Matt's Bike Thoughts

According to Strava, I've put about 56 miles on the  Fezzari La Sal Peak (initial review here) . I've had the chance to try it out twice at Green Mountain (a popular Denver trail system) as well as Maryland Mountain (with the relatively new downhill-only mountain bike trail, Fast Money). These are some of my favorite trails in the area, and Fast Money is the trail that inspired me to get a full suspension bike in the first place. tl;dr: I'm returning the bike. Marketing Claims This is my main beef with the Fezzari, and it came out in my initial unboxing review. Water Bottles Let's talk hydration. Virtually no longer travel bike can take two water bottles. Salsa's new bikes can do it, but rely on Superboost for their wheel standards (yuck). The La Sal Peak website claims multiple times to be able to carry two water bottle cages, and this is a pretty big selling point for the bike. 2 water bottles "Holds Two Bottles" again without disclaimer Almost all revie...

I took my Salsa Woodsmoke out to the Maryland Mountain trail system, and even with the 27.5+ tires, I could tell I was underbiked, and it was making the whole experience harder than it needed to be. This inspired me to start looking at full suspension mountain bikes, with a wary eye towards geometry numbers. You see, I'd owned a 2019 Jamis Portal A2 before. It was awful. It was slow and uninspiring going uphill or on the flats, and it wasn't terribly confidence inspiring on the descents. The long reach and slack seat tube angle gave me nerve pain in the hands, even with ergo grips, 50mm riser bars, and a 35mm stem. The long wheelbase made it hard to steer and corner. I hated it, and decided that I must hate mountain bikes in general. Then I got on the Woodsmoke, which I loved riding, and that changed everything. The bike was comfortable, efficient, and fast. It was far more fun on climbs and descents, and the shorter chainstays really helped with cornering. Setup as a comfort/t...