Santa Cruz Bicycles

The Mountain Bike, Distilled The newest version of the Hightower remains our greatest hits of engineering—now further refined and bottled into our most all-terrain of bikes. Big on wheels, medium on travel, short on fuss, this is the do-it-all model that does it over and over again thanks to a versatile balance of geo, spec and durability. If you're not looking for extremes, just something extremely good, the Hightower is your elevator. Engineering Details: - OUR ENGINEERS’ GREATEST HITS Not all frames are created equal. Hightower represents Santa Cruz’s greatest hits, showcasing our design, engineering, and performance prowess. - LOWER LINK ASSEMBLY The highly sculpted and optimized Lower Link (A) houses a geometry-adjusting Flip Chip (B) and beefy Pivot Axles (C) to virtually eliminate lateral flex. - UPPER LINK ASSEMBLY We only use the highest quality Enduro MAX or TPX sealed, radial bearings (A) and premium fasteners (B) for our linkage assemblies. They’re easy to properly torque and maintain, plus we offer free replacement bearings for life. - ONE-PIECE SWINGARM VPP suspension utilizes a one-piece swingarm that eliminates the need for pivots on the stays, creating a stout, bulletproof rear end for accurate tracking and superior performance. - C AND CC CARBON Santa Cruz offers two grades of carbon—top-end CC Carbon and value-minded C Carbon. Though they have the same stiffness and performance, CC is lighter and comes paired with a more premium suspension. - CARBON MASTERY The Sag Window (A), Glovebox (B), and internal cable tunnels (not shown) demonstrate Santa Cruz’s expertise in combining practical function with carbon design and manufacturing artistry. - THE SUM OF THE PARTS In isolation, all these things are great—together with fanatical suspension tuning, a premium build spec, and meticulous attention to detail, they’re transcendent.

A Fair Advantage We tapped into everything we've learned from years of making the highest quality carbon full-suspension bikes and added the super-efficient Superlight suspension to make a World Cup-winning XC race bike. The Blur isn't guaranteed to make you a race winner but being the lightest, full-suspension carbon XC bike we've ever made, it might be the difference between claiming first place...or just crossing the line. SRAM Eagle Transmission - stronger, better shifting, wirelessly The next generation SRAM Eagle Transmission specced on our CC-carbon models is a radically robust, fully integrated and interdependent wireless transmission. Built around the universal constant of the wheel axle itself, the Full Mount hangerless attachment creates a far stronger connection to the frame and the super strong derailleur provides unprecedented strength. Shifting under load is made possible due to a combination of X-SYNC technology and cassette mapping, creating seamless shifts even during your hardest power output. The new AXS Pods are extremely ergonomic and highly customizable, so shifting gears is light and intuitive. It's simply the most advanced transmission and nearly as tough as the mountain itself.

The Downhiller's XC Bike The Tallboy has earned a loyal following amongst those who seek a go-to bike that will hold up to the relentless hammering of "power hour" hot laps or long days in the saddle harvesting the best TRs. The highly-refined VPP suspension on the Tallboy combines pedaling efficiency and all-out bump-chomping prowess. If ever there was a gravity riders' XC bike, the Tallboy is it. Fully dialed at every size: Proportional Geometry and frame stiffness tune Chainstay length and seat angle are matched to the frame size (STA steepens and rear centre grows as frame size increases) so that every rider, no matter what height, gets the same balance of geometry and handling characteristics. We tailor stiffness for every size to make sure everyone gets the same ride quality. Bigger riders means greater stresses on larger frames, but that's remedied with our size-specific frame stiffness tunes.

If ever there was a gravity riders' XC bike, the Tallboy is it. The new 120mm Tallboy takes a leap further into what short-travel bikes really are capable of. With kick-ass lower-link VPP suspension, a streamlined design, the typical Santa Cruz refinement, and rather radical geometry, the Tallboy is back to being a genre-bending folk hero. Sure, 10mm more travel might only seem like one small step. But, coupled with a lower link-driven VPP suspension design, this is one giant leap for the Tallboy. It's the kind of bike that makes you sprint while going up, along, over, or down because of the maximum efficiency of the VPP design and responsive, lightweight chassis. But, because it shares the same engineering principles as our longest travel bikes, the progressive lower link-mounted shock feels equally at home doing cross-country as it does in extreme-country. Paired with a 130mm fork the new Tallboy becomes ever more appealing to riders who like to open it up. And, the geometry: that's a big part of what's going on... Established theory suggests shorter-travel bikes get ridden more slowly, therefore require steeper and more conservative geometries. In reality though, when was the last time you ever throttled back on a fun trail because you weren't on a bigger bike? ...caution to the wind and all that. So, we've done the same here and mimicked our longer travel geometry to create a bike with a 65.5-degree head-angle, generous front center, and short-offset fork, something rarely seen on a bike of this ilk. And, the radical thinking doesn't stop there. The Tallboy's short-short 430mm chainstays have +/- 10mm of rear axle adjustment to ensure riders of all sizes and styles feel equally at home. Match that to a relatively low BB (335mm and 37.5mm drop), and you've got a combo that's ready to haul into every pocket turn and launch out the other side.