Juliana

Strega Carbon S Mountain Bike - Women's - 2019

In Italian, Strega means witch, and we feel like Juliana picked a good name for this bike as your riding game will certainly feel as if you conjured up some spells because you'll be taming technical lines like never before. Juliana unabashedly states that it built this bike to progress the modern female freerider and if you're looking for a wicked good time on aggressive trails and in the bike park, the Strega Carbon S Complete Mountain Bike packs the slack geometry and efficient, yet plush VPP suspension travel needed to up your game. Built up with a custom curated build kit that is as big on value as it is on performance, you end up with a very capable bike that rides as good as it looks.

The big-hit Strega is easily the most aggressive women-specific freeride bike we've come across. It's incredibly slack head tube angle is adjustable with a simple re-position of the flip-chip on the linkage, so you can customize the ride from a steeper, all-mountain 65-degrees, to an almost DH World Cup-worthy, slack 64.5 degrees. The DH setting also drops the bottom bracket and lengthens the wheelbase, offering composure and confidence at speed yet remaining agile enough to still be fun on tamer trails. Regardless of setting, the steep 74.1 to 74.5-degree seat tube angle lets this bike pedal well up sheer terrain. It places your weight forward, encouraging you to attempt steep, ledgy trails without having to resort to extreme Body-English as your power is right over the pedals.

The Strega's VPP suspension design takes cues from the Santa Cruz V10 and its brother, the Nomad, with its lower link pivot location. Nestled in the lower link is the RockShox Super Deluxe R shock, with nearly 7in of suspension, positioned in a way to keep the bike's center of gravity as low as possible for berm carving goodness and stability. No detail goes unnoticed with the Juliana team, and the shock even has its own fender shielding it from errant trail debris and mud.

The shock location also creates the most linear VPP platform in the Juliana line-up, providing a consistent feel throughout the shock's stroke and an off the top sensitivity that rivals some DH bikes. A shorter eye-to-eye length relative to the stroke, afforded by the use of the metric shock standard, gains increased bushing overlap for a smoother stroke and more rear-end stiffness for a point and shoot riding style that still allows room for a full-size water bottle to sit on inside the downtube. The shock also receives a custom tune for lighter—yet no less heavy-hitting—riders.

SRAM's GX drivetrain matches the value focus on offer from the Strega Carbon C frame, with a super wide-range cassette capable of taming any gradient climb while offering enough top-end to never run out of gears. A 170mm FOX Float 36 fork guides the bike with its beefy stanchions and simply refuses to deflect off of its line. The over-sized party continues upstairs with the Race Face 35mm Aeffect R bars and stem. Other touch points include Juliana's own anatomic saddle and slim grips, also selected with the female rider in mind.

The Strega Carbon C uses Juliana's second-tier carbon, which boasts identical construction to the higher grade CC carbon but uses a different modulus that adds a tiny bit of weight to save big on cash. The method remains the same, with unidirectional carbon plies wrapping between tubes, adding strength and long-term durability. An inner bladder applies outward pressure against the mold while the carbon cures to reduce resin pooling and virtually eliminate imperfections. This results in a frame that is so tough, Juliana backs it with a lifetime frame and bearing warranty.