
REVIEW / LAUNCH
Santa Cruz Megatower V2 Review
Big bicycles come with big expectations. That can be taken a number of ways, but what I’m driving at is that one should approach the riding of a Santa Cruz Megatower with a little trepidation. It’s a bicycle made to go fast and hit the big shit. If you’re using it properly it should probably set your heartbeat racing a little bit even just contemplating upcoming rides.
On that theme, one shouldn’t approach the launch event for the brand new Megatower without similar levels of trepidation. At first, it was easy to put these thoughts to the background as the plan wavered and changed and adapted. But when something concrete emerged, I started to realize that maybe I was getting in over my head a little bit.
Even just the invite list messed with my head, and Cooper (I think unknowingly?) decided to play psychological games in the week leading up to the event: “Seb Kemp? Seb Kemp is an animal! He’ll rip your arms off and slap you across the face with your own hands, all while laughing and plunging down a cliff face on his bicycle!” A few days later he followed with “Matt Beer! Matt Beer is so bloody fast! He’ll get there an hour late and still beat you down the hill.” Which aren’t actual quotes, but capture the gist of what he said. He would have had similar things to say about everybody else if I let him get around to it. I really started to shit my pants a little bit, because it’s one thing to be the out of shape media schmuck on the industry ride. It’s fully another to be the slowest media schmuck on the industry ride that is taking place on your home trails.
And not even the easy stuff! We’re not talking about a few mellow laps on Seymour. No, we’re meeting at noon at the bottom of Cypress and put that extreme rainfall warning out of your pretty little head.
Now, I used to ride Cypress a lot. In the peak of my freeride days I was riding there once per week at least. But my tastes have changed! I seldom venture over to Cypress now because I value my limbs and ability to walk without a limp. Almost every major crash that I can think of took place on Cypress. The time I crumpled my ankle on Wild Cherry. The time I caved in a full face helmet on Sex Girl. The time I tumbled down the mountain so hard that my shoes fell off on Fifth Horseman. The easiest line down Cypress will try to kill you at least a couple of times, and if it doesn’t, you’re probably lost. And I see you over there, hardcore North Shore rider, scoffing at this apparent fear of a mountain. Fear is weakness and on the North Shore we don’t show weakness. Yes, we all like to challenge ourselves and fun things happen on Cypress. But those trails are real! You don’t take your co-worker who rides a couple of times a month over to Cypress for a mellow after work ride. You don’t take the out-of-town guests over to Cypress to show them what the North Shore is like. But fuck it! What do I know?

The new Megatower in Matte Nickel.

Also available in Trans Blue. This one lets a bit of the carbon pop from underneath.

The Glove Box. There are a couple of tabs that hold it in place internally on the other side, and you simply push that little tab in to swing it open and remove it. It's very simple to operate.

Another view of the hole in the downtube, with the Tool Wallet poking out.

The Glove Box includes a Tool Wallet and Tube Purse. You need to fill them yourself, though.
Back to the Bicycle
So. New Megatower. Call this an “iterative change”. I asked them to give me a rundown on the biggest advancement with the new model and the response was “well…this one has a hole in the downtube.” We then talked for several minutes about the changes to geometry, building it around a burlier fork, etc. There are definitely some things going on, and you can also bring along a tool roll.
So, it’s a very similar looking package to the last Megatower, but it is different. Anybody paying attention to recent updates to Santa Cruz bikes won’t be surprised by the design language or features. Frames come in C and CC options. Bearings have a lifetime warranty. There's nice guards and shields and rubber in all of the right places. And there’s also a bit more travel, a bit more length, and a bit more slackedness. Running through some of the major changes, in point form:
- Rear travel grows to 165mm from 160mm
- There’s a new hole in the downtube/cargo compartment
- There’s no more flip chip in the chainstay – size specific chainstay lengths instead (via altered pivot locations) which give you a size specific, fixed chain stay between 436mm on the Small and 447mm on the XXL
- Reaches have grown ~5mm with each size
- Stack has grown a few mm on most sizes
- Head angles are ~1 degree slacker, at 63.5 degrees in low and 63.8 degrees in high
- All models are built around a 170mm fork vs the last version which had 160mm with an air shock or 170mm with a coil shock
- Shock stroke is lengthened from 57.5mm to 62.5mm, the leverage ratio has dropped and the leverage curve has been straightened
- Seat angles have steepened
So, compared to the previous version, it’s slightly longer and a tiny bit slacker. Kinematics have been tweaked and there might now be a spot for a banh mi in the downtube. Maybe. Stay tuned for the long term test.
Sorry to beat this whole hole thing to death, but they really talked about it a lot, so it felt important.

The geometry chart of your Small through XXL Megatower

Spec ranges from "fancy pants" all the way up to "diamond-crusted trousers"

Old Megatower in Orange, new Megatower in Green. Nothing too crazy, but you can see the bump in travel, the slightly lower leverage ratio and the straighter shock rate curve.
Santa Cruz Megatower Test Day 1 – Cypress
More on that later.
Day 2 – Squamish
Day 2 was a pretty solid test for the various capabilities of the Megatower. We started with a roughly 6km climb up to the top of the Alice Lake trail area. This climb is a mix of mellow double track, as well as some steeper singletrack and technical bits. With the climb switch in place, the Megatower was happy enough, and I didn’t find myself wishing for a shorter travel bike.
Once at the top things got more interesting. Our fearless leader for the day was Squamish local and Santa Cruz Product Manager Josh Kissner. Before arrival, I made the request of Josh to “show us some slabs”, and he seemed more than happy to oblige. Our loop took us from Entrails, to Bony Elbows, and then on to Hueso and Highway to Hell (I think). After that, we looped around for another climb before hitting Dirty Jane. This wasn’t quite Rémi Metaillier levels of slab riding, but we were in the same neighbourhood at least, and got a glimpse of some Rémi lines.
It’s sometimes hard to get a feel for a bike on unfamiliar trails, but at the same time weaknesses can come to the forefront. It was quickly evident that the Megatower is comfortable and confident, and it was easy enough to follow along as closely as I could and trust in the bike. I’ve mostly been riding 150mm rear/160mm front bikes for the past year, so just the existence of a bit of extra travel probably helped with feeling like I was riding a downhill bike, but the performance of the Megatower felt like more than just a 10-20 mm growth in travel.
Beyond that though, the Megatower just fits, and it is supremely comfortable. The not-too-crazy reach of the XL feels like it is right in my wheelhouse (they do have the XXL in case you want to go even longer). Further, the Megatower is the first bike in a while that I haven’t had to resort to weird things in the name of chasing stack. The handlebar height is nice and high, and there are plenty of spacers still available if I want to go higher. It’s almost like they’ve recognized that tall people ride large bikes, and built accordingly.
Having a Fox 38 up front helps out, as well. This is only the second 38 that I’ve run, and I’ve meshed pretty quickly with it after experiencing one on the Norco Shore. The 38 feels smooth and supple, but still has some punch to pull things out of trouble. No complaints here.
My version of the Megatower came with the Rockshock Super Deluxe Select Plus rear shock, which seems to have swapped out usable adjustments for adjectives. The shock felt a little bit soft at base pressure, and was a bit squishy on climbs. The climb switch is really firm though, so this wasn’t a gigantic problem. Going down, I was pretty happy with how forgiving everything was. On a rainy day riding sketchy, unfamiliar trails, a little bit of softness isn’t all that bad of a thing. We hit drops. We hit rolls. We hit slabs. We hit jank. The Megatower ate it all up. And that was just the morning!
Soaked, cold and tired, Santa Cruz piled us into a truck and carted us up to the top of Garibaldi, where it was lightly snowing. We dropped into a steep ass trail that was made of peanut butter. I wouldn’t have been too upset had the day ended an hour earlier over a nice hot lunch and a beer, but the bike was happy enough to guide me in the right direction, even if I wasn’t feeling up to the task. The steep-assed peanut butter lead to some flowy bermed trails, and again the Megatower just took care of it all.

You tell me if it looks like this guy is having fun.

Dropping in to the peanut butter.

The aftermath was not pretty.
Megatower on Home Trails
It’s been a busy winter, and I’m facing the horrible task of too many bikes to ride. I’ve spent a lot of time this winter repeating laps on back-to-back days, changing up bikes. Doing this has really let me wrap my head around what feels different, bike to bike. I was generally pretty happy with this setup until the Megatower showed up. My one regret is that I’ve had to spread the love around a bit more than I would have liked, and I’ve really just wanted to ride the Megatower.
Parts wise, the bike I'm testing is a mix of serviceable, not-too-flashy parts. Controls are a mix of a Burgtec stem and a house bar. Tires on my bike are the new Maxxis EXO+, with a MaxxTerra DHR on the rear and a MaxxGrip Assegai on the front. Coil Megatower models get you DoubleDown casings. The dropper is a regular old RockShox Reverb, without the AXS to match the SRAM GX drivetrain. Wheels are Reserve 30s, with Industry Nine 1/1 hubs. You even get a full chainguide, provided by OneUp. Putting that all together, I think that makes this bike a Santa Cruz Megatower C GX AXS RSV, and puts the price at a healthy 12,799 CAD.
My tweaks to the bike have been subtle since the launch ride. On my first ride back home I got a bit heavy-handed with shock pressure, before knocking things back to 5 psi above recommended settings. This feels like a great balance between support and forgiveness. The bike feels firmer under pedaling, sits up nice and high, but still sucks things up without difficulty. Other than that minor pressure change, nothing else has been touched.
Climbing wise, I’ve been surprised by how able the Megatower is to keep up with the slightly shorter travel bikes I’ve mostly been riding. While it’s probably not the bike you want to be on for a full day of climbing mountains, there isn’t much of a gap at all to the smaller bikes. Yes, this bike does have some high dollar wheels and components that keep the weight down, but for a bike so capable, this is really impressive.
Descending on the Megatower is piles of fun. I know you’re probably looking for more than that, but it all just feels proper and correct. The fit is comfortable, the geometry is predictable, and the suspension on both ends works really well. To expand on that, the bike always feels like it’s ready for just a bit more. You can plow through a fast succession of bumps and it feels like it is only using what is necessary and is anticipating what is coming next. It leaves me feeling like certain sections of trail can be ridden, rather than survived.
Santa Cruz has found a really nice balance with this Megatower. It’s super capable, but doesn’t feel out of place in smoother terrain. You probably don’t need it if you’re riding nothing but mellow trails, but even on bermed, machine built trails, it’s still a pile of fun. It just feels right, both fit and geometrywise, and I’m glad Santa Cruz hasn’t gone too crazy on the geometry.
More to come. This one is going to hang around until the e-mails from Santa Cruz/Cam/Pete get really, really desperate.
Santa Cruz Megatower Pricing
The Megatower is a bike for the serious rider, and model pricing ranges broadly. An incomplete list of pricing is as follows:
CC Air/Coil Frame only - 5,599 CAD / USD
C Frame R Kit - 7,399 CAD / 5,649 USD
C Frame GX AXS Kit - 11,099 CAD / 8,499 USD
C Frame GX AXS RSV - 12,799 CAD / 9,799 USD (as tested here)
CC Frame XO1 Kit - 12,149 CAD / 9,299 USD
CC Frame XO1 AXS Reserve Kit - 14,599 CAD / 11,199 USD
CC Frame XX1 AXS Flight Attendant Reserve Kit - 18,249 CAD / 13,999 USD
Complete Megatower spec and price list.

Cable entry ports and head tube badge.

Matte Nickel for the classy folks.

Lower link and Hi/Lo flip chip.

Bikes come equipped with a OneUp chain guide, and have ISCG 05 tabs.

Decent sized head tubes and tonnes of steerer tube to work with.

Code RSCs for the stopping.

No complaints on tire clearance. "Up to a 2.5" is the word from Santa Cruz.
Back to Day 1 – Cypress
After reading this, It might seem like I built up the introduction to support the story that I’m about to tell. But I didn’t. In the days leading up to the launch I was kind of freaked out that something bad was going to happen. And it did. I just assumed it was going to happen to me.
These bike launches are always a bit funny. You’re there with a bunch of people you don’t really know. You’re representing yourself, your publication, your hometown. There’s a fair bit of dick swinging going on, and it’s taking place on a bike that you don’t really know, and that hasn’t been broken in. So you plunge into things cold with brakes that aren’t bedded in and suspension that probably isn’t perfectly set up. And when that’s all happening on Cypress, it can feel like a bit too much.
It was actually all going pretty well. People were taking it easy. The bikes seemed good. The weather was fucking atrocious, but we had a nice plan to lap the bikes, get a feel for things and generate the photos that we were going to need.
And then Grant the photographer broke his leg.
And not just a little break. Like, loud snap, tumble down an embankment, how the fuck are we going to get him out of there, oh my god he’s really screaming and in pain sort of breakage. The next two hours were a humbling experience in the wonders of humanity.
Luckily, we happened to be fairly close to the bottom of Roach Hit. I mean, try repeating “The trail is called Roach Hit. R-O-A-C-H H-I-T” several times to a 9-1-1 operator. But within what felt like a few minutes we had an access path roughed in (thanks to a nearby trailbuilder and his tools), a Pinkbike-branded umbrella to keep Grant dry (thanks to Matt), a stack of moving blankets to keep Grant warm (thanks to Seb), and a whole bunch of people running up and down the mountain, trying to figure out something/anything that they could do to help, or at least not make things worse.
Within 45 minutes we had a first responder on the scene (with gas!), shortly followed by what felt like a dozen firefighters. Just boom! No nonsense. They stabilized the leg, dodging curses and potential violence, hauled him out of the bushes, strapped him to their fancy little carcass dolly, and within 2 hours from the incident he was off the trail and on his way to hospital.

The amount of people, and the amount of gear, that showed up, was impressive.

Grant insisted that we hand him his camera and he be allowed to document his own injury. We quickly took the camera back when we saw how haphazardly he was wielding the thing.

This was no easy task carting him out of the forest.
This, to me, is a pretty amazing representation of the strengths of civilized culture. Think of just how incapable most of us are of dealing with even the simplest of injuries out there. Even just standing on the trail, looking at the bank that Grant tumbled down, and the giant stump that he bounced off, it’s sort of amazing that he only broke his leg. Then consider that not only were we clueless as to what to do in the immediate aftermath, but we were profoundly ill-equipped to move him the 30-40 feet required to just get him back on the trail, let alone the few hundred meters to the bottom of the mountain. And with one phone call, a few instructions and some magical little location app, a team of professionals show up and deal with all that shit like they’re picking up the kids from school? Amazing.
But beyond that, this could literally have been any one of us, on pretty much any day of the week. The feature that Grant crashed on was not large. It was a trickly little roller/drop of about 3 feet into a deep sort of rut, and he thinks the break happened when he bashed his leg into a rock that was sticking out of the side. This was not a high consequence move, and this is the sort of thing that most of us would see on just about any ride we complete on the North Shore.
But this is society. A hundred years ago (or whatever) we may have been out there panning for gold or cutting down giant trees with a handsaw or maybe just figuring out other ways to randomly deface nature, and if the same thing would have happened the results would have been far different. We would either have had to figure out a way to make the 2-day journey back to civilization with a screaming mass of Grant, or maybe we would have just tied him to a tree and let a bear finish him off. Instead, we punched some numbers into our fancy phones and then watched the competent humans haul our friend to the bottom of the mountain, and then we hopped on our bikes, rode a couple of hundred meters of trail, and then ate a sandwich. After that, we hopped in our vehicles, drove to Squamish, drank a bunch of beer and talked about just how precious life is.
That is some tax dollars at work, right there.
Comments
Perry Schebel
3 years ago
$18,250 for a non-motorized bicycle is quite something.
also, good read, dave.
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YDiv
3 years ago
Don't forget that doesn't include tax...
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OldManBike
3 years ago
Agreed on both counts.
I had a BLT, a v1 Bronson, and a v1 Hightower. Happily. Now it’s hard to imagine owning another SC bike.
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Evil_bumpkin
3 years ago
For that kind of cash, should they include a Reverb AXS?
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Perry Schebel
3 years ago
that said, i *really* want to see this spec applied to the bullit, so SC can (maybe?) claim the right to the first $20k+ production build. specialized is close @ $19.6k, but 20k appears to be a bit of a marketing glass ceiling. (interestingly, specialized has 3 bikes @ $19.6k; seems a self imposed threshold).
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Mark
3 years ago
I'm surprised it hasn't been done just so that people who would buy that kind of bike can have bragging rights. It's not everyone who will buy that bike of course, but I'd guess the people spending that kind of cash on an mtb are also buying high dollar items in most other aspects of their life. For $20k you could get a really good $10k mtb and buy twenty $500 bikes to give to kids who have nothing.
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maxc
3 years ago
Really well written, especially but not limited to the story of Day 1.
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Speeder1
3 years ago
Fun to read!
Crazy money!!
Sounds like a beast of a bike that they did a good job on if gnarly riding and/or enduro racing is your regular routine.
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couscousmoose
3 years ago
This article was so entertaining that I immediately created an nsmb account just to comment
better late than never
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Justin White
3 years ago
"Rockshock Super Deluxe Select Plus rear shock, which seems to have swapped out usable adjustments for adjectives"
Hilarious! And sad, but true.
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Velocipedestrian
3 years ago
Ha! I have that same text in my clipboard ready to quote. I don't follow RS closely enough to have any idea what adjustments their models have anymore.
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Cr4w
3 years ago
As the bikes become more and more mass-produced/corporatified and at ever more astounding prices I find I just don't care like I used to. At $15k I expect something special, which these bikes just don't see to be. Mind-bending amounts of money for not even the best of everything.
I loved the redux of Day 1 - really interesting insight and a great reminder for those of us that inadvertently cheat death every day on the shore, especially if you ride alone.
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Timer
3 years ago
The weird thing is, the truly special stuff is often less expensive than these commodity frames out of asia. I'm thinking WAO Arrival, Unno, Geometron or Last Tarvo.
If i wanted to spend this kind of money on a bike, that is where i'd shop.
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mtmc99
3 years ago
that WAO bike, while certainly not cheap, is a shockingly good value once you consider the spec, where the bike is manufactured, and the quality that WAO builds to.
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Cr4w
3 years ago
If you're willing to spend over $12k wouldn't you have parts preferences besides what's profitable and convenient for SC? At that price I want to hand pick everything. I might be overestimating the amount overlap on the venn diagram between big spending riders and advanced super picky about their parts riders.
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olaa
3 years ago
Totally agree! So many more exciting brands out there that make quality products, and complete bikes at much better prices that are easy to set up with custom components from factory.
Not to knock on SC, as a former brand ambassador for them I've only had good experiences with the frames. But their complete bike prices are crazy, even if i'd add all the bells, whistles, bling and all that to a Nicolai or a Last (or definitely my own Crossworx) i would struggle to reach the same prices.
For reference, my Crossworx with Fox Factory and pretty high-end components all around is about the same as an entry level SC.
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Mark
3 years ago
Good time to plug spending a weekend to do CPR and first aid course. You could potentially be saving the life of a close friend.
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TristanC
3 years ago
NOLS offers a Wilderness First Aid class, I refreshed mine a couple weeks back and highly recommend it. Broken legs are thoroughly covered.
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Cr4w
3 years ago
And bring some basic first aid kit on your ride FFS.
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Dave Tolnai
3 years ago
These are all good conclusions to draw from what was written here.
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mikesee
3 years ago
$5600 for a mass produced frame is just bonkers.
I literally don't know anyone that can afford this bike.
But my memory is shit -- so maybe I do know someone that can afford it.
I know I don't know anyone that would spend that $$$$ on it.
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WalrusRider
3 years ago
Over $1000 more expensive than an S-works Enduro frame lol!
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Vik Banerjee
3 years ago
On the plus side it makes getting that custom steel FS frame I've been thinking about down right reasonable in terms of cost.
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Andrew Collins
3 years ago
Meh. My 4 year old Pole Evolink has similar numbers but cost me 1/3 of the price. Has similar weight even with tyre inserts.
I just bought a customized Nicolai G1 frame for $2,000AUD less as well. These are what I would consider modern classics, and forever bikes.
The current pricing for SC, Pivot, Specialized, and Yeti can eat a bag of dicks.
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Cr4w
3 years ago
Plus those expensive bikes are optimized for M/L riders. If you're XS/S or XXL you are 100% an afterthought to those brands.
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Neil Carnegie
3 years ago
It’s maybe a country specific price thing but the new Specialized Enduro ltd in the UK is cheaper than a Santa Cruz CS at £6500 and comes with Ohlins 38, Ohlins Coil, Code RSC and GX. Specialized are much less expensive here relatively than they used to be.
100% with you on the boutique pricing tho. I can’t see how it’s good for mountain biking to be pricing so many people out of so many brands. E Bikes are going to make that even worse (for those that want one) too.
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Vincent Edwards
3 years ago
Yes. In the US companies like Specialized, Trek, and even some boutique brands like Transition are in a totally different price bracket compared to Santa Cruz, Pivot, and Yeti for their mid / upper-mid priced builds.
You can still spend huge sums on the top end builds with all these brands (which is just good business) but you get a much better value for your money on the more practical and still excellent GX, XT, and XO1 builds with some brands.
Even at the frame-only level, the difference is striking. A Stumpy EVO (non sworks) Frame is $3k. Transition Spire is $3,400. A Ripmo is $3,500… the Megatower is $4,250 and the SB-150 is $4,700
If I was building a new bike right now I’d buy the Stumpy Evo alloy frame (with in-frame storage) for $2k and call it a day. (Or a Ripmo AF)
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Justin White
3 years ago
The Zeb only shows up on two of seven builds (eleven if you count the coils separately). Kinda tells you something: with a line-up that is exclusively SRAM drivetrains, they mostly choose Fox forks and even jump to Fox shocks for the bling builds (XO1 and X01 AXS), and leave the RockShox forks for the cheapest build and the one build that has to be full RockShox.
Also, pretty customer unfriendly to only offer non-electronic drivetrains on the 2 low end builds. The only way to get a fork with more adjusters than adjectives, actual enduro/AM wheels, and stronger brakes with adjustments, is to also get AXS, for at no less than almost 2K USD more. Margins on OEM AXS must be sweet.
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Justin White
3 years ago
And no AXS dropper on any build? Weird.
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Dave Smith
3 years ago
Supply chain is still a bit sketchy. Lots of bike companies were forced to make adjustments mid-stream.
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badgerracer
3 years ago
To me it sorta says “we put Fox stuff on because people will pay more for it.”
Doesn’t seem to stop anybody from buying them, but Santa Cruz have got to be about the worst bang for your buck around right now.
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leon-forfar
3 years ago
They do offer an X01 mechanical build, that comes with the factory boingers, Code RSC and alloy wheels.
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Justin White
3 years ago
The frame-only versus R build pricing is insane. Only 1,400 USD more, if you just buy the R and part it out to get to the frame, it would take effort to NOT make up that difference. I don't think I'd even have to try hard just to break even and still keep the wheelset as a spare.
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Jerry Willows
3 years ago
Maybe the high prices are due to giving back to the trail builders for riding in "peanut butter" conditions.... probably not but I would be pissed.
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Dave Tolnai
3 years ago
This is fair.
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Abies
3 years ago
$5649 United States Dollars for the version with NX. I like my Santa Cruz, but I'm tapping out next time I go bike shopping.
Also, I took a Wilderness First Responder course last fall and it was super eye opening. I feel much more prepared going into the woods with buddies. Highly recommend it to anyone who plays outdoors if you can swing the time and cost. I hope Grant makes a full and speedy recovery!
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Tjaard Breeuwer
3 years ago
This ^.
I just took my WFA last fall with my teen. “Wilderness” first aid/responder isn’t just for Alaska and the Yukon.
This story is just another example of how, even with cell service, and fairly close to civilization, it still takes a heck of a long time before someone is in the hands of professionals.
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Abies
3 years ago
Even getting 6 people to build a litter and figure out how to carry a severely "injured" person less than a quarter mile through coastal forest was an incredibly humbling experience.
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Cooper Quinn
3 years ago
But was Beer late?
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Dave Smith
3 years ago
It all evens out in the end with Beer being well ahead.
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T-mack
3 years ago
Maybe he's not so much late as he's giving everyone a head start.
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Dave Tolnai
3 years ago
He was.
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BadNudes
3 years ago
Wow, there's even one build option that comes in at under 10k! Such value! How did they do it?
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Craig Ellis
3 years ago
Great read Dave, love your writing
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hambobet
3 years ago
I know it's been said before, but people should really think about doing an outdoor first aid course - it's probably the only thing you pay and work for that you never want to ever use, but it's totally worth it in situations like the above. You can't always rely on mountain rescue to be getting to you quickly, so at the very least it gives you a bit more confidence to at least try to deal with situations whilst you wait.
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Dano
3 years ago
I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Definitely a good wake up call to how long it takes to get help even when you are close to a road.
Also, this bike has some pretty ridiculous pricing. I’m worried that $10-12k builds are going the be normalized sooner than later. The same way that a $6-8k bike sounded crazy 3-4 years ago.
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DadStillRides
3 years ago
Great write up. Hope Grant is mending up well.
I get the impression that you northshore guys really don't get out of your neighborhood very often. I can see how you wouldn't get the urge with such an amazing backyard, but not being familiar with other world class trails an hour up the road is pretty wild to me.
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Cooper Quinn
3 years ago
I mean, do you know how big the network is that's an hour up the road?
I'd wager most of the people in Squamish haven't ridden most of Squamish, let alone the Shore or Whistler.
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Jerry Willows
3 years ago
I know many who barely leave Seymour.... myself included.
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DadStillRides
3 years ago
Haha, good point. I guess it's just coincidence that the half day I spent in Squamish before mysteriously destroying the front hub on my rental bike was at Alice Lake and some of the trails mentioned were a part of my ride. That being the case, it was probably the best trail system I've ridden and I've been dreaming of it since.
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mtmc99
3 years ago
I was thinking the same thing. It must be awesome to have so many quality local trails that you dont get out to the other world class spot 40 minutes away (doesn't seem like the Squamish folks get down to the north shore much either)
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trumpstinyhands
3 years ago
Most people in Squamish don't even go as far as Valleycliffe!
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Mammal
3 years ago
Squamish folks definitely don't hesitate to flood the Shore on early spring weekends (snow pack remains most places north of us). It's bonkers busy on those days.
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Dave Tolnai
3 years ago
I think this is just a function of the practicalities of life. 90% of the rides that I do are 1.5-2 hours long, and solo. I just don't often have the luxury of taking a day to drive up to Squamish to ride. I wish I did, but I don't.
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zeedre
3 years ago
14k! Did you get insurance just to test it?
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DancingWithMyself
3 years ago
Does anyone else find the chrome parts of the door behind the bike very distracting. Weird press release picture.
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peltsi
1 year, 1 month ago
How tall is the reviewer? I'm 6'4" and I'm not sure whether I should look at the XL or XXL.
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Eric Shepard
1 month, 2 weeks ago
How does this compare to the we are one arrival 170?
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