Salsa Cycles have just launched a new single speed, alloy gravel bike that they say is ripe for riding in muddy conditions where you don't want the worry of wrecking a rear derailleur. It looks like a one-way ticket to the pain cave to us, but hey, horses for courses and all that.

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The Stormchaser is a new bike to the Salsa lineup and it will be available as a frameset only in the UK costing £1,200. The UK bike will get two sets of rear dropouts so you can convert into geared should you choose too. The US customers will get the chance to buy a full build but it will be a single speed only bike for them. 

Salsa says the bike is designed for those days when the dirt turns into ride-ending mud and has the potential to be derailleur breaking. The alloy frame features the brands 'Vibration Reduction System' for a smoother ride, it is dropper post compatible, has a thru-axle front and rear and has full internal cable routing. The dropouts have a sliding design to provide adjustability whilst also accomodating flat-mount brakes, there is 15mm of adjustability in the chainstay length (435mm to 450mm).

The fork is carbon with stainless steel abrasion plates in the places where the tyre is at risk of rubbing the inside of the fork. There is internal routing here too with dynamo routing also, and rack/pack mounts on each fork leg.

There are a massive seven sizes on offer from 49cm to 61cm and all will be shipped with fork, axles, a headset and a seat post collar. Inside the frame, there are three bottle mounts in the main triangle on 56-61cm frames and two on the 49-54.5cm frames. There are accessory mounts on the underside of the downtube and top tube mounts for a bag too.

 
The bike uses a 1x drivetrain only if it is run as a geared bike and has lots of mud clearance in the frame. Salsa says it can run 700x50mm tyres or 700x45mm tyres if mudguards are used. You can also fir 650b wheels and use 50mm diameter tyres. Minium tyre widths are 650B x 47mm or 700x32mm. Salsa reckons this is the perfect bike to sit in your garage opposite the Warbird, ready for rainy days. 

• www.salsacycles.com

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