Salsa is either really bad at keeping secrets, or they’re really hoping to generate a little hype around their upcoming pedal-assisted drop bar adventure bike. It’s almost definitely the latter, given that they originally teased this bike back in September, and it has even had its own landing page on the Salsa website ever since. Earlier today, Salsa took it one step further with a Facebook post that included the bike’s name, a picture of someone riding it, and a brief description.

From Salsa’s Facebook Post:

“Ready for a peek behind the door?“

“This is Wanderosa, our light electric full-suspension gravel bike, built to push boundaries so you can take your Adventure by Bike farther and faster than you thought possible.“

“This genre-bending blend of full-suspension capability, progressive drop-bar geometry, and motorized assistance is a radical ride experience for those who want to start from their front door, get ambitious with longer, rowdier routes, and rally their favorite backroads.“

“Wanderosa arrives January 2026“

(photo/Salsa Cycles)

Based on the photo and brief description, it appears that much of our speculation was correct or at least fairly close. It’s clear that this is a full-suspension bike that seems to blur the lines between gravel and mountain biking. It’s challenging to determine the performance tier of the SID fork from the photo, but most models come with either 110 or 120 mm of travel. Which leads us to guess that the rear end will probably have somewhere between 100 and 120 mm of travel as well. Most SID models advertise a max tire width of 66 mm (~2.5″), and the frame looks like it can clear a pretty wide tire, too.

The biggest question that remains is what drive system will be providing the Wanderosa’s pedal assistance. The downtube doesn’t appear to be too bulky, but we can’t see the motor area well enough to identify a motor brand. That said, the TQ-HPR40 would be a logical choice, but that drive system does not include a top tube integrated display — which is visible in the silhouette in the teaser shot below. This leads us to believe that it will potentially be powered by the compact Fazua Ride 60 drive system, but that’s just our best guess. Sounds like we’ll know more in January. The other burning question that we want to ask is: where’s the non-electric version?

The silhouette teaser shot shows a top tube display.

From the Original Post:

Salsa Cycles has been putting a lot of energy into new bikes lately. Recently, they’ve released everything from adventure gravel ebikes, to a refreshed MTB lineup (which is surprisingly good).

Now, Salsa is teasing a new bike, and it’s bound to get some attention. After posting a silhouette of the bike with the caption, “Curioser and curioser,” Salsa had added very little detail, only stating that it’s coming in January 2026.

By the outline, there are a few things we know for sure: it’s a full suspension bike, and it has dropbars and a dropper post. The tires appear to be of MTB size, but with how big gravel tires are getting these days, it could easily fall into the aggressive gravel or ATB category. Knowing Salsa, there’s a good chance this bike will work well for bikepacking and adventure riding – what appears to be frame bag mounts inside the front triangle, and under the top tube seem to support that theory. Update: We now know, based on the landing page for the new bike on Salsa’s website, that this is indeed a full suspension gravel bike!

Currently, Salsa just gives this as a teaser, “Another industry first from the folks who defined the modern-day gravel bike. Some of you know what it is; some of you think you know what it is. It won’t be for everyone (then again, what is?), but it will redefine what’s possible. Full suspension gravel? Yes and…”

The other big question is whether this will be an ebike? There is a dark patch behind the head tube on the top tube that looks like it could be a control panel for an ebike system. And the downtube certainly looks large enough to house a battery, perhaps a smaller capacity battery for a lightweight ebike system. But the hollow spindle on the crank throws a wrench in that theory – all the centerdrive ebike motors we know of don’t have a hollow spindle.

It’s possible it could still be an ebike with a rear hub motor, though. Or it could be just that a crank with a hollow spindle was used in the mockup, and the actual bike won’t have it. Or a new crank or motor or both?

Regardless, it will be interesting to see where this goes!

salsacycles.com

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