First Ride: 2016 Juliana Roubion and Furtado
Juliana traveled from its home base in Santa Cruz, California, to the Sierra Mountains a few hours east to showcase updated versions of its popular Roubion and Furtado mountain bikes. The models have changes in the frame geometry and suspension that make them more maneuverable, easier to climb, and more fun to ride—at least that’s what officials from the company told me before my first ride aboard the new bikes.
A note on Juliana bikes: The Roubion and Furtado use the same frames as models from Santa Cruz, Juliana’s parent company. The reason? “We build bikes for women who ride hard,” says brand manager Katie Zaffke. To Juliana, that means using Santa Cruz’s geometry, rather than building a bike to a theoretical woman’s measurements. The only differences between the two are the touch points, paint schemes, and the addition of a new extra-small size Furtado.
For 2016, the Juliana Roubion and Santa Cruz Bronson get one-degree slacker head tube angles (now 66 degrees), shorter chainstays, and longer top tubes. That particular adjustment is designed to let riders run a shorter stem, resulting in quicker handling. The seat tube angles are also steepened by one degree, which places the rider more directly above the bottom bracket for better climbing traction.
The Furtado and 5010 get 67-degree head angles, a degree slacker than the current models. The bikes also have the same longer top tube/shorter-stem geometry used on the new Juliana. The companies claim that these improvements make the 5010 and Furtado easier to climb, which I was excited about—when I tested the 2015 version, my only wish was that it handled better when pedaling uphill.
All of the bikes get new hardware on the VPP rear suspension: a top-tube mounted, box-section upper link that Juliana officials said is stiffer and has better bearing life. Designers also moved the lower link higher so it sits more inline with the BB. This reduces the risk of rock strikes, and makes it possible for the bikes to accommodate shorter chain stays.
When Gloria Liu, Bicycling’s gear editor, reviewed the current version of the Roubion, she wrote that she wished the bike had more supple suspension. She should be more pleased with the 2016 version—Juliana revised the shock rate to make the suspension more responsive to crunchy trails and small hits.
Small cyclists can get excited about the XS Furtado and its ability to (we were told) even fit a water bottle inside the front triangle. That frame size is in the works now and will be available in spring 2016.
Before we hit the trails, Juliana made one final point—one that should please bargain shoppers. Last year, Santa Cruz introduced a lower-cost frame for its carbon models, called "C." Juliana will offer the same affordable option on its most popular model, the Roubion.
RELATED: The Juliana Furtado C Will Help You Drop Your Boyfriend
We took to the trails of Downieville, California, a former Gold Rush boomtown now home to 300 residents and the Downieville Downhill, a popular all-mountain race. A 40-minute shuttle ride put us in a high-mountain saddle with 20 miles of singletrack leading back toward town. The trails included tight bermed turns, rooty sections, chunky rock, and zoomy-fast straightaways—the ideal terrain to test the new bikes.
First Ride: Juliana Roubion
The descent from Butcher Ranch revealed a lot about the redesigned Roubion. It has a graceful, smooth quality that allows it to handle rough trail with precision. The shorter chain stays made it easy to maneuver around techy corners and swoopy berms and accelerate quickly away—when I stepped on the gas, the Roubion sprung ahead faster than I expected for a bike with 150mm of travel.
The plush suspension smoothly soaked up small and large hits. I felt in control on everything from chattery fire roads, to chutes filled with babyhead rocks, to ass-over-the-rear-wheel boulder drops.
Considering how well the Roubion descended, I was pleased with the way it felt on the half-mile climb midway down the mountain. I set the Fox fork and rear suspension to their stiffest settings and experienced little bob, whether I was sitting or standing. However, the front wheel seemed very far in front of me and had the tendency to wander as I was climbing. To be fair, I was pretty gassed at that point, and my skills were not at their peak.
The bike was also poppier than I expected it would be, and it was easy to lift and hop over obstacles. As for the color? It’s somewhere between gray and lavender, and not overly feminine, which I really liked. It’s also a color I’ve never seen on a bike before—a major plus for me.
The Roubion starts out at $3599, with build options up to $8099.
First Ride: Juliana Furtado
We took the Furtado out for a spin on the mellower Mills Creek singletrack in Downieville. This trail started loose and shaley, then rolled into soft, piney dust as it twisted and turned down the mountain.
The Furtado feels like the Roubion’s fun younger cousin—the two bikes have different personalities, but their similar suspension and frame design means you can tell they come from the same family tree. Compared to the Roubion, the 130mm-travel Furtado is lighter and more nimble. It has some of the plushness of the Roubion, but with a more lively feel that makes rock gardens fun. This new version’s slightly slacker head angle makes it feel more capable on chundery descents. But it’s no sofa. While the Roubion can plow through rocks without losing any speed, the Furtado transmits more feedback to the rider—several rock gardens tossed me off my line.
On both the Furtado and the Roubion, the steeper seat angle made it feel like I was sitting right above the bottom bracket, especially on climbs—like I was pushing up the climb, rather than simply sitting back in the saddle. Overall, the bike felt like it ascended better than the model I tested last year, but I’m not ready to attribute that entirely to the new geometry. The model I tested earlier this summer was less expensive (so, heavier) than this one—a definite factor in climbing performance. Also, I only tried the newer model on a long fire road climb that wasn’t terribly steep or techy. The real test will come when I get this bike on my rooty and rocky home trails. However, the initial ride in Downieville makes me optimistic that this new model will improve some of the slight slowness I felt on climbs with the older model.
This year’s color is a shade lighter than what was used on last year’s Roubion. If the large proportion of teal helmets, shorts, and jerseys on our ride were any indication, the color is growing in popularity right now.
Pricing for the Furtado starts at $3599, with options up to $8699.
The Takeaway
The text message I sent gear editor Gloria Liu while I was in Downieville should give you some idea of how I felt about both bikes: “What happens if I really don’t have much negative to say?” I wrote. Santa Cruz and Juliana did a spectacular job of choosing trails to show off the bikes’ best attributes, and I think the new geometry improved the bikes’ performance in substantial ways. I’m looking forward to testing these bikes on different types of trails to really find the strengths and weaknesses of each model. Stay tuned for upcoming reviews of the bikes.
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