Salsa a la Carte - 1992

I got this frame shortly after I was so wise to buy the first Salsa a la Carte in white (have a look here). 

To me, Salsa a la Carte are perfect rider with it`s unique geo but at the same time they are classic MTB collectors diamonds with all these cult stories around the Scoobi brand and its maker, Ross Shafer. And of course, they are god dam pretty, especially the Jelly Beans paint

Every report I read on the Salsa a la Carte, names the unique feeling, party polarized. These pictures describes it quite well what makes the difference. The long steerer tube makes you sit comfortably, great on long trailes, but at the same time she climbs like a goat. Here a comparison to the quite sportive Bontrager OR (Link to more details)

....I seem not to be kamikaze / belong to the group of riders who force the bike though its paces, I really enjoying the longer wheelbase. Thanks MBA 1991 for this report, all the credits belong to you.

In comparison to the white, which I straight build and rode it lots and lots, the black in its much better conditon, experienced two earlier versions, I wanted to build it fancy, so I threw some WTB stuff on it - Have a look.

Yes, putting parts to a pretty frame is always nice, when you look forward to the result for weeks (while thinking of it), but with this one it was hard to find the balance to be honest. This frame requires a decent part set, otherwise you are in competition with the nice Jellies.

I decided to use functional parts, orientated a bit on the original with Ritchey parts and a nice wheel set with Mavic MA 40ies. Here the result in action

Details