Salsa Cycles Campeon Ultegra

Price Paid:  $1800.00 at Speed Goat/ Componen

Model Year:
2005

Favorite Ride:
Tri-state Seacoast Century

Bike Setup:
Salsa Campeon with full Ultegra, Double with Kysrilium SL's.

Summary:
I purchased this bike as a frame and built it up. I had a close friend who helped me set up and build the ride.

Strengths:
The bike is very lively and will get up a go when the pedals are mashed. I feel very quick on this bike.

Weaknesses:
I am not sure if it is the bike or myself, but I feel like the ride is a bit harsh, especially in the later miles of a century.

Similar Products Used:
Giant OCR one

Price Paid:  $0.00

Model Year:
2004

Favorite Ride:
Anything Flat

Bike Setup:
Full Ultegra

Summary:
I built this frame up to replace a Klein Aura that I had become disenchanted with.

After spending several months on this bike, it offers a much better ride than that Klein.

It has a great blend of stiffness, comfort, durability and light weight.

Standard racing geometry makes the bike handle and corner well, without being twitchy.

Strengths:
Reasonably light. Stiff in the bottom bracket area, but feels "livelier" than most aluminum frames I have owned. Very compliant for aluminum. Extended head tube alleviates fit issues you encounter with many contemporary road bikes with integrated headsets and carbon steerer tubes.

You can find them for a great price on EBAY and possibly through your LBS if you ask, so if you don't pay full retail, I think the frames are a great value.

Weaknesses:
Mine is a 2004 that had a 31.6 seat tube, and for some unknown reason Salsa decided to engineer the seat collar to go backwards (with the bolt to the front of the seat tube). With the traditional (non sloping) geometry my quads rub the oversize seat collar and the pinch bolt occasionally, especially on the trainer. Time will tell if this turns out to be a deal-breaker. I'm a pretty solid guy (200 pounds with bigger quads than most) so this may be a non issue for a more "naturally gifted" (aka lighter) rider.

Coming from an alloy steerer on my Klein, the carbon steerer seems a tad bit flexible over hard bumps. This also is probably exacerbated by my weight though.

Finally, since Salsa just sells this as a frameset now, if you're looking for a complete bike when you add up the price of the frame and fork, gruppo and wheels, it's relatively expensive compared to complete bikes by other manufacturers (especially for a taiwanese made bike).

Similar Products Used:
Klein Aura, Cannondale CAAD

Price Paid:  $650.00 at LBS Frame only

Model Year:
2004

Favorite Ride:
Any with very few cars

Summary:
Salsa Campeon with Ultergra components I built up myself. Right off the bat I could tell a major difference, the carbon fiber took a little getting used to.

Strengths:
This bike handles better than any bike I have ridden; the rear wheel is placed right up next to the seat tube, increasing handling dramatically. Two other people on my group ride have the same frame and said the same about it's handling, one being a semi pro rider who he has ridden many different bikes. The solid carbon fiber fork and carbon fiber seat stays make this ride very comfortable on long rides. I have two herniated discs in my back and had problems on every ride on my old bikes, now with the carbon fiber all back problems on rides gone.

Weaknesses:
None yet