Salsa has relaunched its range of Split Pivot equipped full suspension bikes, with all-new new Rustler, Horsethief and Spearfish bikes in the range for 2019, covering the gamut of riding styles from cross-country to trail riding with either wheel size.

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As well as getting a more progressive ending stroke to the Dave Weagle designed Split Pivot suspension - basically a single pivot style design only with a concentric rear pivot point around the rear axle - the new bikes have seen some updated geometry across the board, with shorter chainstays, flip chips for adjusting headtube angle and bottom bracket height and the ability to run dropper posts across the board. The 

Salsa Rustler

Salsa describes the Rustler as their "playful trail bike" and the 130mm of travel at the real is backed up with 150mm up front, all based around 650b wheels which come with 2.6" tyres as standard but can happily be run with anything from 2.3" to 2.8" should you so desire. It's only available with a carbon fibre frame.

As you'd expect from a modern trail bike, it uses Boost wheel spacing and there are all the usual mod cons such as internal dropper post cable routing plus space for a water bottle inside the frame triangle, with five frame sizes from XS to XL available.

Salsa Spearfish

Coming with 29" wheels and 100mm at the back and 120mm up front, the Spearfish is pitched as a progressive cross-country machine for everything from racing to fast and fun trail riding. While it comes as standard with 2.3" rubber, there's clearance for up to a whopping 2.6" tyre on big wheels and it also has the ability to run full-fat 3" tyres if you switch to a 650b Plus wheelset.

It uses the somewhat less well-known SuperBoost 157mm rear hub spacing, which claims to greatly improve wheel stiffness - though we suspect at the disadvantage of not having a particularly broad selection of off-the-shelf wheelsets to choose from. There are four frame sizes and you can fit two full-size bottles in the frame, which is quite the novelty. You can also pick from a carbon fibre frame or more affordable aluminium option.

Salsa Horsethief

With a 140mm/120mm front to rear travel split and big hoops running 2.5" tyres, the Horsethief is made to be a do-it-all trail bike, with the same wheel and tyre capacity as the Spearfish, even down to the SuperBoost spacing, but a smidge more travel to help you through the rough stuff.

Once again, you can pick from a carbon fibre frame or more affordable aluminium option.

The Salsa range will be brought to the UK by Lyon Distribution. We're currently waiting on prices and specs and we'll update this when we hear more.

• lyon.co.uk/outdoor/
• salsacycles.com/bikes

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