I was looking for a new MTB for my 5’0″ daughter who outgrew her 24″ Novara MTB. I had nailed down the choices to three 27. 5+ MTB: this Salsa Rangefinder Advent X 27. 5+, the Co-op DRT 2. 1, and the Trek Roscoe 6.
The Roscoe 6 has a strange geometry in that the reach is very short compared to the relatively tall standover and stack. My daughter loved the purple color, and I loved that it came with a dropper post and a 1×10 Shimano Deore drivetrain.
But that fit just wasn’t right. The Small Roscoe was too tall (754mm standover and 614mm stack, with 364mm reach) and my daughter had a hard time on the trails with it. She was much more comfortable on the XS, but I was concerned she would quickly outgrow it as the reach on the XS is only 351mm, but with a 731mm standover and 603mm standover.
Trek markets the XS Roscoe 6 as fitting a 4’6″ to 5’1″ person. Yeah, right! Is that person “all legs”?? Enter the Salsa and the DRT. Both have similar size XS frames at ~400mm reach, ~600mm stack, and 680-700mm standover.
The XS Salsa 27. 5+ targets persons 5’2″ to 5’6″ in height, whereas the XS DRT 2. 1 supposedly fits persons 5’0″ to 5’3″. I had high hopes for the Salsa. It has a lovely silver sheen and the frame really is light, especially compared to the DRT.
Although the Salsa’s spring fork is much heavier than the DRT’s air fork, the frame is much lighter with the DRT really being weighed down at the back end of the frame. The 1×10 Advent drivetrain is decent, but not nearly as nice as the 1×12 SRAM drivetrain on the DRT.
While the Salsa only has a BOOST thru-axle on the fork and a QR axle on the rear hub, I was more than willing to accept this given the $500 price differential and weight difference. I would be real tempted to take a $1699 Salsa Rangefinder 27.
5+ Deore, even with the QR rear axle, over the $1599 DRT 1. 2, except for one thing: that seat-tube design. The seat-tube on the Rangefinder is relatively straight (compared to some other common designs out there), so you should have a wide range of seatpost insertion options.
Unfortunately, Salsa went overboard with the water bottle/accessory mounting positions (there are bottle cage mounts on the downtube, seat-tube, and even an accessory mount on the top-tube). This is geared towards bikepackers, but they they ruined any flexibility for seatpost insertion.
The bottle cage mount bolts on the seat-tube limit you to only 90mm of insertion. I pulled out the bolts only to find that the welded screw tube extend about 15mm into the seat-tube, so there is no way to put the seatpost in any further without major surgery deep inside the narrow seat-tube.
Furthermore, Salsa supplies a 400mm seatpost with the bike, which leave the seat so high that a 5’9″ guy like myself would have a hard time sitting on the bike. Just look at how high the seat looks in the REI photos.
It MIGHT be able to be dropped about level with the head-tube in the photo, but no more (at least on the XS). That is unsatisfactory. My daughter would only be able to ride the bike if the seatpost were cut to 330mm or less.
Try a dropper you say? Good luck with that. Again, with only 90mm of insertion, the crown of a dropper would be sticking several inches out of the seat-tube, rendering it virtually useless for a shorter person.
You would probably be limited to a 80-100mm travel dropper just to get the crown low enough for the dropper to have any usable travel whatsoever. And be super careful with getting close to that full 90mm insertion: that bolt mount is in the way and will destroy the end of the dropper (or worse, the actuator) if you are not careful.
In fact, the end of the seatpost was pretty mangled from the REI tech attempting to insert the post deeper that it already was. With all the seatpost problems, we gave up on the test ride and took the DRT 2.
1 out for a spin. While it is much heavier, my daughter had no problems getting on it. And the kicker? The DRT 2. 1 comes with a 125mm dropper that can be FULLY inserted into the seat-tube almost to the crown! She can make use of the full range of the dropper as-is, and there is plenty of room to raise the dropper as my daughter grows.
All-in-all, I really wanted to like the Salsa. Its low weight. Its great finish. An opportunity to save money now and invest in upgrades later to make sure my daughter really likes MTB-ing. But that was all wasted by the seat-tube.
I happily spent the extra $500 on the heavy Co-op DRT 2. 1, confident that my daughter had a bike that fit today and well into the future.