Santa Cruz at Interbike

Not much to be seen at the Santa Cruz booth that wasn’t there last year, but that certainly doesn't mean their lineup isn't at the front of the pack when it comes to innovation. The best news is you can very likely head down to your local Santa Cruz dealer and see these bikes for yourself. Introduced at Interbike last year, but MIA over the summer, the 4.5-inch travel Blur is finally shipping out the door, and Santa Cruz was showing theirs with a prototype 5th Element Air shock. Once again, I’m not much of an XC rider, but I couldn’t help but lust after the full XTR disc/Fox Float equipped VPP ride that weighed in at 24 pounds and change. If all goes well, the 5th Air equipped Blur should be available in early spring.

The Heckler has been reintroduced and features some very nice details like I mentioned last year. Integrated bottle opener, bolt-on drive-side dropout, and 5 inches of Fox Air or 5th Element travel (your choice). Santa Cruz plans on offering the new Maverick fork to dealers in their build kits when it’s available in late spring/early summer. The unique dual crown, welded air fork offers 4-6 inches of adjustable travel.

The Bullit is basically unchanged from last year, new colors and the 5th Element is now standard. It was interesting to see so many Bullits ridden by the Santa Cruz sponsored Superheros (and 3rd place finisher Darren Barrecloth) at this years Rampage (remember they have a choice which SC bike they’ll ride).

Ridden by team Pinkbike in the 2002 race campaign, (and Tyler Klassen off 40 foot cliffs) the V10 gets new colors, a non-floating 15mm thru-axle hub option and the upper link bearings get pinch bolts replacing the press fit links first shipped out. E13 chainguides, ridden by the Sun Race team are also available in the SC build kits.

Of all the pre-Interbike requests we got, the largest number had to be “when will the V-7/8 be available?” The as yet unnamed bike (my guess is it will be called the Superhero) should sport 8.5 inches of VPP travel but won’t be available before late summer at the earliest. No pics or prototypes were available at the show.

For more info check out the Santa Cruz Website