Holy Campeon!

What better way to combat a cold, snowy, Monday than to come home from work and see a large box on my front porch with the familiar Salsa "Ride And Smile" logo on it? The Salsa Campeon has arrived in The W.O. and I'm stoked!

The frame did not disappoint when the box was opened. It is so sweet looking! The flame pin striping with the virgin white and the slightly metallic red and silver is freaking boss. As I always say- "If you can't BE fast, LOOK fast!" This frame should help.


The frame is nice and light and sports the familiar flattened chain stays that my Dos Niner and Mamasita have. The painted carbon seat stays are incredible too! Their shape is so cool I had had to double check with Jason that they were indeed carbon (they are!). I personally have never seen carbon shaped like that and was amazed. I wish the pic above would have come out better so you could see their shape.

Between the flattened chain stay shape, the carbon seat stays and adding my carbon post, I should have enough to take the edge off the Western PA roads. OK, THAT may be a bit much. Only a full suspension mountain bike could take the edge off Pennsylvania roads, but they sure will help.

The pic above gives a pretty good shot of the
metallic flakes in the sliver and red finish.

One of the true highlights of the frame set is the Alpha Q CS20 fork. It is FEATHER light. I kid you not. I am in awe of it. Salsa reports that the fork is .95 lbs. with an uncut steerer tube. That's INSANE! I mean LESS than a pound and we haven't even cut the steerer tube yet!! NUTZ! Oh yeah and getting a sweet Alpha Q t shirt thrown in the box was freaking cool too.

Another shot of the Alpha Q along side another "frame box bonus"- a set of Salsa Flip Off skewers. They should aid in making the frame "pop" that much more with a little "bling-bling". You may be able to see that the fork has a really cool matte black nude carbon finish to it.

I'm not a roadie (although I log a ton of road miles), I'm not USUALLY that "lustful" of road bikes and their parts. BUT when a generous offer was made via Salsa Cycles to get my cheeks OFF of the Trek, and on to a Campeon I could not say no to such an incredibly generous upgrade offer. My new Crank has been ordered up from Bikeman.com World HQ and should be here by the weekend. Just in time for snow and a predicted highs in the 20s. DOH!!!

I had this funny conversation with a dude at work last week-

Dude: Did you get any new bikes for Christmas?
Me: No, but I have a road bike coming.
Dude: Oh yeah, what kind?
Me: A Salsa Campeon.
Dude: Salsa?? I thought they only made mountain bikes?
You never see any of those in the Tour de France!
Me: Not yet!

Then I sort of had a smug satisfaction thinking he's right. There aren't any Salsas in the Pro Tour! And I'm sort of GLAD there's not. Anymore, when I see the big name bikes in the Pro peloton I find myself automatically associating the bike with a particular racer. That NORMALLY is cool. But these days that usually ends in me realizing that that racer is now banned, or is being investigated on doping charges. I mean if nothing else I used to be able to ride the Trek and think of Hincapie or Lance. Now Hincapie has moved on to a Giant and Lance just sort of goes jogging with Mathew McConaughey. HA!

No thanks. I'll gladly look down at my Salsa bikes and think of the good folks who are apart of Salsa Cycles, as well as many of my friends and Bikeman.com teammates that ride/race them. I'm glad to be associated with them and I'm thankfully for the opportunity to ride their bikes. As long as they don't mind me sort of kinda not really ever winning....YET! Ha! ;)

Later.