Gravel Grinder Gear: Salsa Cycles Vaya

Editor's Note: Gravel Grinder News would like to welcome Salsa Cycles sponsored rider, Matt Gersib to the site. Matt has been a top flite mountain bike racer for 20 plus years and has worked in the cycling industry as well for many of those years. Matt now is employed by Snitly Carr as a Public Relations Manager, but still finds plenty of time to ride and race his Salsa bicycles often. Matt makes his home in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife, and if he's not at work, he's probably out riding gravel somewhere in and around Lincoln. Here's Matt's take on the Salsa Cycles Vaya..........

Salsa's Vaya blends the strength, smooth ride and classic appeal of chromoly steel with Avid disc brakes, integrated f/r rack and fender mounts and room for big, gravel road-eating 40-45c tires.

Six Months on the Salsa’s All-Road Adventurer, the Vaya: by Matt Gersib

The recent growth in the popularity of gravel grinder events and bikepacking trips has spurred an evolution in the bicycles and equipment cyclists have at their disposal for such adventures. Never before have so many great options existed for pedaling to remote places, whether on roads or trails. Today, it’s possible to find a drop bar long-haul adventure/touring bike that’s well-suited for whatever type of route you’re looking to conquer, whether roads or trails.

A number of companies offer such bicycles, but one company stands at the forefront of the genre — Salsa Cycles. It offers several models that are well suited to various touring duties, from touring on paved roads and paths (the Casseroll), to gravel and dirt road adventures (the Vaya), to full-on off-road adventure touring (the Fargo). And while each of Salsa’s touring bikes has its own unique virtues, the focus of this test is the Vaya, the company’s latest addition to the line.

The Vaya draws its lineage from a number of past and current Salsa models. It slots into Salsa’s line up in the spot formerly occupied by the highly acclaimed disc brake, steel La Cruz model (not to be confused with the current titanium version of the La Cruz). And in many ways the Vaya is more of the bike I was hoping the La Cruz would have been. For while I always loved my La Cruz, its ‘cross bike geometry was undeniable and its tire clearance more limited than what I wanted in my “ideal” gravel frame. In the Vaya, Salsa addressed both of these areas effectively.

The Vaya was a huge risk for Salsa. They already had a winning, in fact some would say, category defining, off-road adventure bike, in the Fargo. So why would they go back and re-jigger their (already great selling) disc brake 'crosser, the steel La Cruz to more directly compete with the Fargo on the sales floor? Because they ride, and they saw the opportunity to build a bike that more precisely fit the type of riding they and the riders they associated with were doing. I think it's brilliant and it works. And honestly, for me, while I didn't want to have both a steel La Cruz and a Fargo, I'm stoked to have both a Vaya and a Fargo, because they complement each other very well. So in my opinion, if you can swing it financially, they're the perfect pair. Otherwise, you have to choose your weapon and pull the trigger.

Even with 40c Schwalbe Marathon Extreme tires mounted, the Vaya has plenty of clearance. For riders primarily interested in running 35-40c tires, the Vaya offers a more compliant ride than Salsa's more off-road biased Fargo model due to a lighter gauge tubeset tuned for more road-based adventures, whether paved or gravel.

The Vaya can handle rough roads and an occasional singletrack foray. It has the fork/stay clearance to handle up to 45c Panaracer Fire ‘Cross or Bontrager XR1 Team 1.9 sneakers, but its sweet spot is running 40 to 45c semi-slick or low-knob tires and using the compliance of the sweet steel frame and robust tires to make quick work of whatever road you choose. That makes it the perfect choice for a long ride/race like the Dirty Kanza 200 mile gravel grinder or a multi-day loaded tour on mixed surfaces. It can also just as easily pull daily duty as a comfortable, reliable daily commuter bike that’ll deftly haul your gear to and from work. Plus, with threaded rack and fender mounts included front and rear, versatility is the name of the game with the Vaya. Thanks Salsa!

Since I own both a Vaya and a Fargo, I’ve had a lot of folks approach me asking which bike they should buy for themselves. In all honesty, this is a pretty simple question to answer, because for me it all boils down to where they’re primarily planning on riding the bike. You see, the Fargo is a 29er… a mountain bike. It’s meant to be ridden on trails. So if they’re interested in a drop bar mountain bike, I recommend they buy a Fargo. But if they’re interested in primarily riding gravel roads, especially if they want to ride with other people, and particularly if they want to do it going fast, the Vaya is definitely the bike to choose.

For the most part I’ve found this to hold true for most riders with just a few exceptions. A couple of folks that I thought would go with a Vaya ended up on the Fargo because they wanted the ability to run fatter tires at some point, even though they primarily wanted to ride gravel. Cool… A couple of other riders decided on the Vaya, even though they planned to run the fattest tires they could run in the frame most of the time, simply because they wanted the lighter, more compliant ride of the Vaya frame. Again, a good choice, especially if they didn’t intend to tour off-road extensively. But those riders had specific visions of what they wanted, and could only have one bike to fulfill their intended roles. When you buy, you’ll have to decide what kind of riding matters the most to you and make the call for yourself.

This image shows the Vaya's low bottom bracket well. A full 75mm of drop combines with generous 450mm long chainstays to give the Vaya great stability and ride quality over bumps and potholes, with awesome tracking in corners and great tire clearance too. Compared to Salsa's 'cross racing frames, the Vaya sports 25mm longer chainstays. Nice...



The great news is that the Vaya and Fargo are both two of my favorite bikes, so it’s tough to go wrong with either. The Vaya’s frame, built from Salsa’s proprietary “Classico” steel tubing, is an example of how well the company understands how to make a great riding steel frame. Smooth is the characteristic defines the Vaya’s ride over choppy roads and the frame and fork’s stability in challenging conditions inspires confidence at all times. The long fork offset, 71.5 degree headtube angle (on my 57cm frame) and low bottom bracket (75mm drop) all contribute to the stability and solid handling of the Vaya. This is a bike you can literally ride with no hands on choppy roads!

Kevin Wilson snapped this photo of me at the first checkpoint of this year's TransIowa v.6 event. Though completely covered in mud, my Vaya didn't skip a beat. The 2x9 Shimano drivetrain and Salsa chainrings shifted cleanly right up to the point when I pulled the plug, about 90 miles in.

Since I received my Vaya as a frameset and built it up from a mixture of new and old parts, my build has no reflection on the “stock” build available from Salsa, so I won’t go into the specifics of the performance of my groupset performance. However, I will call out a few notable new components that I used in my build. First is the new iteration of WTB’s venerable Ti-railed SST saddle. This is my first experience with the newly re-released classic, and it’s every bit as good as the original. For WTB saddle lovers, these are good days. Heck, I say buy two! Keep a spare new in the box, just in case WTB stops making them again.

The Salsa Delgado Cross rims are the perfect choice for the Vaya, and that’s what I laced up for mine. I’ve had the opportunity to try a few different tires on them now and have come to appreciate their strength, simplicity and consistency in build-up. These are good, nice looking rims and they don’t cost an arm and a leg. Very nice…

The Salsa Woodchipper handlebar is quickly becoming a classic among the gravel grinder crowd, and for good reason. Good reach/drop and a nice, wide flare give it great leverage in the drops — perfect for climbing and descending sketchy gravel roads. It’s strong enough for full-on off-road use too, so you can run it on the Fargo too with no worries. Game on!! I love it – especially the 46cm version.

So, in my “perfect world,” would I change anything on the Vaya? That’s a tough question, because I think any changes to improve the bike in one area or another would detract from the bike in a different area. So no, I really wouldn’t change a thing. And from the others I’ve spoken to who own Vayas, the consensus is that it’s a superb riding, excellent handling bicycle, and a great value too. It breaks free from the cyclocross racing bike geometry mold and charts its own course as a true all-road adventure bike. That’s an exciting development for a cyclist like me.

Salsa Country: 2010 Dirty Kanza 200 champion, Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey captures this image of the early lead pack of the race, which contains several riders on Salsa Vaya and La Cruz models. Salsa's experience on the front lines of long-haul gravel grinder events has helped their designers evolve the geometry and features to better meet the needs of riders, making it a highly sought after ride for 2010.

If you’re interested in buying a Vaya in 2010, my advice is to buy it quick. From what I’ve heard from a couple of local Salsa dealers, it doesn’t sound like the supply of 2010 models will hold up through the year, as it’s been a very popular model for Salsa Cycles. Given my experience with the bike, I can’t say I’m surprised.

I received my Vaya through my sponsorship as a 2010 Salsa sponsored rider, but I have not been compensated for my review and the opinions I’ve expressed are solely my own. You can reach me at dirtstories@gmail.com with any comments or follow-up questions.