I'd been wondering why a middle school teacher would volunteer to take on an extra class. When Tricia announced she was getting herself an early Christmas present I knew why.
It's a swell Salsa Vaya. She'll use it for commuting, light touring and maybe a bit of playing on dirt roads first.
The bike comes with 40mm tires and has sane gearing with 48-32 and 11-36.
Like all new bikes, it's pretty now. But soon it will have water bottle cages, lights, a rack and panniers, a Garmin and a tail light. Maybe a front facing camera. We should enjoy it as it is, for a moment, standing as a work of art before it becomes a work horse.
I'm also placing partial blame (or credit) on Russ Roca from Path Less Pedaled, who wrote glowingly about this bike, and Adventure Cycling's Jim Sayer who toured on one last summer and wrote about it.
Tip o' the hat to Huckleberry Bicycles in Berkeley for having a timely sale and being pretty darn pleasant to deal with.
She looks like she was born to ride an orange gravel bike.
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