Review: Salsa Spearfish C DLX GX Transmission — Built Just For Me?

Salsa has been best-known as one of the OG’s of modern gravel and adventure bikes. But, the brand offers much more than just their renowned Warbird and this year, their Spearfish endurance XC bike hits the trails with the perfect mix of agility, speed, capability — all in a lightweight package that’s built to slay trails with speed. I’ve been aboard the 2025 Salsa Spearfish C DLX with SRAM GX Transmission and after hundreds of miles on my local trails, I feel like Salsa made the perfect bike for me.

2025 Salsa Spearfish C DLX – GX Transmission Build:

• Deluxe carbon construction drops 250 grams
• 120mm Fox 34 SL Performance Elite GRIP X fork
• 120mm Split Pivot rear suspension (Fox Float SL LV Performance Elite)
• TranzX YSI08 RAD+ Dropper Post (170mm on size large, tested)
• WTB Silverado saddle
• RaceFace Turbine low-rise 760mm bars
• Versatile mounts allow up to 3 bottles, repair kits, bike computers, etc.
• SRAM GX Transmission drivetrain
• SRAM Motive Bronze brakes with 180mm rotors
• Teravail Camrock 29×2.4 tires
• WTB KOM Light i30 TCS wheelset
• Weight: 26.4 lbs (large, actual)
• MSRP: $6999

Setup and shakeout

I first saw the new Spearfish while at Sea Otter Classic this spring. While walking through the specs and design philosophy with the product team, I immediately felt drawn to it. With a Goldilocks 120/120 suspension, it’s a bike I could ride hard and fast without being held back on even the longest climbs. As always, it takes a ride or two of tweaking to find the right stack/reach and suspension settings. Thankfully, everything was straightforward and didn’t require an advanced degree in bike suspension or fitting. Once configured, I didn’t need any air adjustments or tweaks over the three month test period.

Thankfully, Salsa has continued with external routing through the frontal area and everything is rider-adjustable. The only setup that was a little wonky was the routing of the cable for the dropper post, which required a careful push-and-pull to maintain the cable tension as the dropper was set into place for my saddle height.

I set up the suspension based on suggested settings, then tweaked from there. I tend to ride a few PSI lower for a more supple feel and to maximize travel. Reach figures are modern and have about a 20mm gap between sizes while stack increases around 9mm. I settled on a size large as I prefer to be more stretched out.

Trail testing

We tend to say bikes “crush” climbs or descents, but that’s not what immediately comes to mind when the Spearfish hits the ups or downs of my local trails. I’d leave that term to describe pure XC or pure enduro bikes in their optimal terrain. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the Salsa Spearfish was made as a rider’s XC bike — it’s been built to nail the line between pure XC and enduro/trail in an efficient and, most importantly, fun package.

With that, my goal with the Spearfish was to have fun — almost in a 1980’s BMX kid sort of way. On it, I can head out to my local trails and simply have fun riding a bike and not overthink this or that setting. In a world where we’re overwhelmed with bibs and bobs and personalization, the Spearfish is a breath of fresh air in its simplicity.

Dave Weagle’s suspension designs are outstanding and Salsa has chosen to use his Split Pivot design here. Compared to the DW-Link found on the Ibis Exie USA, I actually prefer the Split Pivot as it provides a nice platform while being smooth everywhere. With Split Pivot, braking and pedaling forces are met at the same axis (the rear thru-axle) and each works independently without lockout. This also results in excellent lateral stiffness and a great pedaling platform for efficiency.

If I was to summarize how the Spearfish C DLX feels, I’d say “natural.” It just feels like an extension of my body and mind as I react to and ride through any terrain variations. I think and it responds with perfect confidence — never twitchy or slow. Each rider input is efficiently translated right into every turn, berm or rise.

Surprisingly, the Spearfish has wowed me with its terrain-absorbing character. At my age, I’m not hitting the largest drops or plowing through downhill-style terrain, but my local tracks have their fair share of baby head rock gardens and whoops along the way. At slow and high speeds, the front/rear suspension reacts adeptly and smoothly — way beyond what I’d imagine a 120mm bike would. I can skip through rough terrain and washboards with surprising smoothness that outperforms some bikes with even more travel.

Further, while whipping through hairpin descents, the Spearfish maintains a line with precision and allows me to carry tons of speed through to the next section. I occasionally have trouble finding the balance point for manualing off a drop or jump, but I’ve been able to find that springboard point on the Spearfish quickly and easily, which showcases its playful feel.

The combination of the Fox fork and shock provide the right amount of platform and suspension performance across all terrain. While pedaling, the suspension provides sufficient anti-squat to remain planted and efficient. But, when bumps are hit, the Split Pivot springs into action with smooth, consistent travel.

When standing to climb up technical sections, it’s easy to find the right body position for minimal suspension bob. And, while seated, it just plows along with precision. When the trail. ticks upwards, the front end remains confidently planted and doesn’t wander all over the place. It’s definitely an efficient climber, but it’s not the fastest climbing bike I’ve ridden. Where it shines is across a variety of up/down terrain where the added downhill confidence shines. A great example of that is this 6.6 mile segment I ride regularly where I nabbed my third best time in 87 all-time attempts just recently aboard the Spearfish.

On a good day, with a great bike, my body responds. And, on this particular day, everything felt great and it allowed me to show just how great the Spearfish rides overall — uphill and down.

When it does come to extended climbs, I can sit and spin with ease and there’s always enough left for the occasional standing section or off-camber switchback, where the Spearfish seems to pull itself uphill. Most of the time, I left the compression switch to firm/trail mode and found it just right for efficient riding both uphill and down. At the top of long descents, I would flip it to open mode to maximize the fun factor and I did notice a difference, but it wasn’t huge. For simplicity, I’d definitely recommend just leaving it and riding your bike.

Components and such

Unfortunately, tariffs have hit this bike to the tune of a $500 price increase since it first arrived. That said, the spec remains admirable and desirable. The smart parts spec is lightweight without breaking the bank to make that happen. With mid-level shocks and a respectable set of WTB KOM Light i30 wheels, the rest of the parts do a great job of balancing comfort and budget. The RaceFace Turbine bars remain some of my favorite alloy bars and my backside never complains when riding a WTB Silverado.

After several years of almost exclusively riding SRAM GX Transmission across several bikes — I love how consistent and smoothly it performs. Tops on that list is brainless shifting. What I mean is I can shift later and  maybe in a less-opportune time and the powerful shifter compensates for my intentional and unintentional shifting habits. I’ve really come to appreciate that I can shift whenever I want to and never worry about mashing gears. And, it remains super reliable.

SRAM’s brakes have been under the microscope for years and my bike came equipped with SRAM Level BRZ’s, which have been adeptly stopping me at every turn with squeal-free braking. But, latest production builds should come with the new SRAM Motive Bronze 4-piston brakes, which are supposed to be a significant improvement.

The TranzX YSI08 RAD+ Dropper post has been good, but it does lack that positive clunk when topping out. I may have been able to adjust it further, but it worked well enough for my review period. What I didn’t like was the lever itself. The lever throw required a lot more movement than I’d like. I feel like it could have been a shorter lever with a greater leverage ratio for a shorter throw. I would definitely consider a different lever if this was my bike.

I loved the Teravail Camrock 29×2.4″ tires. These are QBP’s house brand, and they roll fast and grip well — no matter how hard I pushed them. I tested the Spearfish exclusively on dry desert singletrack and wasn’t disappointed by their traction both uphill and down and felt like they tracked well when cornering at both low and high speeds and angulation.

Setup: I’m 5’11” and 175 lbs., riding the size Large. I set up tire pressure to 23/25psi front/rear and had the shock set up with about 170psi and fork at 80psi with rebound a click or two in from center.

Buy Now: Visit SalsaCycles.com