Whilst booking it between appointments at Sea Otter, I saw someone wheeling around a shiny turquoise and yellow full suspension. It was the paint that first caught my eye–thinking it might be a Yeti–but then I saw the name on the down tube. Wait a second, did that say “Salsa”? This didn’t look like any of Salsa’s current bikes, so I made a mental note to find their booth.
As I discovered the next day, it was indeed a brand new bike called the “Redpoint.” You may think of Salsa as an adventure/gravel bike maker, but their line covers a lot of ground. Currently, they have 17 models; everything from the affordable steel Mariachi hardtail to the Bucksaw, a carbon fiber full suspension fat bike.
The Salsa Redpoint appears to be a capable trail/all-mountain bike with 150mm of rear travel and either 150 or 160mm up front, depending on the build. A look at their geometry chart reveals a bike that is thoroughly modern when it comes to numbers such as the head tube angle, reach, and chainstay length.
Salsa is offering two carbon builds and one aluminum build for the Redpoint. The top build is the Carbon X01 which gets you RockShox suspension (Pike fork, Monarch shock), a mostly SRAM X01 drivetrain, Guide brakes, Reverb Stealth post, and Roam 40 wheels. Retail for the X01 is $5,600.
The next step down is the Carbon GX1 at $4,600. For that, you get a Yari fork, Monarch shock, SRAM’s GX1 drivetrain, a Reverb Stealth dropper, and Roam 30 wheels. Below that is the aluminum GX 2×10 model. The suspension is the same as the GX1, but the drivetrain is a 2×10 instead of 1×11. Retail for that bike is $3,600.
Weights are all reasonable, with Salsa claiming 27.9lbs for the X01, 28.6lbs for the GX1, and 31.8lbs for the GX 2×10 (all size large). Interestingly, there’s only one color per build, meaning you may up- or downgrade if there’s a color you just can’t live without–army green for the X01, turquoise and yellow for the GX1, and white and blue for the GX 2×10. The bikes are available now–in fact, our favorite local shop Loose Nuts Cycles already has some on the floor.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that the Redpoint is compatible with 26+ wheels and tires? Salsa had one on display with a new tire from WTB–the Ranger–along with a 26″ Scraper rim. We did see a handful of other 26+ bikes at the show, but nowhere near the number of 27.5+ offerings. Confused? Yeah, us too. Just know that no matter what wheel size and tire width you want to ride, there’s a bike out there for you somewhere. Probably.
