A couple of weeks ago Bikemagic got the chance to take Santa Cruz’s new Highball 29er carbon fibre hardtail, possibly the company’s most exciting since the Tallboy, and we gave our first ride impressions which you can read here.

Through the marvel that is Twitter, reader John Tait read our review and got in touch to say he’d been lucky enough to get a demo ride on the Highball, and did we want his views on the new bike? Yes, we replied instantly, and below is published John’s thoughts on riding the bike at a recent demo around Peaslake.

I was lucky enough to demo the Santa Cruz Highball, their new hardtail 29er, at Pedal and Spoke in Peaslake, Surrey.

Having never ridden a 29er before I had a few pre-conceptions of what a 29er would be like to ride; tall, leggy and a bit cumbersome – something similar to a new born giraffe. How wrong could I have been.

At 5’11 I’m average height and I had always thought that 29ers where targeted towards 6ft+ riders and World Cup XC “whippets” but as soon as I sat on the medium sized Highball I noticed I had plenty of room in the cockpit and the head angle of 71 degrees made it felt very similar to my existing ride, a Santa Cruz Blur XC.

The demo bike was specced up with very tasty kit; XTR drivetrain, Formula The One brakes and Thompson finishing kit. The bike weighed in at around 21.2lbs with pedals.

The first ascent gave me a good indication of what this bike is all about: SPEED! Obviously the ridiculous low weight helped, but what I also noticed was that on rooty or bumpy sections the bike seem to “flow” better, not getting hang up on sections and slowing progress, it just kept going, until the weakest part gave way, the rider.

I decided not to shy away from the technical, rooty singletrack descent as I wanted to see if the sure-footedness I encountered on the ascent would carry over and allow me to have plenty of fun on the way back down.

What I discovered was that this bike was more than capable of anything I dared point it at. Following my mate on his 150mm full-suspension Butcher I was having to trail the rear brake on certain sections as I was in danger of catching him up! The dusty blown-out root sections didn’t give any cause for concern, the steep and loose drop-ins were handled with aplomb and the twisty switch-backs were dispensed with a big grin on my face.

But, what a price to pay for hardtail perfection? £1700 for the frame alone and over £5000 for the bike I was riding. Yes, I know it’s hand made by the SC boys in the USA, but I could never justify spending £5k on a hardtail. Now about that £5k 26lb Carbon Nomad however…

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