Salsa Cycles

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Salsa Cycles is a US bicycle brand . It was founded by Ross Shafer in the early 1980s and has been part of QBP since 1997 .

history

Enthusiastic about the first mountain bikes and frame construction , bicycle mechanic Ross Shafer manufactured his first racing bike frame in 1976 in Paradise, California. During this time he worked in bicycle shops and as a carpenter . Its frame was initially sold under the Red Bush label . Eventually he became a full-time frame builder and chief technician at Santana Cycles . During this time he built his first off-road bike with 650 B wheels in 1981. After a year at Santana, Shafer switched to building MTBs. He then started his own company in 1982 with six individual pieces. Because he found the names of bike brands meaningless and his own too boring, he called his bike brand Salsa. Through the contact with many cyclists, Shafer made the experience that for many of his customers the stems of their bikes were not really suitable, so he initially launched three of his own series of stems.

The first Salsa models were mountain bikes with rigid fork and a largely classic frame geometry. Shafer was one of the first to use a quick release for the seat post clamp to enable quick height adjustment of the saddle on his MTBs.

In 1987, Ross Shafer began sponsoring Salsa, the first women's mountain bike racing team. Salsa became the official supplier of the American Olympic time trial team.

In 1997 Ross Shafer sold his company to Quality Bicycle Products , one of the largest bicycle distributors in the United States. After the sale, Shafer began making pedal steel guitars .

In 2016, Salsa Cycles announced to its dealers in the US that they would be partnering with Recreational Equipment, Inc. from the 2017 program . REI is a US consumer cooperative for outdoor equipment and also offers courses and trips to its members. Initially, Salsa should be offered in 11 REI stores.

The Franconian company Cosmic Sport is responsible for selling salsa and other QBP brands in German-speaking countries  .

bikes

Today, Salsa Cycles mainly builds mountain bikes and touring bikes (bikepacking). Long-established models are the Salsa Fargo MTB and the Salsa Vaya cyclocross bike

In the meantime, Salsa equips many bikes with 1x11 or 1x12 gears, in line with the trend that has been emerging since 2015.

Web links

Salsa homepage

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Meet The Maker: Ross Shafer - Founder of Salsa Cycles - Bikepacker . In: Bikepacker . August 28, 2017 ( bikepacker.com [accessed December 11, 2017]).
  2. ↑ a b Ross Shafer . In: Marin Museum of Bicycling and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame . March 27, 2014 ( mmbhof.org [accessed December 11, 2017]).
  3. ↑ QBP's Salsa Cycles to begin selling through REI . In: Bicycle Retailer and Industry News . ( bicycleretailer.com [accessed December 11, 2017]).
  4. ↑ Home - Cosmic Sports. Retrieved December 11, 2017 (German).
  5. ↑ Salsa Cycles' 2016 Bikes Are Ready for Adventure . In: Bicycling . August 28, 2015 ( bicycling.com [accessed December 11, 2017]).