel tires are getting these days, it could easily fall into the aggressive gravel or ATB category. Knowing Salsa, there’s a good chance this bike will work well for bikepacking and adventure riding – what appears to be frame bag mounts inside the front triangle, and under the top tube seem to support that theory. Update: We now know based on the landing page for the new bike on Salsa’s website, that this is indeed a full suspension gravel bike!
Currently, Salsa just gives this as a teaser, “Another industry first from the folks who defined the modern-day gravel bike. Some of you know what it is; some of you think you know what it is. It won’t be for everyone (then again, what is?), but it will redefine what’s possible. Full suspension gravel? Yes and…”
The other big question is whether this will be an ebike? There is a dark patch behind the head tube on the top tube that looks like it could be a control panel for an ebike system. And the downtube certainly looks large enough to house a battery, perhaps a smaller capacity battery for a lightweight ebike system. But the hollow spindle on the crank throws a wrench in that theory – all the centerdrive ebike motors we know of don’t have a hollow spindle.
It’s possible it could still be an ebike with a rear hub motor, though. Or it could be just that a crank with a hollow spindle was used in the mockup, and the actual bike won’t have it. Or a new crank or motor or both?
Regardless, it will be interesting to see where this goes!
