Santa Cruz Bicycles

Highball Carbon CC 29 XT Complete Mountain Bike - 2016

There are few things in the world that the trail-minded among us would rather do than spend an afternoon ripping over smooth singletrack and deftly navigating technical trails, and while we appreciate the allure of a full-squish, full-suspension rig, there's something magical about rocking a hardtail like the 2016 Santa Cruz Highball Carbon CC 29 XT Complete Mountain Bike. 100mm of plush FOX Racing Shox front travel is just enough to soften the ride, and Shimano's XT drivetrain and brakes are a go-to choice for any aspiring racer without a sponsor insisting that they ride a more expensive model. The DT Swiss 350 hubs and Race Face's new ARC 24 rims are similarly dependable and race-ready kit.

This Highball Carbon CC frame is built with the same Carbon CC construction as its predecessor. It features a higher modulus carbon than the Carbon C model, so less material is required to hit the same strength and stiffness numbers. Less material equates to a lighter chassis that needs fewer watts to propel, and the watts that you do pour into it are transferred with greater efficiency courtesy of the increased stiffness.

The whole frame is also a single piece 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, buttressing the frame and dissipating the force from impacts and pedaling load. Translated into trail talk, this means it hits the bricks when you stomp on the pedals and dampens high-speed chatter. The Highball's efficiency combines with its low-weight for a package that makes any full-suspension bike's responsiveness feel as sharp as an overripe avocado.

The Highball does somewhat address the lack of rear suspension with a diminished seatpost, which is slimmed down to 27.mm. 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 29in 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 quarters get tight.