While everyone was ooing and ahhing over the many new bikes Santa Cruz has been pumping out over the past few weeks, Santa Cruz was busy sneaking in some welcomed changes to the venerable Blur XC Carbon.
The most noticeable change? That would have to be the inclusion of a tapered head tube. It’s fairly safe to say at this point that the tapered head tube is here to stay as it offers more stiffness, more strength due to the increased head tube and down tube size, while retaining the ability to run all current 1 1/8″ stems on the market. Win.
When it comes to the Blur XC, light weight and efficiency has always been the name of the game, so how does the inclusion of the tapered HT factor in? Santa Cruz claims that with further “optimization” of their carbon process, even with the addition of the tapered HT, the new Blur XC has managed to decrease in weight!
Check out the whole bike, after the break!
Other than the tapered HT, the rest of the Blur XC remains mostly the same, visually. The revised version will keep the excellent locking collet hardware, along with the grease ports for the lower link. Also, the rear end remains a standard 135mm quick release, along with a standard threaded bottom bracket shell.
So ultimately, the tapered head tube should increase strength, while the improved carbon should decrease the weight. Lighter and Stronger? Sounds good to me!
