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For the past few months my personal bikes have been all but completely neglected in favor of the Salsa La Cruz. The shiny orange steel sings a siren song, calling me to ride. The clearance for big, fat, go-anywhere tires makes the bike so versatile I don’t even need to think about what the day’s ride will bring—I know I’ll be able to handle it.
For example, the other day I woke up and rode the La Cruz in to work. The commute across town is about nine miles, and mostly on well-maintained roads. When I get close to work I’ve got the option to take the back streets through a rough neighborhood, cut through a debris riddled construction zone, or duck into the park with some tall curbs to hop. No matter which way I go, the La Cruz is fast and dependable enough to handle it.
On the way home my coworker—who happens to have bought his own La Cruz after seeing mine—asks me to show him an alternate route home. So we head out on a route that’s about 16 miles with 1200 feet of climbing. We catch a roadie sleeping on River Avenue and pass him like we’re on a breakaway from the peleton. He catches us a half mile later, but his 23mm tires can’t hang with the off-road section of the bike path. We carry on and cross the bridge back into the urban jungle. A 500 vertical foot climb comes next, followed by a sweet descent into my part of town. We climb out of the valley and my coworker heads home while I dip into Frick Park for a little taste of singletrack. I leave the park and breeze past a mountain biker on the hillclimb. He catches up to me at a stoplight and marvels at my bike’s disc brakes, “Can you ride it off-road?”
“I just came from Frick Park,” I reply with a smile. Then I cross the street, hop a curb and cut across the grass in Mellon Park. Back on the beat-up pavement of East Liberty Blvd, I’m not worried at all about the potholes. I bunnyhop the small ones, carve around the deep ones and boost little airs off the city’s attempts at patching the roadway.
One of the best things about the La Cruz is the wheelset. Although big tires will keep you safe in a lot of situations, tough hoops are still necessary for aggressive riding. When you stuff the front wheel into the square edge of a curb or let the rear wheel drop into an eight-inch-deep pothole, you’ll be glad the La Cruz comes with 29” mountain bike wheels. Of course the wheels are fairly heavy, contributing to the bike’s 25 pound combined weight, but I personally don’t mind at all. Salsa’s house-brand rims are tough as nails, and the Shimano XT hubs are built to last and easily serviceable.
Speaking of Shimano, I can’t really say enough about how nice the 105 shifters have performed. I’ve barely made any adjustments for cable stretch, yet they shift as nice as the day I set the bike up. The 105 levers are very comfortable and the action is noticeably crisper than the entry-level Tiagra shifters on my road bike.
One of my only gripes with the La Cruz is with the front disc brake cable routing. Sure, it looks clean on the showroom floor, but the housing starts rubbing the paint off the headtube in relatively short order. And I don’t believe it’s because the paint isn’t durable. In fact, the paint seems to be pretty bombproof, as it’s not showing any signs of wear anywhere else.
Also, I’ve noticed that my heels tend to clip the chainstays every now and again. I find it to be most pronounced when I wear my carbon soled mountain bike shoes (with armored heelcup), and not so much when I’m riding in my soft leather commuter shoes. My coworker says he’s experienced the same thing from time to time, and he rides in skate shoes with toe cages.
Of course neither of these criticisms keep me from riding the La Cruz every chance I get. Unfortunately, my last complaint does. The La Cruz is a rolling thief magnet. It’s not much of an issue for recreational riding or suburban commuting, but it’s a major factor for most urban cyclists. As much as I would have liked to have taken it to NYC for the Bicycle Film Festival, I opted for a much lower profile bike instead. The same holds true for whenever I head out for a night on the town here in Pittsburgh. The sweet paintjob and disc brakes are enough to tickle a common crook’s fancy, let alone a professional bike thief. It might be nice if Salsa offered a second paint option—perhaps gunmetal gray or drab green—for life in the inner city.
On the other hand, I guess you can’t blame Salsa for makin’ it look good.
Visit www.salsacycles.com for more information.
I know you want PEOPLE to be the main subject of your magazine, but as your printed magazine gets better and better (which it is), it would be cool to have equipment reviews such as these in there also. My favorite non-bicycling way to relax is reading, so being able to set back with my feet up and read your magazine would even be better with some of these equipment reviews thrown in the mix. Besides, you and Brad have always been great at equipment reviews.
Anyway, whatever you do, just don’t ever take sides in a political debate. That could be bad! And I won’t ever bring up politics on your forum anymore as my part. It leads to unnecessary strife, division, and loss of focus.
I disagree Salsa should bother offering the La Cruz in a second paint option for ‘life in the city’. If you want a tough CX bike you can ride around in the city with no disc brakes and a drab color, then you need a Surly Cross-Check. One of the nice things about Salsa is their better paint job. Although one can use any bike anywhere, Surly’s branding and product seems more concerned ‘life in the city’, while Salsa is somewhat less obssesed with that. Even a quick look at their websites reveals as much.
You’re right, one cannot blame Salsa for making the La Cruz look good. One can only praise them.
Cross bikes are so much fun in the urban environment, the go over anything versatility makes them a real blast to ride. 700 x 32/35 tires rule.
Dude, raise your seat.
I love the last picture. Salsa should call the color Sunkist Orange. It’s interesting that it has good paint, My paint on my Salsa mountain bikes is pretty weak… It looks fantastic, but shows wear quickly. It doesn’t really matter, bikes are for riding not looking at. Nice write up on the bike… Now I want one of those too.
Nice review, Jeff, sounds like a sweet ride! I dig the orange paint scheme, thief-magnet notwithstanding.
I’ve experienced the same chainstay issue on my Casseroll, which is aggravated by the fact that I run it fixed. Catching a heel cup on a braze-on while spinning super fast downhill on a fixie is NOT cool. I think if they just shift the cable stop a millimeter or two under the stay (or forward even), the problem would be greatly reduced.
Funny. That cable stop is my only complaint I’ve ever truly had about my Crosscheck. It has a braze-on under the chainstay that I catch on my shoe occasionally. It’s getting to the point that I think I’m just going to head it up and pull it off. I’ll use full-length housing if I have to in the future.
Great review. I love how your commute sounds just as fun (and funny) as mine! I also love how that bike looks. I want to put drop bars on my bike now…
What size the frame is? Saddle may be could be a bit higher..?
coi!!!
i just got the frameset…now i’ll be drizzling jism on it soon..CK headset first!!!
Top marks for sock coordination.
Why try to lecture people about saddle height? Bikes should be set up according to a rider’s preferences, and what feels ‘right’ to them – not how you ride, or what ‘convention’ dictates.
My saddles are all a few cm lower than bars ~ the they slope up! What a sin – but they feel just right, and I can ride for hours longer than I could on a bike that was set up in the ‘required’ way.
Great review! I’m currently on the lookout for a CX ride (that I’ve blogged here http://www.mountainbikingnewzealand.co.nz/2009/05/12/cyclocross-choices/) and was “umming and arring” at the overall cost….if not the lack of choice when it comes to CX bikes on the market.
This review just made my mind up fully though….Lacruz it is. Now let’s hope that i can get the correct size all the way over here in New Zealand!
Ride on!
What’s 10 speed like in the mud? Is it a little finniky?
great reveiw.Paul from NZ,can organise one for ya here in NZ.
Wondering if anyone knows whether La Cruz will remain the same for 2010? Any noteworthy changes to be expected? thanks.
Yeah, guys, enough about the seat position already. Some of you may still hold veiled desires to be mistaken for Lance A. out there on the road, and thus need to make sure your seat is at “cool” looking height; however, in the end, unless you’re trying to win a race (when having your seat above your handlebars will increase your efficiency and speed), then comfort should be #1. Following the wisdom of guru Grant Petersen, we should be riding our bikes in such a way so that we can see what’s going on around us (obviously, this rider was able to do that quite well!). and making sure that it’s pleasurable and comfortable everyday, so we want to get on again the next. Here’s a convo about seat height that comes to a similar conclusion–there IS NO “proper” seat height: http://tinyurl.com/7lj1
Hi there,
this question was already asked … WHAT size is the frame?
THX
Paint on my La Cruz chips off easily. No complaints otherwise. Replaced fork wit Winwood carbon, great upgrade!!
I use reflective tape to protect the paint from the cables. You can ssee more details here: http://cyclolexia.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!1017096D6022D732!195.entry
Enjoy!
Salsa has shuffled things around a bit since this review was written, and this particular iteration of “La Cruz,” unfortunately, has been discontinued. “La Cruz” will now be the name for its expensive titanium race-oriented cyclocross model (available as frame only). The basic platform of the old orange “La Cruz” survives as the “Vaya,” but without the high-quality True Temper tube set.
Salsa seems to have lost interest in sourcing material from anywhere other than Taiwan and China. They are trying to establish some elan for their generic 4130 cro-moly tubing as being “Salsa Classico,” but those who love the ride of fine steel will notice the difference. I think this 2008-2009 version of “La Cruz” will soon become one of those Craigslist classics that everyone will be looking for. Too bad there are no rear rack mounts.