First Ride: Salsa Mamasita
November 11th, 2006 by Guitar Ted
At Interbike this year, I was so impressed with the Salsa Mamasita that I gave it my vote as the “Best 29″er of the Show”. After riding it today, it continues to impress! The opportunity to sling a leg over this fine bicycle was afforded to me by Jason Boucher and Mike Reimer of Salsa Cycles. In fact, they came down in a blinding snowstorm to ride with me! Thanks for risking your skin for me guys!
Anyway, on to the bike. It’s a Scandium aluminum frame with chainstays much like a Dos Niner in that they are flattened to afford some vertical compliance. Then the wizards at Salsa decided to wave their carbon fiber wand over the bike and give it some carbon seat stays that are flattened in much the same fashion as the chainstays. What does it all mean? Well, the idea was to create a hardtail frame for fast XC riding that had a bit of forgiveness in the rear end.
Was the magic strong? Well, it’s not a Dos Niner mind you! It certainly has a much smoother ride quality than alot of bikes out there. Much like a carbon rigid fork tends to “round off” the sharp impacts, the rear end of the bike does a similar thing. It’s not suspension, but it’s very nice!
The other points about the bike were very impressive as well. It felt very light to ride, in that I felt I could change my line anytime I wanted to by simply twitching the bar left or right and lifting the rear end slightly. It handled without any sense of wheel flop on steep, slow climbs and during super slow-mo techy manueverings. At speed it felt very stable and it held it’s line very well, considering the slippery snow/mud conditions that I rode it in. In fact, traction wasn’t an issue at all with the bike.
The bottom bracket seemed rock solid. No movement during my repeated single speed like mashings up and down over today’s hilly terrain. Steering was fast and precise at speed. It carved turns very well for me. As a note, the fork was a Reba set at 80mm travel.
My impression is that Salsa nailed it when they went out to make this bike an all out 29″er XC racer machine. It’s lightweight feel, precise handling traits, and calm manner at speed will delight any fast single track lover or XC racer, in my opinion. All of this and it’s pinstriped good looks to boot!
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How about a comparo between the Mamasita to a good steel frame (Niner SIR, or Dorothy) in terms of compliance over really rought terrain? Could you also compare rigidity during full sprint/mash?
Has Salsa settled upon a HT angle to match the 38mm offset of a Reba? Would the 44MM offset of the WB Black Magic make the bike too twitchy?
Thanks.
Tim: I haven’t ridden a Niner at all, but in terms of comparing it to the Dorothy, I would say that the sensations were very similar. Keep in mind that the Dorothy was fitted with a Moots Titanium seat post. The seat post in the Mamasita was a Salsa Shaft. No doubt, if I had ridden the Mamasita with a titanium post it would have felt even smoother.
According to what has been posted on mtbr.com by Salsa, the head tube angles have been dialed and final production has started. The bike I rode was a pre-production sample. I believe the head angle is a bit steeper than 72 degrees, but that’s just a guess on my part. I remember reading that this was the case, but we did not discuss angles as they didn’t want to taint my perception one way or the other.
Putting a fork with more offset on it would quicken up the handling even more, yes. Too twitchy? I’ll leave that up to the folks out there to decide, but I really liked the way it handled out there today. I wouldn’t do it.
Tim: Looking over the comments I forgot to address your sprinting question. I did not detect, nor see, any movement laterally in the bottom bracket area of the Mamasita. The Dorothy had a slight amount of flex laterally under extreme loads. I think most folks would be hard pressed to feel anything at all during hard efforts. (Well, other than their screaming legs and burning lungs, but that’s an entirely different issue!)
Ted, Thanks for the info!
Either the Mamasita, SIR, or Dorothy are my choices to replace my GF X-Cal. I have been using a WaltWorks rigid fork with 45mm of offset, to spiff up the steering. I would not want any more offset.
Which of the new carbon forks would you pair with the Mamasita? Dorothy?
Tim: To stay with what the designers intentions were for both the Dorothy and the Mamasita, I’d stick with something like the Bontrager Switchblade, which is based off of a Reba’s geometry and has 38mm of offset. That’s going to match up really well with either bike.