Specification & geometry

To say that XC bikes have come a long way in recent years is an understatement. In fact, the numbers of the Santa Cruz and Scott in the geometry chart opposite wouldn’t look out of place in a trail bike test from 10 years ago. Some of the vital stats are even more progressive, including reach numbers and seat tube angles.

Disappointing though, is that both Scott and Santa Cruz only offer four frame sizes. That seems odd, given that XC racing is at the pointy end of performance. And it’s not like the volume of sales doesn’t warrant it, as XC bike sales dwarf Enduro and Downhill bike sales combined. Now that Scott has made angle-adjust headsets acceptable in XC, maybe we’ll see reach-adjust headsets in the future for fine tuning the fit.