There's something to be said for the inherent simplicity of a hard tail. Sure, we won't write off the full-squish feel of a beefy trail or enduro rig, but we're also a fan of crushing climbs, speeding past the other steeds that, by comparison, climb like chubby ponies. With that said, in the past we've also found too many feathery cross-country rides that felt fragile, noodly, and overly twitchy at high-speeds. Fortunately we're here to say that we can send those notions to the past with Santa Cruz's new Highball Carbon CC XTR Reserve Complete Mountain Bike. Now don't get us wrong, we're not going to tell you this newest generation of Highball is going to be a worthy replacement for your trail bike, but it does offer you that speedy cross-country geometry we covet, and with a frame that won't waiver when its time to put the hammer down. As we've seen year after year, Santa Cruz always manages to push the envelope in the design of their bikes and this third-generation Highball Carbon 29er is no different, weighing a half pound lighter than previous versions in their high-end Carbon CC lay-up. You read that right, the newest version of the Highball Carbon CC 29er is a half pound or some 200 grams lighter, dropping the frame's overall weight to just over two pounds, which is absurd when you think about it. Santa Cruz's composite engineers achieved this absurdly low weight through a meticulous application of carbon in zones critical to stiffness and structural integrity, trimming the bike down in all other areas for the utmost in weight savings. Although the third generation of Santa Cruz's Highball makes no qualms about its dedicated racing purposes, it's distinctly Santa Cruz in nature, meaning you can dare to tackle a bit more technical lines on the XC course that would leave you questioning your sanity on other cross-country bikes with steeper head tube angles. For this third-gen Highball, Santa Cruz slackened it out a hair. Instead of the previous head tube an...