Juliana

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

A mere glimpse of the spellbinding lines, alluring paint scheme, and gravity-inspired shock configuration of the Juliana Strega Carbon CC XO1 Complete Mountain Bike conjures up daydreams of flying downhill at high rates of speed, sending intimidating freeride lines, and conquering hour-long descents in epic alpine terrain. Fittingly named from the Italian word for witch, the Strega mesmerizes fellow riders and onlookers with its drop-dead gorgeous aesthetics paired with aggressive geometry, smooth suspension feel, and exceptional Carbon CC frame.

Creating a long-travel bike without equal in the women's market, Juliana tossed preconceived notions aside of what ladies desire in an aggressive mountain bike in designing the Strega. Packing 170 millimeters of VPP travel, the Strega is purely intended for the demanding female rider seeking a long-travel bike to keep up with their progressing skills across big hits, scary steeps, and technical alpine terrain. Ultimately, it's the type of bike for those pouring their heart and soul into every ride, whether it's weekend shuttle runs on downhill-dedicated trails or self-propelled adventures deep into high-alpine terrain.

The first thing you'll notice with the Strega lies within its reconfigured VPP suspension, driven by a lower-link mounted shock that's radically different than the likes of Roubion, Furtado, and Joplin. This shock location takes cues directly from the Santa Cruz V10, which is renowned on the professional downhill circuit for numerous victories against the fastest riders in the world. Translated to the Strega, the lower shock placement makes it feel more consistent and supple throughout its stroke, allowing it to track smoothly across steep and rugged terrain, much like a dedicated downhill bike. Another thing to note, Juliana employs a custom shock tune that's designed for the lighter builds of female riders, meaning it'll feel more responsive and not overly harsh like male-specific shock tunes.

Delving into its geometry, the Strega inspires downhill confidence with a 65-degree head tube angle (in its higher geometry setting) making it the slackest women's bike on the market. A couple of years ago, this would limit the Strega to lift-accessed downhills and shuttle laps like most gravity sleds on the market. However, realizing that aggressive riders desire a long-travel bike that can actually pedal uphill, the designers at Juliana engineered it with a pedal-friendly 74.5-degree seat tube angle (high geometry setting). This means you'll be able to power up steep climbs and conquer long swaths of trail, especially with the 500% gear range provided by its XO1 12-speed drivetrain.

Seeing that mountain bikes are best when they're customized to your personal style, Juliana engineered the Strega with a flip-chip on the linkage that changes the bike's geometry from its gravity-friendly 65-degree head tube angle to a strict downhill-dedicated 64.6 degrees, as well as lowering the bottom bracket and slightly elongating the wheelbase for greater composure at white-knuckle speeds. Another sweet detail, the reconfigured shock includes a special fender that blocks flinging rocks and kicked-up mud from clogging it up. Juliana didn't stop there with the obsession to detail, giving the Strega a custom shuttle guard, so your the Carbon CC frame doesn't get damaged from banging around on truck tailgates.

Speaking of the Carbon CC frame, the Strega Carbon CC XO1 shaves a significant deal of weight from the cheaper Carbon C frame. Juliana achieves this by using a lighter, stronger, and more expensive carbon lay-up, all without sacrificing one bit of strength or stiffness you've come to love from Juliana carbon frames. We don't have any real figures on hand for the weight savings, but a typical Juliana Carbon CC frame weighs about nine ounces less than a Carbon C counterpart. And seeing it's custom built for hard-charging ladies, low standover heights (as low as 27.7 inches for the XS frame) and size-specific droppers squeeze every ounce of performance from the bike's aggressive geometry without compromising on fit.