.
Salsa Vaya

The New 2017 Salsa Vaya Light Touring Bike

The Salsa Vaya has been in Salsa’s bike lineup since 2011, starting life as their go-to road touring bike. But as the years have gone by, Salsa have diversified their touring range to now include a round-the-world touring bike, pushing the Vaya model down the path of a gravel grinder.

The frame says otherwise however, with generous tyre clearances (29×2.00″ will fit!), lots of braze-ons, a short reach, a tall front end, plus long chainstays and a long wheelbase. In terms of the frame design alone; it’s actually an ideal long distance touring bike. The reason why it’s categorised as a light touring bike is due to the part specification; the Vaya models all use road double cranksets, integrated shifters and the higher gear ratios found on light touring bikes.

The 2017 Salsa Vaya frame has been updated to use their triple-butted, seamless CroMoly steel tubeset. It now has a third bidon mount under the downtube (omitted in 2016). The geometry has been tweaked ever so slightly to provide more standover height on each frame size. Unfortunately, Salsa haven’t yet changed their Vaya sizing to be based on the more progressive “stack/reach model” (rather than using effective top tube length) like on their other bikes. Maybe next season.

Unlike most other bike brands, the Salsa Vaya models all share the same frame, similar wheels and many of the components. The frame and wheels arguably play the most critical role in defining the way a bike rides, so kudos to Salsa for ensuring that all price points get nice gear. That leaves the key differences between models down to the gear and drivetrain specification.

The 2017 Salsa Vaya GX

2017 Salsa Vaya
The 2017 Salsa Vaya GX in orange.
2017 Salsa Vaya
The 2017 Salsa Vaya GX in blue.

The top model Salsa Vaya is the only one with a carbon fork. This brand new full carbon fork has a tapered steerer and 15mm thru axle that will both dampen vibrations, and take a significant chunk of weight out of the bike overall. The hidden fender mounts are a nice touch!

The 2017 Salsa Vaya GX uses 10-speed SRAM Apex road bike parts combined with a SRAM GX mountain bike derailleur and cassette. This yields a gear range of 26-124 gear inches. If you wanted to take the Vaya on steep off-road climbs, you may want to consider swapping out the road crankset and front derailleur to MTB parts instead. Using the SRAM GX-1000 38-24t crankset, the 19 gear inch low gear will be very acceptable off-road!

The Salsa Vaya GX is available in orange or blue for US $1799.

The 2017 Salsa Vaya Deore

2017 Salsa Vaya
The 2017 Salsa Vaya Deore in dark red.
2017 Salsa Vaya
The 2017 Salsa Vaya Deore in dark green.

The 2017 Salsa Vaya Deore comes with the Vaya steel touring fork with eyelets and mounting holes for dynamo lights, fenders and racks. This model mates Shimano Sora 9-speed road shifters to a Shimano Deore MTB rear derailleur and cassette. The 27-119″ gear range is suitable for light loads and rolling hills. Again, you could swap out the front crankset and derailleur to achieve better offroad touring gears if you needed.

The Vaya Deore is available in dark red or dark green for US $1399.

The 2017 Salsa Vaya Claris

2017 Salsa Vaya
The 2017 Salsa Vaya Claris in cream.
2017 Salsa Vaya
The 2017 Salsa Vaya Claris in brown.

At just US $1099, the Salsa Vaya Claris is the cheapest Vaya ever! Given that it has an awesome frame, fork and wheels, it could be a great bike to upgrade down the track.

This 8-speed bike cuts corners to reduce the cost with the gearing and brakes in particular. You don’t get the Avid BB7 disc brakes from the Deore and GX models, instead you’ll get a less adjustable option by Hayes. As this bike has 16 gears, it misses out on some of the low gears of the other Vaya models. That means the gear range works out to be 29-124″.

The 2017 Salsa Vaya Claris is available in cream or brown.

Want To Compare This Touring Bike With Dozens of Others?

Check out The Touring Bicycle Buyer’s Guide which compares touring bike steering, sizing, gear ratios, specification, pricing and more. The Bikepacking Bike Buyer’s Guide does the same thing, however, with a focus on lighter bikes and models with more off-road capability. Both of these guides are updated annually with the latest models at no extra cost!

Helpful Resources

All About Touring Bike Brakes
Frame Materials for Bicycle Touring
How to Select Touring Bike Gearing
Understand Bicycle Frame Geometry
What’s the Difference between Cyclocross and Touring Bikes?

Touring & Bikepacking Bike Overview

2016 Advocate Lorax
2018 All City Gorilla Monsoon
2016 Basso Ulisse
2016 Bianchi Volpe and Lupo 2016
2016 Bombtrack Beyond
2017 Bombtrack Beyond
2018 Bombtrack Beyond
2018 Bombtrack Arise Tour
2019 Bombtrack Beyond
2016 Brodie Elan Vital
2016 Cannondale Touring
2019 Cannondale Topstone
2020 Cannondale Topstone
2016 Cinelli Hobootleg Geo
2018 Co-Op ADV 4.2
2017 Curve Grovel V2
2017 Diamondback Haanjo EXP Carbon
2016 Fuji Touring
2017 Fuji Touring
2018 Fuji Touring
2018 Fuji Touring Disc
2016 Genesis Tour de Fer
2016 Giant ToughRoad
2017 Giant ToughRoad
2018 Giant ToughRoad and ToughRoad GX
2016 Jamis Aurora and Aurora Elite
2019 Jones Plus SWB
2020 KOGA WorldTraveller-S
2016 Kona Big Rove
2016 Kona Roadhouse and Sutra LTD
2016 Kona Sutra
2017 Kona Sutra
2018 Kona Sutra
2018 Kona Sutra LTD
2019 Kona Sutra and Sutra LTD
2020 Kona Sutra and Sutra LTD
2020 Kona Unit X
2016 Marin Four Corners
2017 Marin Four Corners
2018 Marin Four Corners
2016 Masi Giramondo
2018 Masi Giramondo
2016 Niner RLT9
2016 Rawland Ulv and Ravn
2016 Salsa Deadwood
2017 Salsa Fargo
2018 Salsa Fargo Ti Frameset
2018 Salsa Journeyman
2016 Salsa Marrakesh
2017 Salsa Marrakesh
2018 Salsa Marrakesh
2020 Salsa Marrakesh
2017 Salsa Vaya
2019 Salsa Warbird
2016 Specialized AWOL
2017 Specialized AWOL
2017 Specialized Diverge
2018 Specialized Diverge
2019 Specialized Diverge
2017 Specialized Sequoia
2018 Specialized Sequoia
2019 Specialized Sequoia
2018 Surly Bridge Club
2017 Surly Troll
2016 Traitor Wander
2019 Trek 520
2016 Trek 920, 720, 520 & CrossRip
2017 Trek CrossRip
2018 Trek 920
2018 Trek 1120

4 comments
  1. It looks like it since there are mid mounts on the fork. What else could you put on there that only mounts with a single mounting point?

Comments are closed.

Related Posts