New bike – Salsa Horsethief (almost)

I have a demo on a Tallboy LT on Saturday but finding it hard, on paper, to justify the expense in comparsion to a Horsethief frameset.

Amen.

Does the ’12 have no bottle bosses at all? I need somewhere to hang my battery for nightrides.

IMO one of the best traits is the length, you can really “feel” your position in the bike and have a lot of latitude to move forward/back and fine tune the weight on each wheel.

Yeah, funny how many 29ers are sold as ‘feeling just like a 26er’. I want a 29er to feel like a 29er!

It is quite long but its still ok, just takes a little bit more man handling on some stuff but it works well regardless. Mines built with 140mm revs, arch ex, reverb etc

Does the ’12 have no bottle bosses at all?

Some under the downtube, they’d be ok for a battery.

No XLs left.

Glad I got mine when I did then! The fit’s one of the best things about it. A 2013 one still cheaper than a SC tho! Also a HT is 0.6″ longer in the TT than an XL tallboy LT, which is all good in my book. Can run a 60mm stem and get a good position.

Salsa say ETT on a medium before sag is 618mm (which seems way long to me).

How much, in which direction, does it change when sagged? (Who’s on one at about 5’8″).

(Assumption – the shock compresses when sagged so 25% of 120mm travel brings it down to the 590-600mm range which is about right, if that’s how it works).

Eh? Why would ETT change? Saddle’s (and pedals) are still the same distance from the headtube.

Good point.

I’d need a small then.

Hmmmm!

On my large I measured the TT at 625 whereas they quote 638. All other figures were the same. This was good though as the long TT on paper was my only worry about it. Currently running a 50mm stem which seems ok, might try a 60 I have laying around. I run a 70 on my large Scandal 29er but forget its TT off the top of my head, ~620 iirc

Ta, interesting, if it was 10-15mm out on paper a medium would be spot on. I’m reluctant to buy a small, I’m not really a ‘small’ person I’m a mediumish person so alarm bells to clang a bit.

OTOH my XL measured up exactly as the geo chart.

Were you measuring correctly?

I measured it like the below, centre of head tube horizontally to the centre of the seat post, just checked again, 625-626mm. Maybe thats not how they measure it but thats how I did my Scandal for comparison when deciding what FS frame to go for 🙂

and yes I know my bars are high but it works for me and stops my wrist pain 🙂

Some bikes look right, some look silly, especially 29er FS. These look right.

Yer I like it heh. Re:measurements, bear in mind mines a 2013 which is what the online figures are for, perhaps 2012 was slightly different, worth an email to salsa if looking at an older one

2012 measurements are here:

http://salsacycles.com/bikes/2012_horsethief

ETT comes out as you’d expect if you use reach/stack/SA to calculate it. Note that it changes a little based on fork length (3mm for 20mm of fork on their charts)

Thing is, 10mm out is easily within error if the bike wasn’t on a level surface or the measurement wasn’t dead level. So whilst that could account for your error, it could also account for mine measuring up the same and it’s not really!

Having said that, on paper I worked out the bars/saddle distance to be the same (with 60mm stem) as my XC bike, and that’s what it’s ended up as (and that’s an easier measurement to take).

Ta. ’12 geo is same as ’13 by the charts.

Anyone out there my height (172cm), what are you on?

Nearly ready to press the button but it could be an expensive punt!

Have to say dlr that looks good.

Just thought I’d drop a pic of mine in this thread too, 😉

XL 2012 fairly burly build (tho not heavy)

^^ looks like a 26er, must be a big bike!

^^ looks like a 26er, must be a big bike!

Oh yeah, it’s glorious 🙂

A few points for scale: that’s a 200mm front rotor and 2.4″ tyre, the bars are 760 wide.

When I’m on it then it just looks like a 26 too, I’m just actually further away than you think 😉

OTOH my XL measured up exactly as the geo chart.

Were you measuring correctly?

FWIW I have a medium Selma HW – according to the geometry is 600mm ETT, it measures up as 585mm on my ruler. I don’t see how I can be 15mm out!

eh? A 60cm headtube?

oops no ETT, edited.

I checked with Salsa, from the horse’s mouth the only geometry difference between ’12 and ’13 Horsethief is “The down tube is shaped differently to fit a water bottle”.

Thought I’d bump this to see how everyone is getting on with theirs? Mine is nearly finished and I’m getting antsy!

Mine nearly done too. Been a bit slack on the biking front lately 😳
Will post pics when done 🙂

Finally got my XX1 cranks through and decided to stick the groupset on my ‘Thief rather than my hard-tail ‘race’ bike:

Weighs in at approximately 13kg.

Get that Reverb hose sorted! 😉

I really like this! The one on the front page has got my intrest!!!