Santa Cruz Highball V1 Drop Bar Conversio

For the last couple years I’ve been riding fire trails in the bay area on an older titanium gravel bike fitted with 30 mm tires and cantilever brakes, probably better described as an allroad bike today. This worked really well, until the rains last winter rutted and washboarded the trails to the point that it became uncomfortable this last year and I was reaching for mtb’s on rides I would previously have used my gravel bike for. However, given the significant amount of road riding included in these rides, and the amount of hand fatigue I built on flat bars on longer rides, I decided I needed an option with both suspension and drops, and was faced with the choice between a second wheelset for the gravel bike or a more dedicated solution. Unfortunately given the cantis, my wheelset options are rather limited.

Since there has been an increasing amount of chatter online about hardtail conversions to drop bars, about a month and a half ago I set out to convert a Higball V1 to test the hype for myself. It was equipped originally with Sram 3×10 with 36-11 rear cassette and a 44/32/24 crankset, a Fox 100 mm fork, 2.2″ tires on 29″ wanderlust rims, and Shimano XT brakes. The fork and wheelset was going to stay, and I really liked this gear range so set out to find something that replicated it best I could, while keeping as much of the drive train constant as I could.

I settled on a SRAM Force 22 based drivetrain to take advantage of the exact actuation compatibility with the rear derailleur, and figured I could bodge the 3x front derailleur to work on a 2x system. SRAM used to sell a Truvativ badged 42/28 crankset, which I was able to pick up on eBay lightly used. That coupled with a Wolftooth roadlink to allow for a 42-11 cassette gave me the same low gear as before, while only missing a small amount at the top end.

For the cockpit I fitted a 46 cm Salsa Cowbell, which is 2 cm wider than my gravel bike with the hopes to improve stability. This, I think, is my only real mistake, as I think I should have stuck to 44s (my natural width is 42). I also shortened the stem from 90 to 70 mm to accommodate the extra reach from the drops.

The first pictures in the album are from a trip to Moab right before Thanksgiving, immediately after I got the bike rideable with drops. I had plans to do some gravel riding with friends on this trip, and with space for only one bike this seemed like a perfect opportunity to shake down the drop bar highball. This was before the new crankset came in, so I was rocking a 38/24 from my trail bike for that trip.

This bike is an absolute riot. On flat fire roads it really shines and is easily faster than either my gravel or trail bikes. The gear range makes climbing even very steep dirt straightforward. It doesn’t lose anything on descents, at least relative to when it was flat bar. It even has some proficiency on singletrack (the first photo is from Getaway in Moab, which was an awesome trail for this bike). Overall I’m finding it fits a good niche for right when my titanium gravel bike gets uncomfortable, and on the other end when I am ubderbiked on this setup is around where I want full suspension anyway, so I’m not really missing having a flat bar hardtail at all. The drops bars have helped with hand fatigue, and the aero gains seem substantial although I have limited data.

Still to do is adding a dropper post and changing my tire selection. I would like to put on 50 mm tires instead of the 2.2″ I have on now, with perhaps slightly less aggressive tread. So far I’m in for about $800 overall on the conversion, most of which was the brake/shifter (about $400 sourced from eBay).

by brewskibroski