Santa Cruz Bicycles Stigmata Carbon CC Force AXS Gravel Bike

Back when Santa Cruz relaunched its carbon Stigmata in 2015, riders immediately recognized its amazing versatility across terrain ranging from chunky, rarely maintained gravel to glass smooth tarmac, light singletrack, and of course, the mud bog, sandpit, run up, barrier, repeat excursions of cyclocross. When launched, mountain bike standards ruled the roost as evidence of its front 15mm thru-axle and post-mount disc brakes. Since that time, disc brake road bikes have come into their own and gravel riding and racing has exploded creating a whole new discipline with its own components. The time has come for a reboot and the firm has added some important features and details to keep the Stiggy on top of the versatility game and it's no more evident than on the Stigmata Carbon CC Force AXS Complete Bike. Kitted out with SRAM's electronic Force AXS 1 drivetrain and powerful hydraulic brakes, this Stigmata sacrifices the few extra gears of a double and ditches the front derailleur for single chainring simplicity and confident chain retention for rocking and rolling over washboard riddled gravel roads. Stigmata frames sport Santa Cruz's top-shelf CC carbon lay-up, which delivers robust strength and stiffness alongside lightweight efficiency. The significantly revised carbon layup borrows knowledge gained from the mountain-going hardtail, the Highball, and knowledge gained when building Danny MacAskill's trials bike, to produce a ride yielding more compliance helping to smooth out the ride. Up front, the new Stigmata CC Fork uses the same high-end carbon for uncompromising stiffness and strength when you need it most and substitutes the old 15mm thru-axle for a more road and gravel appropriate 12mm one which also helps improve the ride quality. It receives some modern geometry tweaks that place it solidly in contention with the herd of high-end all-road and gravel bike options, with a 71. 5-degree head angle, 74-degree seat angle (based on a 54cm model), and lower bot...