New Salsa Marrakesh
 

While waiting for bike shops to actually have bikes for sale again, one of the bikes at the top of my fantasy buying list has been the Salsa Marrakesh.

This week the new Marrakesh appeared on the Salsa website, and I have to say I find it confusing. In the last year or two they had dropped down from Deore to Sora components, which I had understood as a necessary compromise so they could change from barends to brifters.

This year the barends are back, but they have made what looks like a lateral move (at best?) from Sora to Alivio.

Curious what others think. Is there some design improvement I’m missing, or is it a downgrade?

Or maybe they are just working with what they can get from suppliers in the pandemic?

Really it could be anything. People who tour with these classic style steel touring bikes tend to be a curmudgeonly bunch of old fashioned retro grouches who think in terms of reliability and repairability. Touring made me one before I turned 30...

Anyway many of these people tend to be suspicious of brifters, thinking of them as unreliable and prone to malfunctions. You also cannot repair one on the road. A bar end shifter is as simple as shifters go so even if you lose indexing or the friction element you can usually bodge something together until you get a new barend shifter.

Personally I'm getting the new Sora 3x9 for my Disc Trucker. The 9-speed shimano is the last shimano generation which allows a complete mix and match of road and mountain components. So getting the sora brifters doesn't force one to use road components.

How does changing four drivetrain components make it a "new bike"? It is the same bike Salsa has sold for 6 years, with different deraileurs, crank and shifter.

If the term "fantasy buying list" is being thrown around and a stock mid level to lower level build is on it, I want to see other "fantasy" lists.

Coffee list: Dunkin Donuts Dunkachinco, Starbucks latté
Clothing list: Hanes 3 pack, free event shirt
Restaurant list: Sizzler, Applebees

Dream big! The Marrakesh frame isn't bad and would be a fun build but a stock build like that is not really a good fantasy. It is the same bike with different parts on it and honestly none of those part lists are that exciting and nothing I would fantasize about. Nothing absolutely terrible but nothing all that great. That is why building your own bike is so rewarding, you get what you want on it and don't need to replace something right away because you don't like it or live with it because it is working and no need to change a working part.

Haha, if it’s that kind of fantasy maybe I’d think about a Co-motion or Waterford build.

But I only mean it’s a fantasy because nobody has anything in stock. Bike shopping is still like going to the store last year when buying Charmin was a fantasy because the only thing on the shelf was two rolls of Bulgarian toilet paper.

...potentially in conflict with handlebar bags, sausage rolls, front-loaders, baskets and/or rack-top dunnage.

@ndrose enjoy.
I got one a few years ago and unfortunately, I have yet to take a maiden trip.

really good point.
I wonder if Alivio has now gotten the techno gizmos quality wise that Deore used to have. As a Deore user for 30 years, the stuff just always was good, basic, lasted a fricken long time and could be bought anywhere in the world if needed. So maybe alivio is like that now. To us oldies, Alivio certainly has a cheapo aspect to it, buuuuuuuut we have old Alivio shod bikes and it just keeps on working.
I'd still rather take a Deore 10 speed setup if using barends, I realize deore wont work with sti's, so Alivio was probably a budget price thing? Although who knows, maybe it was a "get what the hell you could" thing, ---oh, and also 10 spd bar ends probably dont work with Dynasys 10 spd stuff, ie a Deore 10 spd RD....so theres that....

Go for it. Co-Motion and Waterford can probably build you a bike where a lot of folks QBP included are having a tough time getting bikes. I love my Co-Motion and would highly recommend them. Also love Waterford and have a co-worker who has two or three of them and a few former co-workers who own them as well and love them. I want the Giant Steps one Richard built for Dave the owner at River City but I know that would never be sold and I wouldn't dare ask Dave. However I may ask Richard to build me something similar though maybe a different song (nothing against Giant Steps).

Live life to the fullest live the dream.