It’s rad to have neighbours that ride bikes. I have a few nearby, and one set of them, having been living Stateside for two years, recently returned from New York with two brand spanking new bicycles. I’m talking really new; some of you may have noticed I Instagrammed a photo of one of these bikes being pulled out of its box back at the beginning of August, literally days after they went on sale in the USA. We’ve held off showing them to you until they were available here and the Santa Cruz distributor has just shipped out his first lot so here’s a bit of a look. First up is the women’s specific Juliana Furtado model; I realise that’s her name, but the model is the Furtado, just to be clear. 
It features 125mm of VPP travel and a typically sexy carbon frame. For those used to Santa Cruz carbon bikes there aren’t any massive changes.
That said it does feature internal cable routing for stealth dropper posts.
Aside from a bit of a re-brand, most Juliana models seem to be based on current Santa Cruz models but with a much more women-friendly size range and custom women’s parts, because women have different parts. The bars on the build kits are probably where this is most notable, with a step-down so they can run narrower profile grips for smaller hands. The bikes also feature short cranks and specific saddles for women’s sit bones.
And yes, even though I haven’t mentioned it yet the Furtado does spin on medium sized wheels.
Subtle Juliana branding is everywhere.
Cable Routing on the Furtado is a bit up the whack, though with not enough cable guides to actually run a front mech, rear derailleur and dropper post, bit of an oversight with not everyone out there rocking a 1x setup.
The rear end features Shimano’s new direct mount dropouts as well as a burly 142 x 12 rear axle. 
Then there is the Solo or the 5010 as it’s now called due to some overzealous California based lawers. I guess this means early Solos may well become collectors’ items! Anyhow the Solo is pretty much the dude’s version of the Furtado. It features 125mm of VPP travel and rolls on medium wheels and for extra safety comes in Mountain Rescue Orange!
142×12 rear axle, check. Shadow plus rear mech, check. Nice chainstay protection, check. Medium sized wheels, check.
It’s hard not to fall in love with Santa Cruz lines, everything seems so resolved. In case I need to remind you, that carbon link pivots on locking collet axles.
Stealth dropper posts have become de rigeuer, front derailleurs not so much.
Does that say SOLO or 5010?
If you’re worried about stone chips and that kind of thing, Santa Cruz are providing a little carbon protection as well as positioning the grease ports for the lower VPP linkage well out of harm’s way.
Santa Cruz are getting this carbon stuff dialled; you find yourself just caressing the bike when it’s not being ridden!
And just like the Furtado it suffers from the same cable guide issues, switching to a 1x setup would fix that but that’s not an option for everyone.
And the best bit about neighbours is when you’re short a cup of sugar, or an egg, most of the time they’re happy to help out. It turns out Scotty and Diana are prepared to take that to the next level and lend us the Solo/5010 for a bit of a test which will appear in Issue 55 due out February.
There are plenty of options for running front derailleur cables on these bikes. Each cable guide can easily hold three cable if needed. I’m calling user error.
Nice of the neighbors to lend you their bikes, MTBers are chilled peeps! 🙂 Any chance you’ll be lookin at the new Heckler anytime soon? P.S here’s a free cuppa sugar, cheers neighbor 🙂