Santa Cruz's fresh alloy frame, the Highball, carries the super stiff, big-wheeled benefit of their Highball Carbon hard tail with the cheapest price and single speed choices of the Chameleon.
The frame
The comparatively vertical 70.5-degree head angle with 100mm (3.9in) travel fork is straight off the Highball Carbon, but it is sturdy enough for a 120mm (4.7in) or even 140mm (5.5in) travel fork if you want to go looser. Stand over and mud clearance is remarkable even with a big 2.25in Ardent tire fixed too.
You've also got the selection of normal or modifiable, single speed friendly, geometry regulating dropouts fastened onto the back. Bare frames are below $800 in either blue or white stock colors with access to a massive custom paint/ decal menu for $230 extra.
The kit
The frame is stated to be 1.77kg (3.9lb), so you can still put together a practically light and adaptable complete bike with a DIY spec or Santa Cruz's complete bike choices.
Even with closely a kilo of heavy-duty tubeless tire either end (normal build kits will use the considerably nimbler, thinner Maxxis CrossMark 2.1in), the XT based SPX XC build kit it comes in at 11.33kg (24.98lb) for an average. Prices for complete bikes start at $2,300 for the DXC complete bike, with selections all the way up to full XTR with a Fox Kashima fork.
The ride
While you can adjust the head angle with your fork choice, the Highball is unsurprisingly sharp and attentive up front, associated to slacker frames from Whyte and Scott, and joined with the mid-width bar and mid-length stem that you can feel anxious when you're really whopping the Fox front fork through rocks.
Each bar twitch feels more important when you're fighting the trail too. What it does give is great 'reach-around' on snugger trails where 29ers will often run wide unless you intentionally pre-compensate. Add a skim of rear brake to kick the back end out and some forceful shoulder work and you can really rip the Highball through tight single-track. Like most 29ers it loves to surf a slide too, letting you really push the tires without ending up on your feet.
High toughness throughout the frame means it kicks really hard for a 29er too. There's unavoidably a bit of lag as the heavier wheels light up, but this is no wilting violet when it comes to dealing with wattage. There's also very clear tire response to make the most of the amplified grip area.
That toughness does come at the expense of comfort. Even with the big tubeless tires on our model bike running at low pressure, our hands and feet stung if we hit the bumpy local geology flat-out. However hard we rode there was no abnormality of deflation though, and you can definitely hammer the Highball through the rough firmer than a 26in wheeled hard tail.
Conclusion:
Seriously firm, tough and versatile 29er hard tail frame but it is still close to very good - one of the best you can buy.