I’m contemplating getting a Santa Cruz Highball Carbon and am struggling to find any decent reviews or owner feedback. Has anyone got one or ridden one enough to comment?

Looking at the geometry chart the top tubes look a little short compared to other hardtail 29ers. I’m 5′ 10″ with slightly short legs and therefore a longer body and appear to be suitable for both a medium or large depending on whether I want more stretch or more standover

A bump for the day crowd – just in case there is someone out there 🙂

I’m 5,10″. You’ll want a large for distance. Medium feels great on short bursts but it has a 23″ ETT so you’ll tire on it for anything long haul.

It’s super stif, light and looks nice. stand over on a large is highish. I think i actually preferred the alu model. Try out a superfly if you’re after a full on race bike (love the steering on those). Highball however doubles as a trail hard tail, nice and strong + Felt better than the carbon niner to me.

I certainly agree on a Large, assuming relatively normal body proportions! What are you planning to use it for?

What are you riding at the mo/how does that fit?

Cool, thanks for the info. Great to hear that my initial views on the ETT being a bit short sounds correct.

I’ve slightly short legs / long body hence my slight indecision. Inside leg is only about 30-31, so longer TT is good on large, but then unsure on the amount of standover that leaves me.

I’m looking at it as a nice trail hardtail rather than a race bike and it is quite hard to understand whether it is going to be too stiff \ racey for that job (especially as I’m used to steel and ti bikes). It’s clearly going to be stiffer I’m just struggling to work out if it is a noticeably stiff and indeed stiffer than other comparable options. Will be used in the Chilterns, Exmoor, Quantocks rather than anywhere particularly rocky.

I’m also really against any bike with a pf bottom bracket so it and the new Yeti Arc Carbon are pretty much the only carbon frames going, with alternatives of the alu model or a Solaris etc as other contenders.

18Bikes – I’m currently on an original geared Tinbred 18″ which has done me proud since about 2007. Does feel a bit short now when I get back on it after the road bike and also after trying a friends Solaris.

Certainly sounds like a Large to me. We’re similar proportions.

It’s not a bike we’ve done loads of – but I’d say that you can dictate the characteristics with fork/tyre/bar/stem choice as much as anything.

Agree on PF – awful awful idea. SC are our absolute favourite on carbon.

Have to say that the XT build they do comes close to what I would spec myself, but as ever it is not quite perfect. I’d want slightly wider internal width rims than it comes with ideally as that seems to be the way forward, but I think I could live with it as it comes.

I might well email you my perfect spec to see how it compares price wise to that built option.

Thanks again

We hardly ever do the standard SC specs – they’re not really that cheap and by the time you’ve swapped a couple of tyres/grips to personal faves, it’s certainly far better to have started from scratch. I’m happy to chat through a couple of quotes – you’re right that email is probably better (I only noticed your post because I was idly browsing while on hold on the phone!)

info@18bikes.co.uk

Si

I demoed one last year along with a TallBoy. Had them both for a weekend each. Shan’t bother you with the TallBoy impressions..

I didn’t get on with the large, ok I’m 5’11 and pretty standard sizewise, it felt a little too big and floppy when honking, fine for spirited hacks on fire trails and smooth berms/lite singletrack but when it came to climbing it was just too big. Not that it didn’t go up stuff, there just seemed to be rather a lot of bike in front of me.
I then tried the Med and that was waaayyyy better, so much so it was almost like riding a different Brand altogether. That said I didn’t buy it, I was finishing off building my Niner up and really it was the TallBoy I wanted to try…