Yet a new bike category? Salsa’s new Warroad (no bird required)
 

Salsa introduces a more athletic warbird, the Warroad.
https://salsacycles.com/culture/introducing_warroad

“During development I saw Warroad as a road bike with a side of gravel. We succeeded in mixing the agility and responsiveness of a road bike with the confidence to turn down a sketchy road whenever the opportunity arises.”
650b tires, 415mm chain stays.

Where Warroad differs from Warbird is its focus on agility over stability. Warroad is for road with a side of gravel; Warbird is for gravel racing where its longer wheelbase and greater stability excel.

“ I wanted a bike that didn’t limit the ride to a surface, had quick handling and was responsive to rider feedback. The Warroad balances this with a stable road ride, hence the endurance geometry idea,” Said Meiser.

Personally, this addresses the issues I had with the Warbird. I found it a capable bike, but a bit boring to ride. Yes, if you are doing 100% gravel, boring is good – but I was looking for a more livelly mixed surface machine.

GT’s take: Guitar Ted Productions: All The Wars! (birds wars and road wars!)

I would have thought long and hard about this model prior to deciding on the Topstone, due to most of my riding being primarily on the road. The price for a Tiagra build, similar to the Warbird, is a little off-putting though. I know the Journeyman exists to fill that value niche in Salsa's lineup, but it feels like there's a big gulf between the Claris/Sora Journeymans and the Warroad.

It's a road bike. Probably a good one. But there are lots of very similar, good road bikes out there. And from companies with greater visibility and a higher commitment to the customer. I understand what sets a Warbird apart. What makes this a compelling purchase in light of all the competition? 650b?

It's a throwback to the sort of bikes that started this whole gravel trend, at least for me-a fat 650b-tired road bike meant to take on any and all road surfaces you might come across. It's like a modern carbon version of the Rivendell Saluki that was my first 650b Allroad bike! I like it.

Agreed.

Knowing Salsa, if you order now you have a good chance of getting it by 2021.

Maybe. Maybe not.

I think "new bike category" might be a stretch. Seems to me that the ideal "gravel bike" all along was essentially a mountain bike that handled and felt like a road bike. So we're just getting closer and closer to that ideal. :thumb:

LMAO!....no , wait, that's not funny sez just another sucker waiting for the 2019 Warbird I ordered in January. (sigh)

....my LBS tried to get me to buy this Warroad when it became apparent my Warbird order would be (ahem) significantly delayed. "Why would this arrive any faster?" I asked. LBS owner shrugs.

This may have changed cycling forever!

What are you thinking of? Open UP? Diverge?
Gravel bikes tend to be somewhat sedate and endurance oriented - there does not seem to be much in the gravel world that feels athletic.

This one does look pretty slack - not sure how the short rear end and slack front end will feel...

Our lbs said they won't be ordering any. It's obvious this type of bike is hyper-niche market orientated and we aren't the right fit.

You, too? At last notice, my September 2018 Warbird frameset order, last promised by the end of March 2019, was then promised the first week of May then, the last week of May . . . and now . . . "indeterminate." If Salsa's manufacturing ever catches up with their marketing department, they're going to eclipse Trek and Specialized in sales!

Besides, if we wanted an expensive, limited clearance gravel bike we already have Allied.

Well, if Salsa doesn't get their s&$t together right soon they're going to have a slew of customers riding the brand new War-path. : -(

I went to the Salsa website linked in the first post. I like this bike! A bike designed to solve a problem, not a bike designed to fill a need no one had found yet. A bike to make the rides they do better.

This bike is a little like my Peter Mooney. The big difference is they started from scratch with a rather specific hard, physical goal in mind. I ordered my Mooney with just as specific a goal, but that goal was to have a bike that could be my link to sanity over the coming post-head injury crazy years. They knew the roads they'd be riding if not the pavement. I didn't know what coast I would be living on. I also didn't know the wheel standard I would be using. 700c or 27"? In 1978, not knowing where I'd be living, that wasn't at all obvious.

Well, 38 years later, my Mooney had a new focus - as a fix gear to ride Crater Lake with Cycle Oregon AND ride the promised 30 miles of gravel with its 1000' ups and downs. I did it. The bike could run 37c in front, 35c in back and run gears of 44-13, 42-17, 36-21 just moving chain and flipping a wheel and (unscrewing a cog) 36-24. I rode it the length of the Trask River Trail to the Oregon coast as a trial (with fellow forumites) and it thrived.

In many ways, my bike is similar to this Salsa. Long chainstays, big tire clearances, steep front end. But also big differences. Canti brakes so 650B is not an option, High BB. (As a fix gear, I love it! Even if it is a small drawback on gravel. And even higher with those big tires. Longer stem (140 and it might even be a Salsa), much deeper, wide (semi-pista) bars. This worried me knowing the Trask gravel descents would hit 17% but the bike thrived with me in the drops!

This Salsa isn't going to be my bike. Hitting pedals with the low BB and 175 (my knees demand those cranks) would get old. I am a long ways from making the jump to a new braking system (disc) and even further from jumping to carbon fiber. Bars and stem would have to change. Still, I like this bike and I like where it came from. Conceived on the road, not the drawing board.

Ben

Just another in the long list of gravel bikes that will now accomodate 650b tires.

yawn...

Giant Revolt Advanced...same but better component spec and cost less.

I like the short stays and bb drop, looks good!

650b bikes started the gravel trend? Definitely for you and few others.

It does have a memorable graphics design, so thats cool.

we gotta have a fad!!!
we have gone from

• ultra stiff carbon road bikes to
• Fixed gear bikes to
• fat bikes to
• gravel bikes
• to 650b bikes to...
• what's next???
  • (folding electric powered 650b drop bar cargo road bikes???)

They did to an interesting job of crimping the seat tube and shoehorning a front derailer in there...https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f1c9a77e73.jpg

I'm thinking that fat bikes need to up their game and become morbidly obese bikes. ; )

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...aae05aeb57.jpg

I love how Salsa consider themselves a boutique mainstream brand all of a sudden. Those prices are insane. They are not Santa Cruz or Yeti.

They have a cult following like them though.

Yea...I laughed a bit. $4,400 for a middling-tier component bike. The gentrification and unaffordability problems keep escalating.

I bought a 10 year old gas-hybrid car for not much more than that 3 months back.