Santa Cruz, making a 'cross bike? Is this some kind of joke? Hell no! We are based in Santa Cruz, California, after all, and that implies a winter's worth of mucky run-ups at the Watsonville fairgrounds, sand pits at Fort Ord, and that sketchy off-camber bit at Soquel high school. 'Cross is part of the landscape here, and we wanted bikes with our name on the tubes to throw over our shoulders between October and January.
So we took Easton's new EA6X tubing and came up with a super lean (1300grams for a 54cm frame, with powdercoat), no-compromise (we don't need no steenkin' rack or fender braze-ons), race ready 'cross frame. It has a low BB and tight geometry, and tons of tire clearance. She carves turns hard enough to leave scorch marks, and we can hardly wait for winter.