Salsa Cycles Casseroll

Price Paid:  $1250.00 at LBS

Model Year:
2007

Favorite Ride:
Loop around Lake Washington

Bike Setup:
2008 Casseroll, 105 triple, SKS 45mm fenders, Michelin City 32mm tires, generic rear rack, Outlieb back roller panniers

Summary:
Have been commuting and recreating on the Casseroll for a few months now and am really impressed with how versatile it is.

It works great for commuting with panniers over hills and in the rain but still feels sporty and fast when the panniers come off. I was looking for a solid commuter that still feels like a real road bike and that is exactly what it has been. It's fast enough to keep up with most of the weekend warriors on overpriced bikes.

Other Seattle commuters seem to prefer canti or disc breaks, which I don't think are compatible with this frame. I, however, am perfectly happy with the stock brakes even on wet descents (but I'm willing to slow down when its raining).

Strengths:
The stock complete bike is a nice value. Pretty good looking bike especially with silver fenders. A good alternative to all the cross bikes if you have no intention of going off road.

Weaknesses:
Toe and brake clearance when running wide tires and full fenders. It's pretty tight up front with the 32's. Would have an even more classic look without the sloping top tube

Similar Products Used:
1983 Trek 560

Price Paid:  $1500.00 at poppa wheelies

Favorite Ride:
salsa casseroll

Bike Setup:
2008 salsa casseroll, mavic ksyruim elite wheels, full ultegra 10sp, truvativ carbon cranks(double), fsa carbon seatpost

Summary:
great riding bike right out of the box....I only ride steel.... components are ok, and bike seems to be great thus far. I changed out all the 105 components for ultegra, and dropped the cross-oriented wheels for some ksyruim elites

Strengths:
steel, steel, and more steel, relatively light for a steel frame/fork. with these changes I managed to get the bike to right at 20lbs.

Weaknesses:
rust if you don't treat your frame and fork

Similar Products Used:
multiple steel mountain bikes....this is my first road bike

Price Paid:  $480.00 at Universal Cycles

Model Year:
2007

Favorite Ride:
Anywhere rubber side down

Bike Setup:
Ultegra/Open-pro wheelset with a full SRAM Rival kit, Nitto bars, King headset, Thompson seat post, Sella Anatomica saddle (an altered Brooks B.17), SKS fenders, Soma stem, and Tekro 57mm long-reach brakes.

Summary:
My Casseroll is a 2008 model, but that isn't an available option above. I bought the frame-set and components separately and have a limited amount of riding time on the bike, but I thought I'd give my initial impressions because they're fresh in my mind.

The first impression on the bike was how different it is from my current Surly Crosscheck (my basis for comparison). They're very different frames and therefore ride much differently. This is worth mentioning because I think a lot of people in the market for a commuter frame will be considering both.

Anyway 2 things stand out when compared to the Surly. First is how much the longer head tube affects the ride quality of the Salsa. It gives the bike a more upright riding position, even though I tried to set it up as close to the Surly as possible (seat height, fore & aft position, and bar height).

Second the Salsa it is much smoother over rough roads and terrain. This could be attributed to the different wheelset, but the Surly has 28mm tires compared to the Casseroll's 25's. With smaller tires the Salsa is still smoother. There are lots of other variables that could cause this, of course, but the ride quality of the Salsa did stand out. The Salsa is also quite a bit lighter, though I haven't put either bike on the scale.

Overall it is a very relaxed and comfortable bike and I think that is what Salsa was going for. It has rack & fender eyelets, which are always handy. With some tweaking you could make it more sporty, but this seems to me to go against the grain of what Salsa was going for when they created the Casseroll. You could also make it a single speed/fixie, a tourer, a commuter or just something to haul the kids around with. It is super versatile and I think that will appeal to a lot of people. Also worth noting is the lack of cantilever brake studs so no more tweaking your canti-brakes every 2 weeks.

Strengths:
Versatile, reasonably priced, comfortable, good looking.

Weaknesses:
The paint isn't the best and already is starting to get chips. If it stays in the stable for more than 2 years it will need to be painted. The welds aren't as clean as I've seen on other bikes, but probably about par with the competition at this price-point.

Similar Products Used:
Surly Crosscheck