Santa Cruz Bicycles Highball 29 Carbon CC Mountain Bike Frame 2017

Beginning in model year 2016, newly re imagined suspension designs have been ushering wagon wheels into the all mountain category, but there's still no substitute for the speed and agility of a steep angled 29er. Santa Cruz Bicycles has done its own work on the 29er suspension front, but the Highball 29 Carbon CC Mountain Bike Frame remains a pure cross country speed machine. Riding a hardtail means no squish and no weight penalty, so the bike is more efficient and easier to propel uphill. Santa Cruz's Carbon CC construction also maximizes weight loss and stiffness, further contributing to the worm burning qualities that made us first fall in love with 29ers all those years ago. The Highball 29er's frame is a single piece layup of carbon fiber instead of a jigsaw puzzle of individually cured carbon tubes. This allows Santa Cruz to wrap the fibers continuously around structurally important junctures like the head tube and bottom bracket, strengthening the frame, dissipating the force from impacts and pedaling load, and allowing for comparable strength with less material. Translated into trail talk, this means it hits the bricks when you stomp on the pedals, dampens high speed chatter, and holds lines like a cat on carpet all with a low weight that makes any full suspension bike look like a bloated downhill only machine. The Highball does somewhat address the lack of rear suspension with a diminished seatpost, slimmed down to 27. 2 millimeters. While this doesn't quite equate to the square edge hit capabilities of the Nomad or Bronson, it does help to eat up chatter that will otherwise accumulate over the course of a long ride. Up front, the 29 inch model has a sharper head tube angle than the Highball 27. 5 so it dances nimbly through switchbacks and technical sections. Although it has longer chainstays than the 27. 5 version, The Highball 29er actually has a shorter wheelbase, courtesy of that head tube angle, which contributes to the confident handling when ...