I purchased a new bike!
It took weeks of research, test riding and recommendations but I finally landed on the Salsa Warbird.
Prior to purchasing the Warbird, I looked at a 2020 Specialized Diverge and a 2020 Trek Checkpoint.
The Diverge was quickly eliminated because of the limited wheel sizes I could swap for and comments about it being more of a touring bike than a racing bike.
I grew up with a Trek mountain bike and was really interested in the Checkpoint but was not a huge fan of the color options.
My attention shifted to the Warbird because a friend of mine rides a Warbird and always spoke highly of it. In addition, during my first gravel race I could not help but notice that the most popular bike there was the Warbird.
So I drove to the bike shop and scoped out the Warbird.
I knew I wanted a carbon bike and quickly landed on the Warbird with the Shimano 105 Drivetrain in white. However, when I got to the bike shop, I found out the Shimano 105 was a 2019 model and my size was not to be found anywhere. Knowing I liked the white color scheme my eye quickly went to the Apex 1 drivetrain option with mechanical brakes. During my research phase I quickly came to understand that hydraulic brakes were the way to go but in order to get that option, I would have had to upgrade to a bike with a Shimano GRX 600 drivetrain. Sadly that option only came in a dark blue frame.
After a quick negotiation, I purchased the white frame warbird with the Apex 1 drivetrain and mechanical brakes and the bike shop swapped out from the blue frame bike the GRX 600 drivetrain and brakes for me (at a cost of course).
Score!
I brought the bike home on February 13th and 3 days later was invited out on my first group ride in 20 years.
50 miles…
The farthest I had ever ridden on a bike….
I was sore for days….
So there you have it. The story of how I came to purchase my 2020 Salsa Warbird.
In future posts, I will talk about how I came to ride gravel, my history with bikes, and the gear and accessories I am currently using.
I hope you enjoyed reading this.