Santa Cruz Bikes

Santa Cruz Tallboy 29er - First Look

Santa Cruz, California

Fresh off the boat, specifications subject to change without notice, don't expect to buy one until around Interbike, say hello to the Tallboy.

There are probably hundreds of good reasons to maintain some degree of secrecy during the development of a bike. In the past, we’ve always cleaved pretty tight to the “keep it secret until fully baked” line, and have had mixed degrees of success with that approach. The problem is, that when you develop your own prototypes in-house, and ride test the things right out your door, and have to ride through urban neighborhoods to hit well known trails where people recognize you from the barbecue last weekend while undertaking said testing, well, it is not that easy to keep secrets.

Especially since mountain bikers are generally over-curious to the point of obsessive about new pieces of geekware, and tend as a group to be toting technology in the forms of cell phone cams and/or mini video recorders. Which they then go straight home and upload onto mtbr.com. Ahhh, technology.

Anyway, we decided when we began the lead up to the final development for this new 29″ bike (yes, we really are going to call it the Tallboy. Here’s hoping some people have a sense of humor) that we’d play with a slightly more open hand. But even still, we were leery of showing off the aluminum prototype mules we were riding around because for the most part our prototype mules are butt ugly. They exist to get the suspension characteristics right and the geometry where we want it and that’s about it. Usually, they are fabricated out of whatever tubes or hacked up old frames we have lying around. The upside to such drab and awkward prototypes is that people usually don’t pay them much mind because they just look like dull grey beaters. The downside, aside from the heinous real world expense of each frame, is that people who know to look for prototypes can spot them a mile away. Which then means we have to cobb up fake Cannondale or Specialized decals to throw people off the scent.

Anyway, by this spring, after many many months of riding other bikes, comparing them, fabricating our own mules, revising them, comparing them to each other, revising again, the mules were about where we wanted them. They rode nicely, handled well, and the suspension behavior was right where most of us wanted it to be. Cockpit sizing and ergonomics were dialed, and it was time to begin the next phase, which would ultimately lead to something we could take pictures of.

That said, we’re still a long way from final production, and there could be many small tweaks between now and then. So, don’t be too hasty in the rush to judgement. Still, for the most part, the following photos are going to be pretty damn close to what hits the showrooms in the fall:

And there she be. Things to note:
Carbon fiber frame
Next generation VPP suspension (with grease fittings and angular contact bearings and carbon fiber upper link and aluminum axles and all that good stuff)
Should be really light
And really stiff
Probably available in orange
And maybe another color too

Minnaar Takes Leader Jersey Back With A 3rd In Maribor Downhill

Maribor, Slovenia

Santa Cruz Syndicate's Greg Minnaar (SRAM/RockShox) overcame an ankle injury to place 3rd at the fifth round of the Nissan UCI World Cup Downhill in Maribor, Slovenia and takes the leader's jersey from teammate Steve Peat. This marks Greg's 40th world cup downhill podium out of 70 world cup starts. Steve Peat was on a great race run and was .06 faster at the first split than race winner Fabien Barel. He then suffered a rear flat and finished in a distant 38th place. Josh Bryceland struggled to find his form and placed 25th.

The week started off with the Syndicate arriving to Maribor on Steve's 35th birthday, which we celebrated properly. We then got down to business as the race was challenging this week with changing weather conditions. As rain moved in on Saturday the boys were ready to race, but right before the start of the qualifier the race was postponed until Sunday. Race day schedule was packed tight with practice starting at 7:00 then right to qualifier which went well for Josh who placed 8th, and Steve was 3rd even with not feeling he had a great run. Greg nearly crashed in the rock garden but managed to pull off a big save, but rolled his ankle and was in a fair bit of pain and limped in for 9th. Greg knew he would still race the final regardless of the pain, using his strong mindset to his advantage.

Greg recounts his near get off, "The qualifier was a gong show. The track was really greasy and I was riding the 50/50 Crankbrothers flat pedals. I came through the rock section and my back wheel kicked off a rock and I started swapping down the course like a rodeo cowboy until the course stopped me into a pad. I lost a lot of time in there. I was disappointed being 9th as I was riding well in the wet. I tweaked my ankle. I had assistance from Martin the Masseur to strap it up good for the final."

Greg was pleased with a 3rd place finish in the race and says, "The track had dried out so it was a different course in the dry and I went back to being clipped in rather than run flat pedals like I did in the qualifier. I decided to go for a solid run and I managed to do it. I didn't have any fireworks in my run, and I only made a few mistakes. All and all I'm happy. "

On the other hand Steve was not happy at all. "I'm pissed off. I knew I was riding good and I felt like I could pull off a win on this track. My Santa Cruz V-10 was hooking up mint. It's never felt so good as this weekend. To get a flat tire is just plain bad luck, but I hate flat tires. When something out of your hands like that happens it feels worse than making a mistake by yourself. The last time I had a mechanical was two years ago here and that was a flat tire, too. It sucks we have to determine a championship when mechanicals are involved. Thanks to the Syndicate and the fans, we were almost there."

Josh was gutted with his run after having such a solid 8th place in the qualifier, yet those points earned helped him move up yet another position to now be 12th in the individual standings. He says, "The conditions changed a lot between the qualifier and race and I didn't adapt to the changes as well as I hoped. I rode a bit cautious and made a few mistakes. I still managed to gain a spot in the overall thanks to a strong qualifier."

So after a rough race day the Syndicate did have a few bright moments as Greg donned the leaders jersey and we managed to retain the overall team standing lead, just 25 points ahead of Trek World Racing, who were the team leaders on the day. The Syndicate has been in the leader jersey for every world cup race so far this season and the boys plan to battle on to keep it in the camp.

Video Extra

Santa Cruz Syndicate - Maribor 6/21/2009. Minnaar regains the leaders jersey! from santa cruz bikes on Vimeo.

WORLD CUP DOWNHILL RESULTS:

>
• 1st Fabien Barel 3:03.33
• 2nd Sam Hill 3:04.04
• 3rd GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 3:05.36
• 4th Justin Leov 3:07.65
• 5th Brendan Fairclough 3:08.50
• 6th Fabien Pedemanaud 3:08.61
• 7th Steve Smith 3:08.74
• 8th Matti Lehikoinen 3:08.81
• 9th Mitch Delfs 3:09.46
• 10th Andrew Neethling 3:09.68
• 25th JOSH BRYCELAND (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 3:12.85
• 38TH STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 3:15.94

Thanks to the SYNDICATE Sponsors:

• Santa Cruz Bicycles
• SRAM
• RockShox
• Truvativ
• Avid
• DT Swiss
• WTB
• nkbrothers
• Lizard Skins
• Clif Bar
• Troy Lee Designs
• Chris King
• Five Ten
• Galbraith Chiropractic
• Martin the Masseur

Minnaar Takes The Fort By Storm

Fort William, Scotland

Dry weather prevailed and the sun came out today to shine on Santa Cruz Syndicate's Greg Minnaar (SRAM/RockShox), as he grabs his second Nissan UCI Downhill win of the season with the stamp of conviction to his run. He topped the leader board 1.45 seconds ahead of 2nd place Sam Hill. Josh Bryceland had a smoking run and placed 7th, his best result this year. He finished just behind a disappointed Steve Peat in 6th. Rounding out the top five was Sam Blenkinsop in 3rd, followed by Gee Atherton and Mick Hannah.

The week was electric with the somewhat surprise arrival of 11 members of the Greg Minnaar Fan Club, who flew in for the race from South Africa. Greg had put clues together and knew some of the boys were coming, but when they all arrived at the Syndicate house it was a surprise to see it unfold, and it's apparent that Greg has some incredibly wonderful friends who will go to great lengths to support him. They were absolutely off the hook rooting for the Syndicate boys dressed in their GM replica jerseys and Ryan Timmerman sported a Steve Peat jersey and kilt. Without a doubt their enthusiasm propelled Greg through the finish line and he would have been able to hear the Vuvuzelas, Peaty horns and screaming fans as he boosted off the Nissan jump into sight.

Josh had a sensational finish today after qualifying 11th. His solid fast race run put him into the hotseat, which he held until 6th place qualifier Hill bumped him out. The fan club was going mental for Josh and Steve. Steve's run didn't go smoothly and he was down at the splits, bouncing off a few trees slowed him down and he couldn't unseat Hill.

When Greg got on course the crowd was going nuts with the fan club leading the cheers as the competition heated up. Greg's first split was .31 faster than Hill, while putting in the fastest time at the speed trap at 69.49 kph. With the second split less than 40 seconds from the finish line Greg had lost time and was now .41 slower than Hill. He put the hammer down to drop nearly 2 seconds off in the home stretch to put 1.45 seconds into Hill at the finish. It was incredible and the crowd went crazy when he crossed the line into the lead. We just had to wait anxiously for Gee to make his run and when his time at the second split was 2.6 seconds slower than Greg we had some relief. We held our breath until he crossed the line then Greg had in the bag. Insanity ensued when the fan club mobbed Greg chanting, "Minnaar, Minnaar, Minnaar, Minnaar", to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.

An ecstatic Greg says," I was really pumped for the weekend with all my friends there. It really brought my spirits up. Practice went really well. Jon Cancellier at SRAM/RockShox got my Santa Cruz V-10 suspension working perfect. On a course like that it's important to have your bike working well. I knew after qualifier I had a good run and Gee did, as well. I knew the times would be a lot faster in the race. My final run I tried to get the top smooth carrying speed nailing all my lines and it pretty much went to plan except for smashing my cargo; it slammed into the back of my seat when a hit a hole. I was lucky not to go over the bars. There was a little pedaling at the bottom and I just put the power down.

To have all my friends and Rob Roskopp there, I was over the moon. It made the perfect ending to the race. I'd like to thank all my sponsors, and my friends: Lyle, Ryan, Shane, Bumble Bee, Rob Roy, Dry Bird, T-Bone, Nick, Ally, Marty and Surfer Stu. One Life!"

He collected points to put him within striking distance of Steve's lead in the overall chase with Steve holding the leader's jersey with just 4 points between he and Greg. It will be a Battle Royale for the overall within the Syndicate going into the next World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia in two weeks.

The Syndicate retained the team overall and Rob Roskopp had the pleasure of going with us on the podium to receive the leader's trophy. Getting back to the Syndicate pit the insanity continued for the next two hours as Lyle Timmerman's original 11- year old Vuvuzela turned into a beer bong as the fan club celebrated Greg's win. Greg is on cloud nine, living his "One Life" to the fullest.

Special thanks go out to the Ft. William organizers, Lesley, Mike, Leemo and all the rest. As always, we were treated to fantastic racing with an amazing atmosphere.

Video Extra

Greg Minnaar/Santa Cruz Syndicate win Fort William Scotland, UCI DH world cup #4, june 7th 2009 from santa cruz bikes on Vimeo.

WORLD CUP DOWNHILL RESULTS:

• 1st GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:38.98
• 2nd Sam Hill 4:40.43
• 3rd Sam Blenkinsop 4:41.85
• 4th Gee Atherton 4:41.97
• 5th Mick Hannah 4:43.13
• 6th STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:44.61
• 7th JOSH BRYCELAND (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 4:46.15
• 8th Matti Lehikoinen 4:46.44
• 9th Aaron Gwin 4:46.72
• 10th Marc Beaumont 4:47.34

Thanks to the SYNDICATE Sponsors:

• Santa Cruz Bicycles
• SRAM
• RockShox
• Truvativ
• Avid
• DT Swiss
• WTB
• nkbrothers
• Lizard Skins
• Clif Bar
• Troy Lee Designs
• Chris King
• Five Ten
• Galbraith Chiropractic

Joe's Corner : Wheelbuilding

At Santa Cruz Bicycles we're known for our bikes, which we take a lot of pride in, but I wanted to touch on another area that is a fairly recent addition to our operations that you might find interesting here at the old cannery building.

In the summer of 2007, we started thinking it would be pretty cool to build our own wheels. There were some logistical reasons involved; we offer so many different wheel types that all ship from our Santa Cruz factory that it had become difficult to make sure we always had what we needed in stock to ensure everyone's order had wheels to go with it. But what really what got us excited was the possibility to learn about building good, reliable wheels for everyone.

Ever had a new bike that you hop on and hear the "ping-ping-ping" of the spokes settling in the first time your weight is on them? And then a couple rides later the spokes are de-tensioned, and it's hard to ever get the wheel back to feeling right after that happens? Yeah, so have most of us here. So we wanted to see if we could do a better than average job of building wheels. After researching how we were going to go about it, we decided to purchase two machines from a company called BMD. They make their machines in the Czech Republic, and came highly recommended.

No-one at Santa Cruz had any prior experience in "production" wheel-building, and even though I've built wheels for twelve years or so, I don't do it often enough to feel like an expert. Josh Kissner, our lead tech in engineering, is a meticulous mechanic and excellent wheel-builder (as well as one of the best riders here), and after the machines arrived, he and I went about trying to figure out how to use our new six-figure toys to produce wheels that we thought were pretty good. It was fairly comedic at the beginning, if you take out the intense frustration and sense of urgency to get things up and running. In other words, we can now look back and laugh about those long weeks and late nights that we spent learning the machines, and how to get them to build wheels that are just as good as Josh would build by hand - except faster.

The BMD engineer that stayed with us for a week isn't really a wheel-builder, but he knows all about how his machine works. He's used to working with factories that pump through steel rims and cheapo wheels, and our level of pickiness wasn't something he was accustomed to. We got used to hearing about other companies who use the machines, but didn't have the same demands we had about inconsistent tension, and why we wanted the machine to stress-relieve the spokes five times during the truing process. So we did experiment after experiment. To be honest, I was even surprised at the level of quality that we were trying to hit. After the truing machine would kick out the wheel as "good", we would check for true, hop, dish as well as the tension of every spoke. If that was OK, Josh would throw the wheels against the ground on a rubber mat to stress-relieve again - the most violent, and effective method I've ever seen employed (and no it doesn't damage the rim). Then we'd check the wheel again, and want it to stay within our tolerances. We aimed for less than 10% variation in tension on the spokes. Trust me on this one, it's a tall order for a machine.

Our goal was to make the wheels pop out of the truing machine just as good as we could build them by hand. As good as the machines are, however, we were never able to get there, and so now we still spend five to ten minutes on each wheel by hand, and still stress-relieve them all 5 times on the machine, then as many times as it takes by hand. In fact, these two guys

Alex and Mark, do this to every single wheel that we make here. I hear a lot about "hand-built wheels", as if somehow that is good all on its own. Recently I visited some Taiwan factories that only "hand-built" even though they owned the machines that could speed up the process. Call me crazy, but I consider results the goal, not the processes used to achieve them. Somewhere along the line, "hand-built" became a synonym for "good", because most machine-built wheels are not good. That's a result of people either not caring enough or people pushing up production speeds, but it's not the fault of the machines. Besides, humans can build crappy wheels too, as I can attest after a few pints! If we were able to figure out a way to get our machines to build the wheels we wanted without the hand-work, I'd be proud to say they weren't touched by humans at all. I am not afraid of robots taking over the world.

Regular old spoked wheels might not be that exciting to people these days with all the aluminum and carbon spokes and proprietary things that wheel companies push as the latest and greatest. But you can feel good about hopping on your new Santa Cruz, knowing somebody still cares about the mundane things that let you ride your bike without worrying about it. Have at it!

Podium for LeisureLakesBikes Gravity Team

Ae, Scotland

A couple of weeks after Kielder the enduro fraternity moved north again, this time to Ae Forest in Dumfries. After the solid but conservative approach of Kielder the plan here was to open the taps up a little. Especially as this was a stand alone event and we weren't looking for series points.

The format was the same as Kielder: 7 stages plus the seeding run, ride between each of them and have all the times added together to establish your overall position, much like the WRC. The difference here was that the race was run around a loop rather than the toing and froing approach of Kielder, no repeat stages here!! Stage 7 of the race was going to be the NPS DH track, however, due to bad weather in the week leading up to the event it was cancelled, which was a bit of a shame.

Qualifying was run on what would be an uphill in the Ae Forest loop if you went there riding with your friends, which meant lots of flat hair pins and plenty of opportunity for washing out. This would also be stage 1 in the race and had probably the best section whole event, a muddy chute with a big rutted turn at the bottom. Team manager Sandy would have loved it!!

A steady run in qualifying left me 15th which would be improved on in the re-run which was stage 1 with a 7th. Stage 2 was a good mix of fast and open with a good bunch of turns. Sadly the 'open the taps' idea led me to fly off the side of a jump and loose some time fighting my way through the rough. A healthy ninth kept me in mix moving into the flat but fun stage 3. Stage 4 was the killer, with a minute thirty plus steep climb in it!! Luckily the closing section was quite good fun. Stage 5 I could barely remember from practice due to the horizontal hail we had to ride through, so it turned out to be a bit longer than I thought.

The final stage 6 was comfortably the most DH orientated and a whole lotta fun. I had good run, a couple of small mistakes but nothing major. As it turned out I managed to bag the final stage win which I was pretty chuffed with, my team Santa Cruz Nomad was absolutely awesome and I could finally and successfully open the taps up!!

The final stage win pushed me up to 8th Overall and a 2nd in seniors. Another great event and soon we move onto Round 2 of the Avalanche Trophy Series in Andorra for some bar bashing fun on an unfeasibly big hill! Hopefully I'll make it down in one piece!

Report original posted on LeisureLakesBikes Gravity Team Blog

Peaty On A Roll, Wins Lisbon Downtown For 8th Consecutive Year!!!

Lisbon, Portugal

Santa Cruz Syndicate's Steve Peat (SRAM/RockShox) has just won the Lisbon Downtown race, yet again, for the 8th consecutive year, raising speculation that he somehow has some cheat lines, which of course is not the case. Mick Hannah was riding incredibly well and came 2nd with our own Greg Minnaar rounding out the podium with a third place finish. In his first Lisbon appearance, Josh Bryceland wowed the crowd with his huge whips and bowed down to the master.

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Syndicate World Cup Video : Andorra

Steve Peat wins Andorra Spain for world record 17th world cup title! from santa cruz bikes on Vimeo.

Santa Cruz Syndicate's Steve Peat Wins Andorra World Cup Downhill For 17th Career Dh Win, Minnaar 3rd

La Massana, Andorra

Santa Cruz Syndicate's Steve Peat (SRAM/RockShox) wins the Nissan UCI World Cup downhill today in Andorra with Greg Minnaar 3rd and Josh Bryceland having a solid run for a 9th place finish putting the Syndicate in the team overall lead. It was a storybook ending to the week with Peat's back to back wins earning him the prestige of winning the most UCI Downhill's in history at 17 wins. Minnaar said he rode a bit too conservative, but it was an excellent run to get him back on the podium. Bryceland's performance was his best all year and he shows that he is ramping up into the senior category nicely.

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Headmaster Schools The Field, Peaty Takes La Bresse Win

La Bresse, France

Santa Cruz Syndicate's Steve Peat teaches a master class in downhill racing as he smokes the competition here in La Bresse, France at the second round of the Nissan UCI World Cup Downhill. This win combined with his 3rd place in South Africa puts him into the leaders jersey in the series as well as tying Nico's record of 16 World Cup career wins. Greg Minnaar just misses the podium with a 6th place finish ending his two-year World Cup podium streak. Young Josh Bryceland bumped up the effort in the final to improve over his qualifier and places 24th.

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Joe's Corner : Geometry

Something that every avid mountain biker knows a few things about, or at least pretends to. Many people skim geometry charts online and in catalogs, and make judgments on how something will ride based on a few numbers. Hey, I do the same thing, but that's kinda my job so I have an excuse.

So, how do we come up with this stuff anyway? Some bikes are pretty easy to understand, as they've been around for some time, and the type of terrain and handling expected is fairly consistent. As suspension travel has increased and riding styles have evolved, however, some of this stuff has had to get worked out along the way. We just finished the latest versions of our single pivot bikes. For the Heckler, it's the 4th complete frame overhaul in twelve years. The most common questions we get on the new bikes are about geometry and "what's different from the old one?" The simple answer is that it mostly boils down to the most common fork length used. The "axle-crown" heights on forks make a huge difference to how the bike handles. A huge difference. Huge and big.

Depending on the model, you can choose forks and headset configurations that can change the height of your headtube by 50mm or more. That's almost 2 inches, and it's the biggest factor that you should consider when building your new bike. We spend a lot of time tweaking the bikes so they work well for a certain use, and we pick forks to match the bike we've designed. The fork you choose changes almost every number for your bike on our geometry chart. Changing the fork travel changes the bike's effective top tube length, not to mention the bottom bracket height, seat tube angle, head tube angle, and chainstay length. With fork travel increasing by about an inch per year, the new single pivots really needed a complete frame overhaul to dial everything in for the latest travel in lightweight forks.

We strongly believe in choices, and the way we make and sell our bikes reflects that. One of the things we do in the time we spend developing a new model is trying out many different set-ups and adjusting as necessary. Here's an example: Our first two Bullit.3 prototypes got built in vastly different ways, with one ranging to the all-mountain side of things (Float R, Lyrik Solo Air 1.5, our AM kit wheels, 2.3 folding Nevegals, carbon bar, 135 QR rear wheel and a triple), and the other as a shuttle/lift specialist (DHX 5.0 coil, FR wheels, Totem Coil 1.5, DH bar/stem, Holzfeller DH cranks w/ an E13 chainguide, 150 thru axle DT rear wheel with a floating Avid Code brakes. 2.5 Kenda DH casing tires and tubes).

The bikes were totally different to ride, they handled differently and the suspension needed different set-ups to work the way we wanted. We brought both to Whistler, and, uh, we had fun. Both bikes worked well, but neither matched our geometry chart! An astute reader might ask why we don't publish different geometry lists for each fork size. We could, but it seems like we could spend our time working on something new that could be fun to ride rather than creating charts of something an 8th grade level of geometry could yield the truly inquisitive. We spend a lot of time, money and energy to make sure our bikes ride great. There are so many people involved who are bike junkies that just designing a bike we can all agree on is an achievement.

Maybe there are some companies that you can't trust with this sort of very personal decision about your new bike, and maybe you've been burned before. We're not geniuses here (I don't even know how to spell the plural of genius), and we make plenty of mistakes. Plenty. But we ride bikes, our friends ride bikes, our racers ride bikes, our bosses ride bikes, our receptionist rides, our salesguys ride, assemblers, the kit guys, QC freaks, web designer, engineers - you get the idea. We're pretty damn serious about making bikes that don't suck. So don't sweat the millimeters on the geometry charts. We already did, and it's cool.