It wasn’t all that long ago that Santa Cruz revamped the Stigmata. What was primarily a cyclocross bike was reshaped to toe the line into gravel. Fast forward a few years, and now Santa Cruz has gone all in with a fully modern take on the gravel bike.
Santa Cruz will be the first to tell you that the Stigmata is all about versatility, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it can’t be a fast race bike. In fact, the new bike has already won at Unbound under Keegan Swenson. Clearly, the bike is a good choice for impossibly hard gravel epics, but it should also be a great option for just about anything you can throw at it.
Modern gravel bikes are more likely to incorporate suspension… or not, so the Stigmata can do both. Suspension corrected for a 40mm travel suspension fork like the RockShox Rudy, there’s also a version with a suspension-corrected rigid fork.
To go along with that suspension fork capability, the geometry has been given the modern gravel bike treatment with a slacker 69.5º head tube angle and longer reach by about 30mm which is meant to be paired with shorter stems. The seat tube angle is set at 74º, and sizing will be offered from S-XXL.
The CC carbon frame gets updated with the addition of a Glovebox in the downtube to stash the essentials, while the frame includes three bottle mounts (one under the down tube), and low-profile fender mounts. Lacking are any mounts on the rigid fork legs, and top tube mounts. The frame also gets a SRAM UDH for Transmission compatibility and a threaded bottom bracket for simplicity.
Tire clearance is claimed to be 50mm matching that of the suspension fork, while complete bikes will include 700c x 45mm tires. Santa Cruz kept the cable routing internal, but not through the headset. You also have the option of running a 2x drivetrain if you choose. The frame is dropper post compatible, but in 1x configuration only.
Available in five different builds and in one color, pricing starts at $4,299 with a rigid fork and rigid seatpost.
