Highball Carbon CC XT Complete Mountain Bike 27.5in - 2015
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With its lightweight Carbon CC frame and stiff suspension-free tail, Santa Cruz's Highball Carbon CC XT Complete Mountain Bike with 27.5in wheels initially presents itself as an XC rocket with a penchant for hitting climbs hard. Point the just-slack-enough head tube down a technical descent, though, and the Highball shows that its speed doesn't come at the cost of the ability to stick lines across technical terrain. Climbing, descending, and laying tracks across terrain from fast singletrack to techy stretches of trail furniture — the Highball 27.5 is almost always just right.
The frame is built according to Santa Cruz's Carbon CC design philosophy. Carbon CC frames start with a higher modulus carbon fiber that's then laid-up in a proprietary process to achieve the same strength and stiffness characteristics of the heavier Carbon C frames. Compared to the Carbon C models, a Carbon CC frame saves a claimed 250 to 280 claimed grams per frame. The frame itself is constructed as a whole rather than from separate sub-assemblies bonded together, which allows Santa Cruz to wrap the fibers continuously around structurally important junctures like the head tube and bottom bracket, strengthening the frame and dissipating the force from impacts and pedaling load. Translated into trail talk, this means it hits the bricks when you stomp on the pedals, dampens high-speed chatter, and holds lines like a cat on carpet — all with a low weight that makes any full-suspension bike look like a bloated downhill-only machine.
While it doesn't shirk from the rigid speed of a hardtail, the Highball does somewhat address the lack of rear suspension with a diminished seatpost, down to 27.2 millimeters. This doesn't quite equate to the square-edge hit capabilities of the Nomad or Bronson, but it does help to eat up trail vibrations that tend to accumulate over the course of a long ride. Up front, the 27.5 model has a more moderate head tube angle than the Highball 29er. At just 69 degrees, it rides the divide between slack stability and razor-sharp handling, avoiding the floppy front wheels of slacker geometries while helping to control the terrain. Unsurprisingly, it also has shorter chainstays than the 29er version, which maximizes the hardtail rear triangle's efficiency while mashing.
The Highball Carbon CC XT's drivetrain is a tidy package of Shimano XT components, which sacrifice some of the bling of XTR kit but won't cost a second mortgage if you happen to clip a derailleur off on a rock in passing. We're especially fond of the XT brakes, which — to our minds — are the only hydraulic disc brakes worth spending money on. Even if we upgraded to the latest electro doohickey drivetrain, we'd still be rocking the XT M785s. Finally, the wheels also bear mentioning, bringing two familiar faces together with WTB rims laced to DT Swiss hubs.
- Frame Material
- Carbon CC
- Fork
- FOX 32 Float CTD Adjust Factory Kashima
- Front Travel
- 100 mm
- Headset
- Cane Creek 40 tapered
- Shifters
- Shimano XT M780
- Front Derailleur
- Shimano XT
- Rear Derailleur
- Shimano XT M786 GS Shadow Plus
- ISCG Tabs
- yes, ISCG 05
- Crankset
- 22 / 34 t Shimano XT M785
- Bottom Bracket
- BSA threaded
- Cassette
- 11 - 36 t Shimano XT M771 10-speed
- Chain
- Shimano SLX HG75
- Brakeset
- Shimano XT BL-M785
- Brake Type
- hydraulic disc
- Rotors
- 160 mm Shimano RT86 Ice-Tech
- Handlebar
- Santa Cruz Carbon
- Handlebar Width
- 720 mm
- Grips
- Santa Cruz Palmdale Lock-on
- Stem
- Race Face Turbine
- Saddle
- WTB Silverado Team
- Seatpost
- Easton EC70
- Wheelset
- [rims] WTB Asym i19
- Hubs
- DT Swiss 350
- Front Axle
- 15x100mm
- Rear Axle
- 12x142mm
- Tires
- Maxxis Ikon
- Tire Size
- 27.5 x 2.2 in
- Pedals
- not included
- Recommended Use
- cross-country, trail
- Manufacturer Warranty
- 5 years on frame
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