The El Mariachi Ti, my newest project. The Swiss Army Knife of Mountian Bikes.

I have some very nice bikes in my stable for the most part I am very happy with them. One, however, does not quite stack up with the rest of them. Right now with the warmer months gone and winter fast approaching I've been gravitating to my Giant XTC 2 hardtail, my race/trail/single track bike. There's no snow yet so haven't brought out the fat bike as my main mountain steed, and while the Fargo has been serving me well as a gravel road base mile machine, the position it puts me in is just not ideal for shredding my rugged home singletrack. My XTC is not a bad bike, it's just not a great bike. My TCR Advanced, Pugsley, Fargo, and Torelli are all sweet rides that I would qualify as great. So why not a sweet single track machine?

Why not indeed. I was visiting my favorite local bike shop and and part time place of employment, Earl's Bicycle Store, when the final kick in the pants happened. I was browsing through our distributor's web page as usual, drooling over high end bike parts, when my riding buddy and co-worker Rylan pointed out that there was a left over 2013 Salsa El Mariachi Titanium frame in XL (21") available for an obscenely low price, even for a guy with a shop hook-up for bike stuff. And there was one, the only one left. The last one...
 

Sweet Jeebus that's beautiful

My reason for jumping on this frame while I could was that I was considering a second build in addition upgrading my XC hardtail. One of my coworkers made the mistake of bringing in his 18 lb rigid carbon singlespeed bike. I was intrigued by the idea of riding singlespeed and wanted try it. I rode our weekly group ride in one gear and was kind of amazed at how much fun I had. It was a lot of work and suffering, but the simplicity of it was intoxicating. I had ridden my Fargo (it's rigid) on some tamer singletrack and I also wanted to try rigid more seriously as a way to improve my technical skills. With the El Mariachi's Alternator drop-outs as a chain tensioning system, I could have one bike that could be rigid or run a suspension fork and 1x10 like I currently ride or single speed. All these conversions can be accomplished in a very short amount off time thanks to the use of full length derailleur housing guides and a 10 speed rear hub and single speed conversion spacer kit. My goal for this build is to get to the low 20's weight wise singlespeed rigid without using any major carbon fiber parts, things like carbon brake lever blades probably will be unavoidable, but I'm staying away from carbon seatposts, stems, bars, etc. I instead will be opting for titanium parts where possible. Though more expensive I feel it will give the bike a unique character. As of right now this is the build. I merely transferred the parts on my XTC over, except those that were not compatible. Here's my starting point:

Frame: Salsa El Mariachi Ti (XL 21")
Headset: Cane Creek 40
Botton Bracket: Sram GXP
Fork: Rock Shox Recon Silver TK Tapered 15mm Thru Axle
Brakes: Shimano Non-Series M446 160mm rotors
Brake Lever: Shimano Non-Series M445
Rear Derailleur: Sram X9 Type 2 Short cage
Shifter: Sram X7 trigger shifter
Cassette:  Shimano HG62 11-36
Chain: KMC X10
Crankset: Truvative Stylo 1.1 w/stock ring
Chainguide: MRP clamp mount top guide
Seatpost: Thomson Elite Setback 440mm 27.2mm
Saddle Fiz:ik Tundra manganese rails
Stem: Giant Connect
Bar: Giant Connect Riser Bar
Grips Giant lock ons
Wheels: Giant S-XC2 29er
Tires: Continental X-King ProTection 2.4
Tubeless with Giant rim tape and Stan's valve stems and sealant.

Bead Blasted Beauty...

So as you can see, it's currently a really bling frame with a bunch of junk parts hanging off it. it weighs in around 27 pounds geared and 25 pounds SS in this state. I took it for a ride twice this week. On Tuesday a few of us went up and rode some trails at Geisinger. This single track averages around 200 ft per mile of climbing no matter how you ride it so I got a feel for how it climbs and I like it. I think it will be just fine once I get the build dialed. Geometry wise the rear tire hooks up just fine when climbing and there is no drama, just need to get the weight down. Geisinger is relatively smooth trail and we only did about 7 miles so I didn't really get a feel for the ride quality on rough stuff or for longer rides, just hints.



The next night we went out for out weekly group ride at RB Winter and got to taste Ti in some rough stuff and I have to say, steel may very well be real, but titanium is freaking magical. The rear end of this frame is so cush in the rough stuff compared to my alloy XTC I thought I was losing air in the rear a few times. Where the XTC was a brutally stiff and harsh race machine for the short run, this is a frame I could go hard on all day and get off still smiling. Meanwhile this comfort does not seem to come at the expense of  lateral stiffness. I felt more confident descending on this frame than my XTC. There was no noticeable frame flex climbing out of the saddle, even in the instances where I really had to gut it out through technical uphill sections.

Overall, I don't think I could have made a better choice for my new XC frame, especially considering my preference for endurance riding as opposed to shorter course racing. I already have some upgrades planned to bring the spec up to the level of the frame and hopefully knock some weight off. I'm building a set of white Stan's No-Tubes 32h Crest ZTR rims on blue Hope Pro 2 Evo hubs with DT Swiss Revolution spokes and red alloy nipples. I'd like to upgrade the boat anchor Recon to a SID, replace the stem with a Thomson X4, and replace the bar with a custom Seven Cycles Ti Flatbar (unless they will do a riser bar for me). I'd also like to do a Chris King headset and bottom bracket eventually. I'm treating this frame as a lifetime bike, because Ti is timeless. At some point I will find a rigid fork. I may break my anti-carbon stance on this one and go with a Vanna White Niner RDO carbon fork.

So that's it for now...stay tuned for more bike pr0n and further thoughts on this frame as I get better acquainted with it.

Currently listening to: The Vines - Ride