Salsa Wanderosa Review

I ended up receiving the Salsa Wanderosa to test at exactly the right moment in my summer. Having just returned from the lush, green climate and cool, clean air of Whistler, BC, I returned home to Boise to find my backyard trails charred from a recent fire, the AQI at unhealthy levels, and the temperatures soaring.

My motivation to ride a bike (and perhaps to live) took an immediate nose dive. So heavy was this plummet, in fact, that I left the Wanderosa unboxed and unridden for an entire week.

There was also the problem that I just didn’t GET the Wanderosa. Is it a gravel bike? A drop-bar mountain bike? Why did it need to be full suspension? What was the use case? The bad air and heat were making me exceptionally grumpy.

Fortunately, I finally got up the inspiration to get it built up and out on the road. It turns out the bike is exactly what I needed.

The Fazuza electric assist helped me overcome my low motivation and desire to keep from breathing too hard in the bad air. It also helped me go further, faster, so I could find places to ride outside of the recent burn.

I explored meandering gravel roads, but also new-to-me, barely-there singletrack. I turned up the assist and took long snack breaks.

The full squish was a nice break for my beat-up body that’s become accustomed to going hard on my rigid gravel bike and titanium hardtail. I gave up on “training” for a bit and just appreciated being out on a bike, looking at the clouds, and moving my body.

And it turns out that THAT’s the use case for this bike. Get outside. Move your body. Wander. None of it needs to be too serious.

Review In A Nutshell

Pros:

Electric assist allows you to go further, faster
Upright geo and full squish give tired bodies a break
Ideal for long weekend rides where the intent is enjoyment NOT suffering
Wide range of sizes

Cons:

I wasn’t a fan of the Fazua Road controls
Rear triangle was wide (may interfere with pedal stroke)
No range extender

Price: $7,999 (Wanderosa C Apex Eagle)

Buy at REI.com

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Video Review

What The Heck Is This Thing?

As someone who reviews bikes and is constantly trying to figure out exactly how one bike compares to another, the Wanderosa hurt my brain. It’s an electric drop bar bike, but from there things get more confusing.

The bike has large 29” wheels and fat 2.2” tires. (Sounds like a drop-bar mountain bike)! Add that to the full suspension–120 mm up front and 110 mm in the rear–and upright geometry. (Now it really sounds like a drop-bar mountain bike).

But Salsa adamantly markets it as a gravel bike, and after riding it for a while, I understood why. It’s a perfect gravel bike for folks who need a little extra confidence and comfort.

The bike feels exceptionally stable. It’s designed for easy ups (thanks e-assist) and confidence-inducing downhills. Exactly what so many of the riders I know are actually looking for, but whom the bike industry tends to ignore.

Compared to the skinny tires of a traditional gravel bike, the higher volume offers more traction and greater stability. Skidding out in a high speed corner becomes less likely.

The full suspension not only provides physical comfort it also provides mental comfort. Technical gravel descents become less demanding and require less skill with a little suspension and forgiving geometry.

All that said, it’s still fully capable of hitting up some trail as well. I took it on my fair share of singletrack (I just can’t help myself!), and it was comfortable and capable.

Once I stopped trying to define it and just RODE it, paved road, gravel road, singletrack, wherever, the bike came alive. It’s a gravel bike yes, but it’s also whatever you want it to be.

Goes Up and Comes Down In Comfort

In addition to providing confidence to those who might need some, the Wanderosa also offers plenty of comfort to those who are feeling a little beat. Now that I’m over 40, I can tell my body doesn’t bounce back quite as quickly. I need more rest days and less hard training.

The Wanderosa is a class 3 e-bike meaning it can go up to 28 mph and offers three different levels of assist. Depending on the day and how tired my legs were feeling, I’d ride it in different modes. Feeling fairly peppy? I’d ride it in the “green” least-assist mode. Tired and needing a little extra help? Pump up that e-assist to pink and leave it there.

I didn’t need to wait to feel rested or highly motivated to get out on a long ride with lots of climbing.

There is an app you can play with to adjust the power levels, and I’ve done that with other bikes with the Fazua drive systems, but on the Wanderosa I didn’t feel the need. The whole attraction to me with this bike was that it felt like a break from the mental effort I’m normally putting in to ride.

Even with an e-assist, long rides can often cause tired bodies because you’re still covering all that distance, all those washboards, rocks, and potholes. That’s where the comfortable carbon frame and suspension come into play.

I felt significantly less tired on this bike after a sustained 10-mile descent than on my regular gravel bike. And while it’s certainly heavier than that bike, at 40 pounds, it’s still a lot lighter than most e-bikes and felt reasonably easy for my smaller female frame to handle.

The geometry is forgiving and significantly less aggressive than the other gravel bikes I tend to ride. This was true even on the medium frame I was testing (a small would have been a better fit for me).

I was happy to learn that the Wanderosa comes in a wide range of sizes, including an extra small frame. My one big complaint when I tested the Salsa Moraine e-mountain bike was that there wasn’t a frame size to fit smaller riders, so it’s great that this offering feels more inclusive for women.

There was one weird geometry issue I discovered though. The rear triangle is WIDE and my legs would actually brush up against it when pedaling.

On all the test bikes I’ve ridden, I’ve never experienced that, and I even paid careful attention to my pedal stroke and body position because I was so surprised by it. Women and other petite folks with narrower pedals pedal strokes may want to test ride before buying to make sure this isn’t an issue.

Speaking of issues, my only other complaint with the Wanderosa had to do with the Fazua controls….

Issue With The Fazua Ride 60 Road Controls

Like other bikes I’ve tested with the Fazua drive systems, the engagement feels smooth and the motor is quiet. Unlike other Fazua systems I’ve tested, however, the road controls on the Fazua Ride 60 were problematic.

The power modes are controlled by tiny buttons on the tops of the drop-bars and they were fairly glitchy. The right button seized up on my first ride, and one of my next rides, the left button stopped responding, so I was stuck in the lowest “green” power mode. I had to allow it to time out / power off and turn back on before it would work again.

Since this is the only bike I’ve tested with the road controls, I don’t know if this is a common issue, or just a freak one my unit had. It was, however, fairly irritating.

Comes In Three Models

The Wanderosa I tested is the Wanderosa C Apex Eagle ($7,999). This is the cheapest of three models (ouch!) and the higher end models offer AXS (electronic shifting) and all the special extras.

For me, the entry-level model was plenty. It still offers powerful hydraulic brakes (big upgrade from the ones I’m used to on my Polygon Tambora and massive 200/180 mm rotors), a dropper post, and a perfectly adequate SRAM Apex drivetrain. With an electric assist, I find I’m not shifting quite as often as I do on an analog bike anyhow so having a lower level groupset didn’t bother me.

Bottom-Line

The Salsa Wanderosa saved me when I needed saving most, pulling me out of a mid-summer depressive funk. For that, it won my heart.

This won’t be the bike for the close-minded. They’ll feel superior and slightly confused. But for those of us who are tired, lacking confidence, or searching for lost joy on the bike, the Wanderosa is just the ticket.

I liked that I was able to explore slightly sus side-quests without questioning if I had the energy to turn back if the going got rough. I appreciated the motivation simply to wander–not to race or maximize my training time–just to enjoy time on two wheels, to see where that road or trail might lead.

With around 50 miles of range, I never ran out of juice, BUT if this was my bike to keep, I might wish that it had the ability to add a range extender. (Interestingly, there is a mount on the downtube for a range extender but none is available).

It would be the perfect option for low-pressure bikepacking and long-distance adventures….to “wander” even further. It turns out that with a little assist and a comfortable design, sometimes you don’t want to stop.

Buy at REI.com

Buy at Backcountry.com