Salsa Cutthroat

Salsa Cutthroat Apex 1
Price: $2,900
Sizes: S, M, L (tested), XL
Online: salsacycles.com

Tester: Scott Williams
Age: 33
Weight: 170 lbs.
Height: 5’ 11”
Inseam: 32.5”

Reach: 15.1”
Stack: 25.4”
Top Tube: 22.8”
Head Tube: 71°
Seat Tube: 73°
BB Drop: 2.8”
Chainstays: 17.5”
Weight: 23.9 lbs.without pedals, specs based on size tested

“During the summer of 2015, Salsa introduced the Cutthroat: “the ultimate Tour Divide racing machine.” Both the product manager and design engineer are Tour Divide finishers and specifically focused on comfort, reliability, weight, and efficiency when designing this two-wheeled adventure mobile. While the intent of this carbon framed bike was race-inspired, the Cutthroat’s clearance for knobby mountain bike tires makes this bike appealing to a broad range of riders.

The Bike
The Cutthroat chassis utilizes Salsa’s proprietary Class 5 Vibration Reduction System (VRS) to create a buttery smooth ride. Chatter is reduced through tall and thin vertically oriented seat stays which flex outward. The short and wide horizontally oriented chainstays maintain lateral stiffness, ensuring the bike doesn’t handle like a wet noodle.

Designed and tested for use with a 100 mm fork, the frame is suspension corrected and can fit up to a 29×2.4 tire between the stays. Bonus features include three mounts in the front triangle, one under the downtube and two additional Three-Pack mounts on the rigid fork for the large frame size I tested. There are no fender mounts on either the frame or fork, but there are hidden mounts for rear rack compatibility as long as you purchase the Salsa Rack-Lock seat binder. Unfortunately, Salsa’s athletes provided feedback in favor of the fixed dropout with the thought that drivetrains are becoming more durable. For a bike that’s likely to find itself deep in the wilderness, it’s comforting to know that sliding dropouts could get you to the next repair shop if a rear derailleur were to fail.

Cutthroat framesets start at $2,000 and completes are available in four 1×11 SRAM build kits from $2,900 to $4,700 stock with a rigid fork. For those that want to blur the lines even further, there is an Apex build kit with a RockShox Reba for straight-out-of-the-box cush. When combined with a set of 29×2.2 Maxxis Ikon tubeless tires, the only thing left to dial in for all-day comfort is your desired saddle. Thankfully, Salsa specs my saddle of choice, the WTB Volt.

The Ride

Since the beginning, the entire premise of mountain bikes is getting off the beaten path regardless of how rough that terrain becomes. The Salsa Cutthroat does a fantastic job finding the balance point between off-road and on-road enjoyment. It’s geometry closely matches classic 29 inch hardtails from a decade ago and offers more tire clearance than even some cross-country race bikes. It’s not quite a mountain bike nor is it your standard drop-bar bike. It’s unique. For what Salsa had in mind when designing the Cutthroat, it seems to tick all the boxes. Without hesitation, the Cutthroat crushes old forest roads with ease, but what I did not expect is how fun the bike would be on singletrack. The bike offers its own smile-inducing riding experience, even on trails I have hundreds of hours on. What has become somewhat mind-numbing, the Cutthroat accentuates the most subtle features again reminding me how far my skills have come since I first started riding the local trail network. Swooping through berms and leap-frogging root balls provided that feeling of being controllably out-of-control, and I kind of relished it. Sure, I could have gone faster on my hardtail. That’s not the point. The Cutthroat does not hide its heritage as a drop-bar bike; its primary intent is long, all day adventures and tackling old forest roads, not singletrack or putting some air between the tires and the trail, but the point is that it can do that too.

Whether you are looking for your next bikepacking bike or just want something a little different to rip around the singletrack on, the Cutthroat instills rider confidence on both dirt and road. It enables the rider freedom to not plan a route and simply enjoy the adventure, even if that means diverting off the road and cutting through some singletrack. Regardless of what you steer the Cutthroat towards, it likely won’t bat an eye.