Juliana

Strega Carbon CC X01 Reserve Mountain Bike - 2018 - Women's

Smash every line in the park and dominate any trail on this mesmerizing, gravity-fueled configuration of the Juliana Strega Carbon CC X01 Reserve Complete Mountain Bike. If you love flying down rough trails with reckless abandon, sending it off every jump and drop, or shuttling extended DH runs, you'd be hard pressed to find a more capable trail ally. The Italians use the word Strega, meaning witch, and this bike is ready to cast a spell on other riders with its beautiful lines and paint, paired with aggressive geometry, plush travel, and exquisite Carbon CC frame.

The Strega is unique in the world of women-specific bikes. Juliana took the ideas of what other manufactures deemed desirable in a women's bike and cast it aside when designing the Strega. Sporting 170 millimeters of quality VPP travel, the Strega is positioned directly at the aggressive female rider seeking a longer travel bike helping them progress with the confidence to send it across big gaps, vertical drops, and big boulder fields. Flow trails and lift access will never be the same after you throw a leg over this bike and you'll be hitting lines that will leave lesser bikes shaking in their tubeless tires.

The Strega shares DNA with its brother the Nomad and like it, receives the new reconfigured VPP suspension, driven by a lower-link mounted shock that's a departure from the likes of the Roubion, Furtado, and Joplin. This new shock location takes cues from the DH World Cup winning Santa Cruz V10. On the Strega, the new shock placement gives a very linear feel that is super plush throughout its stroke so you can attack the steepest, roughest lines and let the suspension do its job, much like a full-on downhill bike. The Strega, like the rest of the Juliana line, specs a custom lighter shock tune on the Rock Shox Super Deluxe that's designed for smaller build female riders, so it'll be more supple off the top and you'll be able to use all of the travel.

The Strega's geometry inspires confidence in freeride and DH riding scenarios with its slack 65-degree head tube angle. Usually this slack of a head tube would limit the Strega to lift-accessed downhills and shuttle laps, however, this bike suits aggressive riders who want a long-travel bike that they can pedal uphill and the engineers at Juliana settled on a pedal-friendly 74.5-degree seat tube angle. This allows you to power up steep climbs and settle in on long fire roads leading up to choice singletrack. The 500% gear range provided by the XO1 12-speed drivetrain gives you all the gear you need and the Rock Shox Lyric fork at 170mm, gobbles up roots and rocks at speed. The lightweight, stiff, 30mm internal width Reserve carbon wheels yield a very responsive ride that won't hold you back on climbs and corners like you're on rails.

The frame features a flip-chip on the linkage that alters the bike's geometry from its aggressive trail 65-degree head tube angle to a downhill-dominating 64.6-degrees, also lowering the bottom bracket and stretching the wheelbase for stability at trail-blurring speeds. No detail goes unnoticed and the shock includes a special fender blocking rocks and mud from dinging up the shock body. The obsession to detail continues with the custom shuttle guard protecting the Carbon CC frame from banging around on tailgates.

On the subject of the Carbon CC frame, this build shaves a significant amount of weight from the Carbon C frame. Juliana hits this by employing a lighter, stronger, and more expensive carbon lay-up, and it doesn't sacrifice any strength or stiffness. You can expect to see about a nine-ounce weight reduction versus a Carbon C frame. A low standover height, size-specific droppers, smaller diameter grips, and a specific saddle target this bike at the hard-charging female rider that doesn't stand for the pink-it and shrink-it approach of most bike brands.