SALSA BLACKTHORN CARBON
Salsa’s Blackthorn is a hot proposition: a trail bike that you can dress up or down
£3,200 (frame only) / 29in / lyon.co.uk
Best known for its gravel and adventure bikes, Salsa has also spent years blending secret sauces for top-tier mountain bikes. The stealthy Blackthorn is its current 140mm-travel rig that’s designed around a 160mm-travel fork, modern angles, and a go-anywhere, ride-anything philosophy. The Split Pivot suspension and ability to transform the chassis into a longer-travel rig also gives it something of a dual personality.
How so? Well, while it looks clinically clean, Salsa says the frame construction is burly enough to handle a 180mmtravel 29er fork, and, by swapping links and the shock stroke, the Blackthorn can be transformed into a completely different model called the Cassidy with 160mm of rear travel.
This Jekyll and Hyde trick saves on production costs as it allows a single base frame to morph into two very different platforms. And while this approach is not unique to Salsa, most other brands aren’t so upfront about it. The aftermarket link kit needed to perform such a character switch will only set you back £155, but you do need to factor in the cost of swapping the shock and fork travel to match, so it’s not something I see many riders doing.
Talking of shocks, the Blackthorn gets a Factory-level Fox DPX2 with its threeposition compression adjuster. Also, it’s worth pointing out that the leverage rate on both frame configurations is optimised for the extra progressivity inherent in air-sprung shocks, so there’s not enough ramp-up to run a coil spring. For the rear suspension, Salsa enlists the help of Dave Weagle and his Split Pivot design, where the rear-most pivot is concentric with the rear axle. It’s very similar to Trek’s ABP design and because the brake caliper is mounted on the seatstay rather than the chainstay, it offers the design engineer more freedom to fine-tune braking forces.
The concentric pivot also allows for a very clean frame layout, although its 157mm wide Super Boost hub spacing may raise a few eyebrows; especially for riders weighing up a frame upgrade but wanting to use their existing wheels and drivetrain.
The Blackthorn frame is available in four frame sizes (in both carbon or aluminium) where the carbon version here employs subtly visible layers of carbon weave everywhere except the 6066 alloy seatstays. Salsa uses an
EPS process, similar to other highend bike firms, to ensure optimum carbon-fibre density. The carbon-fibre
The concentric pivot allows for a clean frame layout
sheets are laminated around expanded polystyrene forms that swell during the curing process for better internal compaction and a smoother finish. Whether this allows less carbon overall I’m not sure, but knock or squeeze the top tube and it deforms easier and sounds thinner than some teak-like enduro rigs; something that’s reflected in the 14.74kg (32.5lb) build weight and a taut and lively ride feel.
Salsa also serves up a shock-mount flip-chip, but it’s more skinny fries than chunky chips, with a very subtle geometry tweak of just 4.5mm in BB height and less than 0.5° in head angle – the low setting delivering a 64.4° head angle and a 342mm BB height. In terms of sizing, a boutique American brand used to mean stubby frames with an elevated BB height, but thankfully Salsa’s mountain bike range has grown in line with its nation’s dinner plates. A 490mm reach on the size large is contemporary (verging on long), and delivers trail stability and tons of room