Stepping into the drop-bar mountain bike fray, Salsa just dropped what’s being called the world’s first full suspension e-gravel bike. Though the Salsa Wanderosa is marketed as a gravel bike, the specs aren’t too far off what one would expect from a downcountry mountain bike and/or a lightweight eMTB. Here’s what we know about this chimera of a bike.
It’s got 120/110mm of travel front/rear
The Salsa Wanderosa features a RockShox SID fork with 120mm of suspension travel up front, and a SID shock that delivers 110mm of flex-stay enabled travel in the rear. To be clear, the Wanderosa isn’t the first full-suspension gravel bike; the Niner MCR 9 RDO was the first true full-suspension gravel bike to go into production, though Niner later discontinued the model. Other gravel bikes, like the Specialized Diverge STR, BMC URS LT, and Cannondale Topstone offer rear travel, though technically not suspension travel in the traditional sense. Those bikes use leaf springs, elastomers, and other non-pneumatic solutions to provide their rear travel, generally 30mm or less.
The Wanderosa’s geometry is set up to complement the bike’s suspension with a slack-for-gravel 65.3° head tube angle and 400mm+ reaches that are still rare in the world of gravel bikes. Five sizes, from extra small to extra large, will be available. At launch, the Wanderosa is offered in a carbon frame only, with various builds priced from $7,999 to $12,999.
Powering the Salsa Wanderosa is a 480Wh battery that feeds a FAZUA Ride 60 motor. Salsa says the bike is configured as a class 1 e-bike, meaning its pedal-assistance cuts off at 20mph. Electric gravel bikes are currently split between class 1 and faster, class 3 offerings like the Santa Cruz Skitch, capable of providing assistance up to 28mph. For gravel bikes that are designed to be ridden on paved and gravel roads primarily — like the Salsa Tributary — a class 3 designation makes sense. But for a bike like the Wanderosa, the class 1 designation makes it legal to ride not just on the road, but also on eMTB-designated singletrack.
The Wanderosa appears to introduce a new chassis to the Salsa line
Though recent gravel bike launches from Pivot and Pinarello take existing mountain bike frames and add drop bars to them, the Salsa Wanderosa appears to introduce an all-new chassis to the Salsa line. The brand’s other short-travel full suspension bike, the Spearfish, tucks the shock underneath the bike’s top tube, while the long-travel Notch e-bike features a vertical shock orientation. Unlike the Notch, the Wanderosa’s shock is largely shielded between frame members. The rear shock isn’t completely hidden, ala the Scott Spark, but you do have to squint to notice it.
The Wanderosa is designed to fit tires up to 29×2.35″. It’s not uncommon to see tires this size on enduro and even DH bikes, though few gravel bikes fit tires this wide. Given the MTB component spec, it’s not surprising to see 30.9mm diameter dropper posts on all builds, with up to 150mm of drop on the largest frame size.
Though the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race recently banned drop bar MTBs, the Salsa Wanderosa is clearly not designed for racing.
Launch materials note that the “Wanderosa is for riders seeking a gravel experience they can’t find anywhere else,” and this unusual spec clearly delivers on that promise.
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