Adventure By Bike
Salsa traces back to a small Petaluma, California shop in the early 1970s, where founder Ross Shafer started welding up stems and frames of his own design. Officially founded in 1982, the name itself comes from a daily lunch of salsa and cottage cheese — a detail that says a lot about a company that has never taken itself too seriously while taking the riding dead seriously.
Salsa's own mission is simple: “to make the best possible bikes and accessories for adventure.” They were building drop-bar bikepacking machines and gravel-specific frames years before either had a name — the Warbird was the industry's first dedicated gravel race bike, and the Beargrease was the first full-carbon fat bike. The Fargo and Cutthroat remain benchmark bikepacking rigs today.
As Salsa puts it: “Adventure makes life better. We've learned the life-changing power of new places, new people, extraordinary achievements, and unforgettable experiences.”
