Salsa Cycles has entered the e-bike market with two brand new models, the e-gravel Tributary and e-adventure Confluence. Salsa Cycles are best known for its bikepacking adventure and gravel bikes.
The two new e-bikes take inspiration from Salsa Cycles' existing models but with the added speed boost and support of an e-bike motor. The Tributary follows the ultra-endurance Cutthroat mountain bike and the Confluence shares similarities with the affordable Journeyer gravel bike.
Salsa Cycles Confluence is an electric gravel bike that combines a lightweight motor, an affordable alloy frameset, and plenty of bikepacking bag mounts for adventuring.
The bike is powered by a Mahle X35+ Class 1 hub drive motor which is capable of putting out 40 Nm of torque and has an integrated 250Wh battery within the downtube. Salsa says the Confluence has a range of up to 72 km (45 miles), which can be extended to 129 km (80 miles) using a 208Wh Mahle range extender battery. The motor is controlled using a single button on the top tube and the range can be monitored using the Mahle SmartBike app.
There is loads of cargo capacity with two sets of Three-Pack mounts on the fork, front mid-blade rack mounts, and rear rack mounts. Inside the frame, there are two water bottle positions or the option to run a single water bottle and a range extender. The Confluence also features fender mounts for wet-weather riding.
Salsa Cycles Tributary
For more rugged adventure riding there is the Tributary. This drop-bar e-MTB is powered by a mid-drive Bosch Performance Line Speed motor with 85 Nm of torque and a large 625Wh internal battery, this can be further extended to 875Wh using Bosch's PowerMore 250Wh range extender.
Built from 6061-T6 Aluminium the Tributary is available with either a rigid carbon fork with Three-Pack and rack mounts or a 120mm RockShox fork. The Tributary has enough tire clearance to fit 2.6in mountain bike tires (2.3in with fenders) front and rear although when using the carbon fork you can fit a 3.0in tire up front.
Salsa is just getting started with the Tributary and Confluence, confirming that two further models will be released at this year's Sea Otter event. Although Salsa is keeping details and specs under wraps for now, they have given us a little teaser in the above video. The next bikes will be full-suspension e-MTBs, with a trail-focused model called the Moraine and the Notch which is aimed at the e-enduro market.
Pricing and specifications
Confluence will be offered in drop bar or flat bar builds with four models, with a range of six frame sizes. The Confluence Flat Bar Altus starts at $2,499, and the top-of-the-range Confluence GRX 600 2x will retail for $3,499. The Tributary will come in two spec levels but pricing is still to be confirmed.
The Confluence is in retailers now and the Tributary is set to be in retailers on March 5th. For more details, check out Salsacycles.com.
