
Review
2025 Santa Cruz Bronson
I’ve been a bit perplexed by the 2025 Santa Cruz Bronson in my possession. It looks good, rides well, but I just don’t quite ‘get’ it. In my mind, trail bikes are a brand’s bread and butter – they need to appeal to the masses and sell in great quantities. And while “trail” bike is certainly a broad term, the Bronson sits below the Nomad in Santa Cruz’s mixed-wheel lineup, leaving us no choice but to slap that label on it. Why am I confused? The geometry, SRAM Maven brakes and Maxxis MaxxGrip Assegai/DHRII combo make the Bronson a bit of a bruiser.
Now don’t get me wrong. NSMB reviews regularly conclude with some variation of “this is a great bike, but it’s not a great bike for here due to [insert some combination of geometry and/or component for flatter locales]”.
But to my brain, the Bronson and its bruiser trail bike spec don’t quite hit the mark to appeal to the broad swathes in the way I think a company the size of Santa Cruz needs to sell bikes in volume. To straighten things out, I had a chat with avowed Diarist, North Shore Historian, and man-who-races-without-clothes, Seb Kemp. He’s also Santa Cruz’s Global Marketing Director.

The wet of Northwest winter gets deep in your bones, and you either learn to deeply love it, or deeply hate it. I love it.
And while I’m sure AI could summarize our conversation more effectively, the brass tacks are that the Bronson isn’t meant to appeal to the masses, or some generic 'average customer'. If you try to make a bike for everyone, everywhere, you'll end up with a bike that's good for no one.
So, what is the Bronson and who is it for, then?
To start with a deep dive into the fifth generation Bronson’s updates, spec, and philosophy, it’s worth taking a scroll through Deniz’s First Look from August. The Coles Notes version is this: the new Bronson is an update from v4 – it’s a little slacker and longer, there’s a bit less anti-squat, and much to the chagrin of most internet commenters, the CC models have no provision for mechanically operated rear derailleurs. As we’ve become accustomed to in recent years, it’s not a radical departure from its predecessor; it’s an incremental update looking to evolve rather than mutate. It comes in a total of five build kits, five sizes from S-XXL, and Deniz enjoyed his short stint on it.

The geometry is an evolution from the Bronson 4, not a wholesale change.

All builds with CC frames require wireless drivetrains.
Setup and Initial impressions
I’ve now been aboard the Bronson for three months or so and can build upon the foundation Deniz laid. He rode a medium, large is the correct fit for me. Setup was straightforward, with good shock recommendations from the brand, although sag is difficult to measure in the shock tunnel. I tried a few things throughout the test, but the stock recommendations were a click or so and a couple PSI off where I landed. For the vast majority of the review, I kept the flip-chip in ‘lo’.
Spec wise, the Mavens have always been the main talking point on the new Bronson. SRAM’s new downhill-oriented heavy hitters, sitting here on a trail bike? Surely Codes are the appropriate call. From a product manager’s standpoint, Mavens are a Shiny New Thing, customers love to over-build bikes, and there’s no real penalty (beyond weight) to having them. They’re appropriately paired with Maxxis MaxxGrip tires (in trail bike-friendly Exo+), but while pedaling around the alley getting everything dialed in, the Bronson feels distinctly more ‘trail’ than ‘enduro’, with quick response to inputs.

For any all-mountain or trail bike, climbing can't just be a chore or a tertiary consideration for designers like it can be on a full bore enduro sled. The Bronson is not a chore to pedal.
Pedaling and Climbing
It’s probably worth mentioning that I don’t have any real time on previous iterations of the Bronson, but as I set off up the hill, the first notable aspect is how well it pedals. According to Santa Cruz, the previous version had more anti-squat, while the new one strikes a very good balance between efficiency and traction. It was only on rare occasions I’d reach for the climb switch, instead letting force vectors keep everything moving forward rather than dampers.
Kinematically, the Bronson is a great climber and it does very well on undulating terrain; both essential characteristics for a do-it-all trail bike. There’s good traction and support without sacrificing much efficiency. However, geometry gets in the way of kinematics in a few scenarios. Unsurprisingly, the ~64 degree head tube angle (and corresponding front-end length) is ungainly on steep terrain, especially switchbacks or if things are slow and technical. You can mitigate the flop and wander to a degree with body positioning, but there’s no real way around how far your front axle is out in front of everything. This is less of a concern on undulating or “XC” trails with a bit of velocity, where the bike is weighted more evenly, and you can avoid the worst of mechanical trail flopping the steering about. I tried the bike with the flip-chip in ‘hi’, and I’d be hard pressed to say I could tell the difference in steering (or other characteristics) blindfolded.
For some, the STA will be a talking point, but for me the ETT and pedaling position were comfortable on flat terrain and while climbing.

Switchbacks are not the Bronson's forte, but it's a reasonable tradeoff given the bike's descending capabilities.
Downhill
Typically, this is where trail bikes get a bunch of disclaimers or caveats on NSMB. We have a plethora of gnarly terrain around here, and most of our contributors frequent it. A lot of it is not trail bike or all-mountain bike friendly. But the Bronson is not your average trail bike, and when the trail gets ugly, the slack headtube, sticky tires, and big brakes suddenly become positive attributes rather than question marks.
Make no mistake, the Bronson isn’t a plow. It requires a bit of finesse and isn’t as forgiving of off-line mistakes as its bigger brothers, but I’d wager most of us mortals are incapable of hitting the bike’s limits. Perhaps a Nomad is faster or more comfortable in high-speed chunder, but it’s a game of fractions. And where the Bronson might give up a little in the biggest holes, it’ll gain it back when its supportive platform comes into play, and you can use each trail wrinkle to push into or pull off. It was easy to get comfortable on, and that led quickly to confidence pushing the bike into ugly terrain or higher speeds than I initially thought the Bronson was going to have any business on.
With its responsive kinematics, the Bronson defies VPP stereotypes and rewards trailside yanks. Coming off the Yeti SB165 and idler-equipped Trek Slash, the Bronson's bottom bracket is refreshingly not-low. You give up a touch in stability, but I didn't miss all the chainring and crankarm bashing and it makes the Bronson more versatile. It's also significantly shorter overall than those two bruisers, which means it's more maneuverable and adept in the slow-speed technical jank we have a lot of around here.

Awkward janky moves can be annoying on low-slung sleds like the Gen 6 Slash - it's nearly 100mm longer than the Bronson and has a bottom bracket that sits in the weeds. The Bronson is much more maneuverable.
Issues
One of the reasons NSMB goes with a two-piece review format is to (hopefully) uncover any livabilty quirks, maintenance problems, or other long-term issues, as well as the deeper dive into riding traits. These are less common in 2025 than they were in 2005 or 2015 – bikes are generally very good these days and devoid of major malfunctions.
During the Bronson's review period, the only real component issue I had was a broken rock guard around the bike’s bottom bracket. At some point, I smashed this into something and it fractured; I’ve seen this on other Santa Cruz bikes, and it feels like the plastic they're using is a little too brittle. That said, it’s a cheap, replaceable part and I’d rather a broken piece of plastic than a smashed carbon frame. Everything else from Santa Cruz was problem-free - bolts stayed tight, pivots stayed silent, and of course there's free bearings for life.
The only real component note is the Fox FloatX rear shock is noisy, especially on rebound. Performance wise it’s had no problems; it just wheezed a bit.

Modern "enduro" bikes are often like battleships - this is great when you're deep in trails off the map, but it can degrade the riding experience everywhere else when all you need is a light cruiser. The Bronson is fun on more types of trails.
Conclusion
During my conversation with Seb, as I tried to extract who Santa Cruz thinks is the ideal Bronson customer, he was pontificating about the virtues of the Bronson’s big-bike-in-disguise design and I joked I’d be furious if he called it the “downhiller’s trail bike”; after all he’d already coined “downhiller’s XC bike” for the Tallboy. But there’s a kernel of truth to that. While the Bronson clearly isn’t a downhill bike, it certainly pulls more design queues from descent-focused machines than most trail bikes. If we look back 10 years to the Nomad 3, Santa Cruz’s top-line enduro bike at the time, this current Bronson is longer, slacker, and has mixed wheels, but much of the geometry isn’t miles off the older Nomad’s 160/165mm build in context of the time.
And for me, comparing the Bronson to a decade old enduro bike isn’t a condemnation. Sure the front wheel grew, the shock moved down 10”, every single component is better, and the headtube is enormous, but the Bronson hearkens back to a time when enduro hadn’t gone through a 15-year arms race with brands continually building bigger, heaver, smashier bikes. In doing so, they assured only the destruction of what made enduro bikes great in the first place: they were bikes built to ride up the hill and back down near-blindly at pace, not just winch-and-plummet machines that get shuttled as often as not.

I looked around all over to find the Bronson customer. Turns out he was right here all along.
Who is the Bronson For?
In my reviews I try to answer the question: “Who is this bike for?” What combination of rider preferences, terrain, and other variables lead to a particular bike being for a particular customer (and NSMB reader). In this case it’s someone who likes big, gnarly terrain and moves. Someone who often pedals to the shuttle trails, spends the occasional day in the bike park, and sometimes heads deep into the woods for an all-day mission. Other times, they probably just have a window for a quick loop on some more moderate trails but want to have as much fun as they can while suffering through a hard, short ride. They need a bike that can do it all. They live somewhere with the appropriate topography and terrain to take advantage of the Bronson’s geometry, but need kinematics and a build that’s not a chore to move around under human power. The Enduro Arms Race is a chicken-and-egg argument as trails have simultaneously evolved, but now there are folks out there looking to do more riding with less bike.
I’ve just described… me. The Bronson isn’t for everyone, it’s for someone just like me. If I’d bought this bike and it didn’t have Mavens, I’d be putting on Mavens. I’d be putting on MaxxGrip tires (and saving for a second light(er) weight wheelset). My ideal bike probably isn't a mullet, but that's a personal preference and Santa Cruz makes the Hightower for fans of dual 29" wheels.
The Bronson would make a great bike if you're someone who wants to try and do it all - the bike skews heavily towards descending, but it gives up less everywhere else than a 170mm travel, 38mm stanchion-equipped sled does to get there. I went into this review unsure about the Bronson and came away pleasantly surprised, with a bike that suits me and my riding. Considering how many people out there are a lot like me, I'll bet they sell heaps of them to the masses.
2025 Santa Cruz Bronson 9,250 CAD / 7,000 USD

Comments
ackshunW
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Great review, fun read. And that photo with the twisted tree trunk at the left, and chunky rock slab?! Beautiful pic, and to quote Liz Lemon, “I want to go to there!”
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Pete Roggeman
2 weeks, 4 days ago
+1 for Liz Lemon!
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Cr4w
2 weeks, 4 days ago
As I'm approaching the time when I customarily start looking for a new big bike this article really got me thinking about how I've typically been overbiked because until recently "big trail bikes" have never been quite big enough and that tends to get amplified for bigger riders on the bigger sizes. But the new Bronson blurs that line. It's still a trail bike - which is particularly obvious when you see it in person: the Bronson's tubes are much smaller than the Nomad's. But it's got almost as much travel and it's got the same wheelbase and the geometry isn't that far off either. Realistically it's the kind of bike I always should have been riding. The choice is now between the big Nomad and the small Nomad.
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Cooper Quinn
2 weeks, 4 days ago
It's easy to be overbiked, especially now when big bikes generally pedal ok. Overbiked is kinda the default for most of us, tbh.
But it's a little bit like the "slow car fast vs fast car slow" debate.
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Morgan Heater
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Slow car fast is for hardtails.
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kamloops_rider
2 weeks, 4 days ago
I love the feeling of being underbiked but as I've gotten older I appreciate the comfort of being overbiked. I got nostalgic for a short travel bike last season (new Optic) and it was fun but the weight difference and pedaling compared to my WAO A170 just didn't make sense. Now the A170 doesn't feel as nimble due to the wheelbase but damn does it climb nice and feel great on the way down.
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Cooper Quinn
2 weeks, 3 days ago
My big bike is an 170 arrival, as well.
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Slinger
2 weeks, 1 day ago
Funny, i felt like you were describing me. And MY bike. Not surprisingly a 170 Arrival... There is very rarely such thing as being under-biked, merely under-skilled. Just go slower, stay on the trail and stop widening/cutting corners. We aren't racing (despite what strava tells you).
If I want to be different-biked, I ride my fat bike. 100mm hardtail with 5" tires gives a good reset as to how easy/smooth/fast your daily is, lol
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4Runner1
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Loved my 27.5 Bronson. It has always been “all mountain”.
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Todd Hellinga
2 weeks ago
still loving my full 27.5 gen 3 Bronson! such a durable and effective all arounder, hard to have many complaints, and I don't since I haven't had the need to replace it.
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Curveball
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Who's it for? You, Cooper. And by your description, me too. Except that I really like mullets and I'm just over the border, but with similar terrain. That's a great review and I'd have to give that Bronson a serious look if I wasn't so happy with my Rallon.
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Cooper Quinn
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Turns out, I'm not unique. Who knew.
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Mark
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Sounds like this would be a great bike for Grannies/Ladies/Bookwus et al.
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explorerboy
2 weeks, 3 days ago
I;ve just bought the V4.1 Bronson in Large. Coming from a XL 2018 Orbea Rallon which is a little too long and a little too tall for my legs, the Bronson is a LOT more fun! It feels flickier, poppier and just a little more maneuverable. Sure, I want to drop the stem down by 5mm and move the seat rails forward to help the front end wandering on some of the steep, sharp climbs we have here in the UK but it's an absolute hoot. I can only afford one full-sus bike and this feels like it will do EVERYTHING I'm going to throw at it.
I was considering a bike that had shorter travel and there was LOADS of options available, but the deal that I got on the Bronson was too good to not go for!
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Raymond Epstein
2 weeks, 4 days ago
I'll argue that the 5010 MX is the most befitting of being called a "trail bike" in Santa Cruz's mixed wheel line up. This is with the single caveat being over-forking it with a 150mm travel fork. The geometry becomes eerily similar to this new Bronson with this set up. In this guise you'll get a smidge more forgiveness when things get nasty. However, it is still a blast when the terrain is less extreme. If you are hung up on semantics, I believe placing the new Bronson under the category "All Mountain" makes more sense. Regardless, call them whatever turns you on as they're fun no matter their name.
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Cooper Quinn
2 weeks, 4 days ago
The line between "trail" and "all-mountain" is a bit of an unknown to me, I guess. They're certainly fun!
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Pete Roggeman
2 weeks, 4 days ago
As someone who clung to all mountain and always hated enduro as a categorical term, I have to acknowledge 'trail' is broad and vague, so I have to agree.
Maybe we just start calling them by the travel number, like some do with motorbikes. It still doesn't fill all the gaps but if you refer to the category of this bike as a 150 and compared it in conversation to a 130 or 140, most people are going to interpret those differences correctly (and spec decisions help add clarity).
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Cooper Quinn
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Yeti approves of your plan.
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Speeder1
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Sounds like a sweet bike. Would love to swing a leg over this and the Hightower and see which one was the right one for me.
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Deniz Merdano
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Bronson for the North Shore type riding where the climbs are for the descents. Hightower for all day, undulating riding... Both excellent...
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Endlesstrailz
2 weeks, 3 days ago
I find it unfortunate that SC forces the customer to have to decide between Bronson/Hightower purely based on rear wheel sizes (i am oversimplifying), but the geo and travel are so darn close.
The new Ripmo has the same geo/travel on paper, and gives riders the choice of either rear wheel.
I’d love to see a comparison between all 3 platforms!
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Skooks
2 weeks, 3 days ago
Great review Cooper. Sounds like a bike that would suit me perfectly. I am currently on a 140/150 Fugitive, which is also a very capable trail bike, and has a lot in common with the Bronson.
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neddynevin
2 weeks, 3 days ago
Good read thanks. I still love my S.C Nomad V5 27.5 but I feel sometimes Id like a 29er upfront. The build quality and finish is excellent tho.
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Mike Wallace
2 weeks, 2 days ago
I think Santa Cruz has given up on not overbiking. New Hightower is also more of a descender.
And for good reason - not a lot of negatives anymore with how well the bigger bikes climb.
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Tjaard Breeuwer
1 week, 5 days ago
This does sound kind of like the bike for me. Our area (North Heore of Lake Superior) is sort of the opposite of your North Shore: not so much vert, and mostly moderate terrain. Lots of rolling trails too. Which is why I a full in enduro bike isn’t rss;y the right choice. But, at the same time, there are a bunch of pretty steep and seriously chunky trails, and I race enduro on those, so a lighter duty trail bike is a bit underpinned for my desires (but totally doable).
Currently I ride a Stumpy Evo(150/16) with 2 wheel sets: Fast trail wheels/tires for the XC trails and beefy DH for enduro racing and the local bike park. Works pretty well. So either this one or the new High tower might be the replacement.
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Andy Eunson
2 weeks, 4 days ago
There’s a typo in the geometry chart. The effective top tube on the small can’t be 527 when the reach jump to the medium is around 3cm. Must be 557. I had a first gen Bronson. I added a 160 DVO Diamond fork and the bike was just about perfect for me. I think I rode it five seasons with pretty much zero issues. Just routine maintenance.
If I were shopping today though perhaps a sharper handling 29er would be my preference. More like a Hightower maybe.
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XXX_er
2 weeks, 4 days ago
i spent the last 3 seasons on a Bullit ( Nomad with a motor ? ) I liked how SC spec'd the bike so I just replace worn out stuff with same, I like how it handles, I like the mullet, i like the fit, zero problems other than they sure didn't give it away but its a greatbike
The SC product is a big seller up here but probably not wierd enough for NSMB types
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Cr4w
2 weeks, 4 days ago
I switched off my Geometron to a Megatower and it's awesome. It could use a slightly steeper ESTA but otherwise it's really good. It's everything I wanted the Geometron to be: it takes a similar fit but packages it in a prettier lighter package with much better suspension characteristics that's somehow still tough as hell.
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Pete Roggeman
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Don't conflate the comments section with the whole readership ;) Plenty of SC fans and owners among readers and contributors around here.
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Cooper Quinn
2 weeks, 4 days ago
There's a lot of oddities here in the comments and forums, but by and large the contributors here all ride distressingly 'normal' bikes, myself included! But I'm glad we can have a place where everyone is comfortable sharing their kooky builds and different ideas, the bike world is a better place with some weirdness.
SC product is a big seller *everywhere*. They sell an enormous amount of bikes for a high-end-only brand. But it's for good reason... they're good bikes, with good support.
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XXX_er
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Wow I thot the average NSMB-er rode a bike made by druid virgins with a drive train that is older than 10 yrs old ;) !
I emailed SC them to find out what swing arm grease and I got an answer in <24 hrs ( water proof marine ) most impressed with fast support
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Cooper Quinn
2 weeks, 3 days ago
Their after-sales support is excellent.
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Jenkins5
2 weeks, 2 days ago
Great review. I'm also giving the overbuilt slightly shorter travel bike a go this year. Was considering a new Bronson, but just picked up a new Hightower instead. Been on the Nomad the past few years, and while I can appreciate the mullet setup, I think I'm more a dual 29" guy.....Loved my previous Sight so excited to give the Hightower a go....
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Cooper Quinn
2 weeks, 1 day ago
The guy I ride with the most has a Hightower, and by all accounts its a great bike. I'm with you, as generally more of a dual-29 type person.
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