2013 Preview: Salsa Cycles Colossal

2013 Salsa Cycles Colossal steel disc roadie

Road bikes are changing, and if you want to get in on the ground floor, this new Salsa Cycles rig is a great choice.

Dubbed the "Colossal", after a favorite meeting place for rides amongst the Salsa crew, this bike mixes some "old school" steel with new school disc brakes and a geometry meant to give a comfortable ride after long hours in the saddle.

This is another bike that looks to me to be a "perfect" RAGBRAI, long country ride, or weekend event ride bike. Slightly relaxed angles, clearances for 28mm tires for comfort, and a reliable, really wide gear range SRAM Apex group for the hills. The steel frame should be smooth, lively, and will be durable enough to survive RAGBRAI abuse and still be reasonably lightweight. Want to be able to stop in a shorter distance when you get caught out in the rain? The 140mm disc brakes will work rain or shine. No rim brake fouling here! And as a bonus, if you knock a wheel outta whack, or break a spoke, you keep on rolling with the same great braking power and no tire/brake interferences.

2013 Warbird titanium

Another great idea for a disc brake "all-road" bike from Salsa Cycles is this bike, (shown in titanium), the Warbird. This bike features similar stable geometry as the Colossal, the Warbird has a slightly taller head tube per frame size and even more tire clearance for tires suited to smooth dirt and gravel roads.

You don't have to run the bigger rubber, but you could, and with a Warbird in aluminum, or the premium material- titanium- you could have a bike that would tackle just about any road you can throw at it. One bike for pavement, gravel, pot holes, or smooth dirt roads. The Warbird is a very unique bike.

Okay, that does it for some of the cool road bikes, next I am going to show you some of the newest, funnest bicycles that have come out in years. Fat bikes!