Santa Cruz Juliana XC Womens Mountain Bike 2012

Most of the bike manufacturers produce full suspension mountain bikes with sophisticated rear suspension design such as Actual Pivot Point (APP) and Virtual Pivot Point (VPP). This is basically done to achieve effective shock behaviour on both small bump and large hits with more suspension action. Even though most advanced rear suspension design prevails in the market still single pivot line of bikes never drains its unique valve. Santa Cruz Juliana ladies mountain bike is built around with single pivot suspension and crafted with light weight aluminium tubing. The frame design is based on Superlight bike with strategically altered frame to satisfy women riders. You can expect all the riding qualities of Superlight in Juliana bike with effective female geometry frame.

All the essential qualities of Juliana past are retained in the new model and now the frame is slightly tweaked to favour a woman’s physique more efficiently. With shorter top tubes, lowered bottom bracket height and slackened head tube angle makes this a perfect cross country bike for women. Santa Cruz provides more fit options and enough stand-over clearance to fit all women size. This light weight aluminium frame can accommodate 100mm to 120mm of fork travel.

Price Lowered

Santa Cruz has lowered the price of Juliana in 2010 and it is now reasonably been priced for its components and it is one of the best light weight bike under its price range. Frame price with Gloss white pearl colour, standard Fox Float RL shock with two built kit options cost £1,074. Complete Bikes comes around £1,799 with four built kit options. Heckler, Superlight and Juliana are more or less comes with the same price range.

Light Weight Bike Frame

Santa Cruz has made a lot of changes to its single pivot line of bikes such as Heckler, Superlight and Juliana in the past two years. All these mountain bikes have the same frame design except the Juliana which is female oriented bike. A major improvement is made in pivot axle placement at the lower end of the down tube. The new model has pivot axle point built much like it is in APP and VPP bikes. Over sized aluminium axle passes through heavily shielded bearing at the pivot point and this gives great stiffness to the rear end. Santa Cruz has eliminated gussets of the tubing in Juliana bike frame which gives better strength than gusseted tubing and this helps them to give competitive price range.

A lightweight all-rounder bike

This XC mountain bike can do full stretch on tight technical terrains as well as cross country racing without any major component changes. With the availability of strong pivot axles and suspension options, this womens mountain bike can provide better handling on rock gardens, effortlessly climb switchbacks and enjoy demanding descents. It has a simple frame design with minimalistic approach and feature less travel (4″ range) which is a good match for XC riding. Its light weight aluminium frame is strong and does the riding on all kinds of terrain. This ladies mountain bike is lot more comfortable than hardtail bike when it comes to steep, long climbs, big descents and tight single track. You can confidently take this bike for cross country racing because it is much suitable for long haul rides.

Pure XC/trail riding

This bike frame receives good response from riders and its proven single pivot suspension design makes it a perfect riding machine which bounds up and down the hill effortlessly. Sometimes you cannot fully drag the bike up the hill and it takes more time on climbing. This bike is for pure XC/trail riding, you might feel a little bob while you stand-up and climb uphill and these things are mostly common in single pivot full suspension bikes. It will not spoil the performance of the bike rather you will really enjoy climbing. You will never feel the need for the propedal in the rear shock while climbing. This mountain bike will squat a bit on heavy braking over choppy terrain which most of the riders would prefer. Try to avoid pedalling against suspension movement and the bike gives plush ride if you could possibly stay with freewheel drive.

Frame Sizing

This cross country bike comes in the following size range such as extra small (XS), small (S), medium (M). The XS size may be the smallest 15″ production that satisfies the least size required for small petite women. Several women particularly in 4’8″ to 5’1″ height range would be benefited with XS size and it will be comfortable for them to ride on any terrain. Santa Cruz claims that they completely address the needs of female riders by building specific female geometry frame with all available size to fit all kinds of women.

Cost Effective Components

This women’s mountain bike does not come with some sophisticated design like VPP bikes but it is the most reliable and great performing bike under single pivot category. This lightweight all-rounder bike comes with standard Fox Float RL rear shock that weighs just 5.29lbs and if you use Fox RL Air shock then weight scales up to 5.4lbs. Santa Cruz Juliana SL 2012 is available as complete bike with two built kit options such as D XC and R XC. You can also custom built the bike with four built kit options such as D XC, R XC, SPX XC and XTR XC. All these built kits comes with the mix of Shimano SLX, XT, XTR drive trains, Avid Elixir and Shimano XT, XTR Disc brakes with a standard Fox Float RL Rear Shock. You can choose between Standard Fork – Rock Shox Recon Silver SA R, 120mm, QR, Black or Fox 32 float RL O/B, 120mm, 1 1/8 QR, Black. With either of this optional fork the weight of the complete bike will be lesser than 23lbs.

Our analysis

There are lot of sophisticated designed ladies mountain bikes in the market which can do a little better job than Juliana but large price tag and maintenance cost simple make them expensive for just XC riding. If you are on a budget then go for Juliana superlight which can perform well in all terrain without any issue. If you want plusher ride or other sophisticated suspension design like VPP bikes from Santa Cruz then try Blur LT that has extra 1.5″ of travel than Juliana.

Santa Cruz 2011 Mountain Bike Specification List
Santa Cruz 2012 Mountain Bike Specification List

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