The Salsa Fargo build
An XL 2026 Salsa Fargo Apex S1000 AXS in Peat Moss, set up for loaded touring — waxed chain, tubeless, front and rear racks. My forever bike. Documenting the build, the cost, and the wishlist.
- When
- August 2026
- Role
- Owner, rider, person who now talks about a bicycle
- Focus
- cycling, bikepacking, build
I bought a bike. This is the page where I get to be insufferable about it in one contained location, rather than spreading it across every conversation I have for the next year.
It’s an XL 2026 Salsa Fargo Apex S1000 AXS Transmission in Peat Moss — a steel drop-bar bike built for going a long way on bad roads with a lot of gear strapped to it. Picked up from Angry Catfish in Minneapolis on August 5th, 2026. This is meant to be my forever bike.
Why the Fargo, again
I’ve owned one before. A 2017 Large, grey, bought used, cared for well, and loved to death. I sold it — along with a Surly Long Haul Trucker I’d been using as my road bike — when I moved and decided to stop owning two bikes for two purposes. By then I knew a lot more about what I actually wanted out of cycling than I did when I bought either of them, so consolidating down to one bike that could do both jobs well felt like the right call instead of a compromise.
The old Large also never quite fit. I’m 6’4”, but almost all of that is torso — my inseam is only 31.1” — so a frame sized around my height alone always ran short in the reach. The XL fixes that. It’s the first bike I’ve bought new, rather than used, as an adult, and starting from a completely clean slate — picking every part instead of inheriting someone else’s choices — was its own kind of fun. I also just like the green a lot more than I expected to.
The spec, as it came
| Frame | Triple-butted CroMoly steel, XL, Peat Moss |
| Fork | Cutthroat Carbon Deluxe |
| Shifters | SRAM Apex AXS D1 — wireless electronic |
| Rear derailleur | SRAM S1000 Eagle Transmission |
| Cassette | SRAM XS-1270 Eagle Transmission, 10–52t, 12-speed |
| Crank | SRAM S1000 Eagle, 34t single-ring |
| Brakes | SRAM Apex D1 disc, G2 CleanSweep rotors (180mm front / 160mm rear) |
| Rims | WTB Sport Terra i30, 29” |
| Tires | Teravail Camrock 29 × 2.2” |
| Max tire clearance | 29 × 3.0” |
I sought out the electronic shifting on purpose — it wasn’t an accident of the build kit — and between that and the waxed chain, both have turned out to be genuinely worth it. No cables to gum up with grit, no oil turning my calves black, and the shifting just does the thing every time, in weather that would make a mechanical drivetrain sulk.
What I changed before riding it
Three things, all done at the shop:
Waxed chain. Stripped and hot-waxed with Silca before it ever saw road grime.
Tubeless. Front and rear, Orange Seal Endurance sealant, Peaty’s valves. On a bike whose whole purpose is remote gravel, not fixing punctures on the side of the road is worth real money.
Front and rear racks. The Fargo is pointless to me without load capacity, so the racks went on immediately — see below for why the rear one isn’t the one I actually wanted.
Racks and bags, as installed
| Weight limit | ||
|---|---|---|
| Front rack: Old Man Mountain Elkhorn (Tall) | 25 lb / 11.3 kg | |
| Rear rack: Salsa Alternator Plus | 59.4 lb / 27 kg |
The rear rack is a Salsa Alternator, not the Old Man Mountain Divide I actually wanted — Angry Catfish tried fitting the Divide with the OMM fit kit and it wouldn’t clear on this frame, so the Alternator was the fallback. It works fine. I’d still rather have the Divide; see the wishlist below.
| Bag | Capacity |
|---|---|
| Old Man Mountain Juniper Trunk (front) | 7L |
| Old Man Mountain 7L Hemlock w/ FLiP Cages (front) | 7L |
| Tailfin panniers (rear), pair | 16L each, 32L total |
| Widefoot Litercage | ~1L (oversized bottle cage) |
The Tailfin panniers carry a stated weight limit of 9kg on-road / 4.5kg off-road each — worth knowing before loading them up for a gravel trip versus a city errand.
What it cost
Prices below are what I actually paid, after each retailer’s discount, across three separate orders. Payment details and the frame’s serial number are excluded on purpose.
Angry Catfish — the bike itself, August 5th
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Salsa Fargo Apex AXS Transmission, XL, Peat Moss (MSRP $3,399) | $3,059.10 |
| Old Man Mountain Elkhorn Rack, Tall | $151.20 |
| Salsa Alternator Plus rear rack | $108.00 |
| Old Man Mountain front fit kit | $61.20 |
| Ottolock Cinch Lock, 30”, black | $71.10 |
| Widefoot Litercage | $35.10 |
| Peaty’s tubeless valves, 42mm | $32.39 |
| Orange Seal Endurance sealant (4 × 2oz) | $16.80 |
| SRAM Eagle T-Type PowerLock link | $4.05 |
| Labor — strip and wax chain (Silca) | $56.25 |
| Labor — install front rack | $37.50 |
| Labor — install rear rack | $37.50 |
| Labor — tubeless install, front and rear | $0.00 |
| Subtotal | $3,670.19 |
| Tax (9.025%, on the taxable goods portion) | $319.39 |
| Total | $3,989.58 |
I also bought a second orange Ottolock in that same order — that one isn’t mine. It went to my friend Kyle Weisshahn, who put in a lot of time helping with this build, so it’s left out of my total above.
Old Man Mountain, July 22nd
| Item | Cost (after discount) |
|---|---|
| Juniper Trunk | $106.25 |
| 7L Hemlock w/ FLiP Cages | $148.75 |
| Subtotal | $255.00 |
Shipping ($18.52) and tax ($24.41) applied to the full order, which also included a tail light mount ($12.75 after discount) that isn’t part of this build and is left out here.
Tailfin Cycling, August 5th
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Pannier Bags, 16L × 2, with accessories | $280.00 |
Running total: roughly $4,525, before the wishlist below. That is a lot of money for a bicycle, and I’d make the same call again.
The wishlist
The build isn’t really done — a few things I want to add, in roughly the order I’ll actually get to them:
- Old Man Mountain Atlas Rack Pack — probably the 12L over the 9L, though I haven’t fully decided. Sits on top of the rack rather than hanging off the saddle, which keeps weight low.
- Old Man Mountain Divide rear rack — to replace the Alternator and get me to an all-OMM rack setup, which I like the look of and which carries more (70 lb axle-mounted vs. the Alternator’s 59.4 lb). Angry Catfish says the fit kit won’t clear on this frame, so this one needs more digging before I know if it’s actually possible.
- Old Man Mountain Basket — 10.6L, for city riding when I don’t want to think about bags at all.
- RedShift ShockStop suspension seatpost — eventually. Takes the edge off washboard gravel without adding a dropper’s worth of complexity.
The two-wheelset plan
This is meant to be one bike for two jobs, not two compromises. Once the second wheelset is built up with road tires, the plan is to run that setup for city riding — which is most of the time — and swap back to the gravel tires currently mounted whenever I’m heading out on trips or anywhere that isn’t pavement. Same bike, same fit, different rubber depending on what the day actually calls for.
What’s next
First real test was on the Big Island, which is where the photo up top comes from — sunset on the coast road between Kona and Captain Cook, fully loaded.
I’ll update this page as the wishlist gets shorter, the wheelset situation resolves, and things inevitably break or get replaced.