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Review: Juliana Furtado

A confidence booster for the trails

by Rachel Stetson

Touted as the middle-child trail bike, the Juliana Furtado may be your next go-to machine for fun and playful riding. Designed to give you better balance and control, the recent updates to the Furtado make it an agile and versatile bike.

Juliana has steepened the seat angle for more continuous and purposeful pedalling, making climbing over rocks and roots a breeze. The bike has size-specific chainstay lengths to ensure each frame is perfectly balanced. The slackened head-tube angle of 65 degrees really helped me to tackle downhills with more confidence and to avoid that “I’m going over the bars!” feeling. With 130 mm of travel in the rear and fork travel bumped up to 140 mm, Juliana is making committing to the send easier by making a more responsive bike. Despite that slackened head tube, the Maxxis Minion DHR II tires gripped well and the front wheel doesn’t bounce around as you grind up hills.

As the Furtado is the sibling of the Santa Cruz 5010, the Juliana model also has the twin-link VPP suspension, although it has been lowered compared with the previous model of Furtado, the shock set closer to the bottom bracket. Shifting the weight lower works in conjunction with the goals of the bike to provide balance, confidence and control. Like its brother, the Furtado comes with adjustable geometry. A flip-chip on the rear shock mount changes the height of the bottom bracket by 4 mm as well as the seat and head angle by 0.4 and 0.3 degrees giving you that extra room under the bike to take on bigger obstacles or turn tighter to the ground.

Not just a pretty frame

Visually, this bike is stunning. To keep the beautiful, spicy redwood paint intact, there is a ridged chainstay protector and a mudguard mounted over the rear suspension to protect the shock from all the mud, twigs and rocks you will throw at it. This feature is cool because the suspension is now closer to the tire, increasing the chances it will get muddy.

Weighing in at 13.37 kg (for the top-end Carbon CC model) and repping 27.5″ wheels, the Juliana Furtado is light and burly at the same time. As tested, the Carbon CC comes equipped with SRAM Eagle parts including a 12-52 tooth cassette, X01 shifters, and 180-mm-diameter rotors putting this model at the top of its class. Strong enough to take on downhills, rock gardens and climbs, this bike is fun for riders of any skill level. If you are new to the sport, you can build your skills and abilities; if you are a seasoned rider, you can whip this baby around the trails and feel for yourself the benefits of the details gone into its creation.

Juliana Furtado 

Components
12-speed, 10-52 tooth SRAM XG1295 Eagle cassette, X01 Eagle rear derailleur and shifter, 32-tooth X1 Eagle Carbon DUB crankset
Suspension
RockShox Pike Ultimate fork with 140 mm of travel, RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate shock with 130 mm of travel
Wheels
27.5″ Santa Cruz Reserve 30
Sizes
XS, S, M
Price
$10,799