Salsa Is An Early Bird Again With Its New 32-inch Drop Bar MTB

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Salsa has released a new 32-inch drop-bar mountain bike called the Fargo 32. The Fargo 32 is pitched as a bikepacking and adventure bike, putting it somewhere between a true mountain bike and a gravel bike.

It is also a category of bike that seems ripe to tinker with the ever-increasing momentum of the 32-inch wheel trend.

While 32-inch wheels have yet to be added to mainstream gravel and mountain bikes, it seems more and more likely that it will soon be a part of the catalog of major brands. Salsa, as they did with the Warbird for gravel, is hoping to anticipate a new norm. The Fargo 32 is that anticipation.

Beyond the extra-large wheels, the Fargo is built as a long, stable bike made for the unknown. Expectations about frame geometry and what constitutes “normal” measurements are still fluid in these early days of 32-inch wheels, but the Fargo 32 does seem particularly long and slack. Not only is there a sliding chain stay that extends from 465 to 482mm, but the head tube is also a shallow 67.°

All of this is firmly in mountain biking territory, even in the elongated world of 32-inch wheel bikes. Nevertheless, with the bike pitched as a drop bar machine, it does make the bike an interesting point in this discovery period. Gravel is in when it comes to 32-inch gravel bikes.

Specs and geometry

The Fargo 32 is available in titanium and steel configurations.  Here are the frame specifications:

• Carbon Fiber Fork
• 32”x 2.4” tire clearance
• Max Suspension Fork Length 80mm travel
• Design Wheel/Tire Size (Tire Clearance) 32 x 2.4″
• Front/rear Hub Spec: 110mm/148mm
• ZS44 upper / EC44 lower head tube bearings
• 1-1/8″ Steerer Tube
• Stock Headsets (S.H.I.S.) Upper: ZS44, Lower: EC44
• 27.2mm Seatpost
• No front derailleur clamp
• 73mm BSA bottom bracket, threaded
• 40t [55mm Chainline] max chainring

Both frames also share the same geometry:

Why are 32-inch wheels starting to find their way on gravel bikes?

The whole idea behind increasing the size of a gravel bike’s wheel is all about efficiency. While for some more efficiency is more speed, the 32-inch wheel trend is very much built to be better for a fairly wide swath of people across the spectrum of pace.

Early on in this evolution towards bigger wheels, most of the focus has been around mountain bikes, and this is for good reasons. Primarily, larger wheels help with a bike’s “roll over.” When the circumference of a wheel is larger, it has a lower angle of attack when the rubber meets the terrain. This translates to less suspension loss — one of two forces that work against positive rolling resistance — and retains angular momentum over loose or inconsistent terrain.

For mountain biking, where there are big roots and rocks, a bike’s rollover is huge. In gravel, roll over is theoretically less significant in the overall equation. Overall, that difference has translated to less conviction that gravel would see the same movement towards larger wheels in the same way.

Nevertheless, there is a growing number of wheels and tires that make testing more comprehensive around 32 inches as a viable gravel system, regardless of weight penalties, size concerns, and the changes to handling that may or may not be prominent in the shift to bigger frames to handle bigger wheels.

Sizes and pricing

The Salsa Fargo is certainly developed more in line with 32-inch mountain bikes rather than something that will look and act in line with gravel bikes.

32-inch gravel bikes are coming, and this is at the very least a test case for drop bar 32 -inch wheel bikes, but this is something in between. With the long wheelbase and slack measurements, the Fargo 32 is geared towards stability and carrying capacity rather than gravel speed and agility.

With those parameters, the upside is that the bike can cover a broad range of sizes that 32-inch wheel gravel bikes have tried to work through. Smaller sizes are harder to come by in 32-inch bikes, but with the Fargo, the smallest size can fit a 5’1” rider. Additionally, Salsa is providing one of the more affordable frame options on the market at this time, with both titanium and steel frame options. The titanium frame is listed for $3499 USD ($4969 CAD), while the steel frame is $1799 USD ($2559 CAD).