SEA OTTER CLASSIC 2010 – The Stigmata cyclocross bike is a Santa Cruz model that doesn’t get a lot of hype, but at the Otter, it was situated right in the middle of their tent. Marketing man Mike Ferrentino saw me checking it out, and the conversation went something like this:
MIKE: Saw you checkin’ this out, we don’t hype it much, but it’s a really sweet bike. It’s handmade by Sapa in Portland (Oregon, U.S. of A) from Easton EA6X alloy.
ME: Cool.
MIKE: And this clearcoat will be a new color option for all of our aluminum VPP bikes (Nomad, V10, Blur LT and Driver 8) for 2011. Oh, and we’re doing away with our ano for 2011.
ME: Why?
MIKE: Well, we could say it’s because ano’s a terribly nasty process that uses all sorts of enviromentally bad chemicals, but it’s really more to do with inventory control. With our powdercoating, we can do small batches of each color based on current orders, and do onesie-twosies if necessary. With anodizing, we’re stuck with ordering a ton of frames and if a color doesn’t sell well then we’ve got a ton of inventory just sitting there. Plus, we powdercoat in-house, so we can maintain better quality control.
ME: Gotcha. Makes sense. So, can you tell me more about the Stigmata?
The Stigmata comes in right at 17lbs as built with Edge Composites wheels and fork, Avid Shorty Ultimates, Thomson seatpost and Shimano Ultegra group. The frame weight is 1,200 – 1,300g.
Besides being able to see the tube-stamp from Easton on the frame, he other benefit to the clearcoat versus powdercoats is that you save about 50g – 60g per frame.
