Is Something Afoot at Santa Cruz? Another Carbon Fiber 29er.

Part of me agrees with with balayer – straight up hotness.

But part of me says, “Yaaaaaawn… Whatever… Another all-carbon 29er hard-tail.” Am I alone here?
… No offense to Santa Cruz, they make some great rigs, but they’re not exactly pushing the envelope with this one… more like jumping on the ‘ol bandwagon. Niner, Specialized, Cannondale, Trek, Scott, Orbea – You name it, every big player in the biz seems to be carving some curvy molds and squeezing out a few carbon 29ers hoping to take a bite of the current market share. And they all brag about their weight… It’s carbon folks! It’s SUPPOSED to be light!

Seems like more 29er hard-tail innovation is coming from the small shops (i.e. NAHBS exhibitors), then the big boys with full R&D departments. C’mon Santa Cruz… how about carbon soft-tail, VPP “lite” or something that would make me open my eyes…. and my wallet.

Schweet! 20 lbs! Sign me up! Wonder what the durability will be like.

put some stans ztr races on there and it would be lighter and about a 1k cheaper.
you don’t have to spend 8k to have a sweet and light 29er….just do some homework.
i have a 29er hardtail that weighs 21.5 lbs and cost me under 3k to build. not that hard.

not as light as the specialized at 18.5 lbs stock

Full Sus XC is dead and SC knows this.
Probably not pushing the envelope on this one but a necessary step to stay competitive in this segment and cover the gap in their portfolio.

Having said that the lines look sweet, simple and clean, I just want one.

Full Sus XC is dead? That is a crock.

I read some of these comments and it appears to me that some folks are saying “If you ride something different than I ride, or on terrain that isn’t like what I ride, you’re wrong.”

I ride a dually XC rig. I’m a recent convert to 29’ers. Most of the guys that I ride with are still riding high-end hardtails (some 26, some 29) and would be the exact target market for this bike. Side note: almost all if not all of them have second and third rigs in the garage—full sus XC bikes or trail bikes.

Not all of us live near Whistler or Tahoe. Not all of us live in Colorado. As such, there are different strokes for different folks. A bike like this is not only viable, but will be highly sought after in some circles. Not yours? Move along then.