The Exie Story

The Exie is a World-Cup capa­ble cross-coun­try race bike that flat-out shreds. With a sub‑2,000g (4.4lb) frame weight and dw-link sus­pen­sion, it offers a stun­ning com­bi­na­tion of ped­al­ing effi­cien­cy and down­hill per­for­mance. It was designed, built, and test­ed in our San­ta Cruz fac­to­ry, pow­ered by the warm Cal­i­for­nia sunshine.

This is the first car­bon fiber full sus­pen­sion bike we have devel­oped and man­u­fac­tured entire­ly in house. It is the cul­mi­na­tion of a sev­en year project to rethink every aspect of the process. It is the light­est bike we’ve ever pro­duced. The Exie is over a pound lighter than a Rip­ley, while not sac­ri­fic­ing ped­al­ing effi­cien­cy or fea­tures in the pur­suit of weight savings.

For thir­ty years, XC bikes have been designed around 70mm or longer stems. We took a dif­fer­ent approach: we cut 20mm off the stem and placed it back into the top tube length. This gives the Exie the con­fi­dence-inspir­ing bal­ance of a trail bike, with­out sac­ri­fic­ing the imme­di­ate respon­sive­ness you expect from a light­weight XC bike.

We also depart­ed from the cur­rent trend towards ever steep­er seat tube angles. We cal­cu­lat­ed the weight bal­ance of dif­fer­ent sized rid­ers, then adjust­ed the seat angles so that every rider’s weight is bal­anced in the same posi­tion on the bike. These seat angles were cho­sen to har­ness your strongest mus­cles while reduc­ing any poten­tial knee or wrist strain when tack­ling long days on the widest vari­ety of terrain. 

To keep you rid­ing more and wrench­ing less, we use a thought­ful com­bi­na­tion of bear­ings and bush­ings through­out the sus­pen­sion links to reduce your required main­te­nance. But if you have to work on your bike, it should be easy. That is why we have mechan­ic-friend­ly inter­nal cable rout­ing and a thread­ed bot­tom bracket. 

Con­tin­u­ing the theme of liv­abil­i­ty, we added clear­ance for two water bot­tles on all frame sizes. An ultra swank mold­ed rub­ber chain­stay keeps noise at bay, while an inte­grat­ed upper chain guide allows you to drop the ham­mer — not your chain. 

We admit it, we’re ded­i­cat­ed to the cult of the mega drop­per. This allows you to pick your frame based on reach and rid­ing pref­er­ence, not your inseam. Most rid­ers on a medi­um frame can fit a 170mm or greater drop­per post, while rid­ers under 5’5 can uti­lize a 125mm and up. We’ve also con­tin­ued our tra­di­tion of clear­ance for big tires, so you can line up with 2.2” go fast tires, or throw on meaty 2.4” and shred.

The Exie is offered with three build kits start­ing at $7,999 with a frame-only option avail­able in the near future for $4,500. To cel­e­brate our 40^th anniver­sary, the first 50 bikes ship­ping from our new Amer­i­can fac­to­ry will have a spe­cial build kit that retails for $11,799.

The com­plete anniver­sary build weighs 22.6 lbs (for a size large with gen­er­ous tire sealant) and includes some of the most beau­ti­ful cranks ever (Cane Creek eeW­ings), a 60g Ital­ian stem, and a 125mm Bike Yoke Divine Drop­per Post made just for us. All our frames are backed by our sev­en year war­ran­ty and excel­lent cus­tomer service.

The Exie is ready for any­thing whether that’s a World Cup XCO, a mul­ti-day epic, or an after work sprint. It’s a true moun­tain bike. If you’re look­ing for a light­weight no-com­pro­mise tool that’s designed to be rid­den hard, this is it.