Positioned at the king of Santa Cruz’s e-MTB line up, the Bullit has always been a big burly bike specifically for riders that want an ultra aggressive gravity focused machine – and this new version ups the ante in every way over its predecessor.
Not only does the new Bullit now come with a better motor which delivers more grunt, the actual design and execution of its frame has been beautifully refined from front to rear. And of course akin to its smaller e-sibling the Vala, the all-new Bullit arrives boasting a 4-bar rear linkage system rather than a VPP. But, how does the new bike ride? Well to find out first hand our man Blake was were lucky enough to be invited to jet over to Maribor, Slovenia for an exclusive press camp where we spent several days riding the bike on a wide mix of amazing trials. Then when Blake was back in Oz we sat down with him for a chat about how he got on over there. So, let’s rip in to it!
Mate to begin with could you share with us some of the insights that you got from Santa Cruz’s product team over at the press camp regarding the brand’s intention when they developed this bike?
The soul focus of the Bullit is it’s performance on the descents, all efforts within the redesign of this beautiful machine was to have the best tool possible to rip and tear trails on the way back down the mountain. Affectionately labelled by Santa Cruz themselves as a downhill bike with a built in chairlift, this is the closest thing we’ve experienced to exactly that. A lot of the geometry numbers wouldn’t look out of place if they were matched with a little more travel and a triple clamp fork, which is exactly the feeling you get out on the trails. On the flip side to that, I spent some serious saddle time on the new Bullit winching myself up some crazy steep climbs with the assistance of the Bosch Performance Line CX motor, which admittedly was a little more work than a chairlift haha, but the bike overall never failed me on the way up and the smiles per hour back down were second to none.
What are some of the Bullit’s key numbers in terms of travel, wheel size, etc?
The Bullit has remained true to it’s e-brawler category of e-MTB. Sporting 170mm of travel front and rear, taken care of by Santa Cruz’s own take on the 4 bar linkage not to dissimilar to the version found on the Vala e-MTB, with some tweaks to optimise it for the longer travel version. Naturally they have opted for an MX wheel size throughout all frame sizes, the MX wheel sizing enables them to layout their suspension and motor placement exactly how they need to in order to create the best riding bike possible. This just wasn’t possible with a 29 inch rear wheel. Also a cool thing to note is this is the first time we have seen extra small become a frame size option to broaden the options for riders. They also include proportional geometry across all sizes to really dial in the ride characteristics across the board.
What’s your impressions of the frame’s build quality and features?
We have been lucky enough to have our fair share of Santa Cruz test bikes here at the mag over the last few years, each and every time I find another little detail or tell tale sign of their manufacturing or finishing process that leaves me wondering why other brands can’t do it that way, the Bullit was no exception. Santa Cruz have a huge amount of control over their carbon fibre manufacturing process which is something other brands aren’t so privy to, this makes their ability to have super tight tolerances on all aspects of their products, everything from the very specific sizes of bearing seats and tube dimensions all the way to surface finishes and paint/coating quality.
When you invest in a Santa Cruz you truely are getting your moneys worth, the effort and thought that has gone into the way that all the frame components come together may not seem like much, from an engineering point of view though this adds up to reliability and longevity of your bike. Reducing the risk of those nasty mid ride brake downs and overall maintenance time and costs.
Santa Cruz have spec’d the bike with the latest generation Bosch Performance Line CX motor, run us through the key numbers that the power unit is putting out and also the stock battery specs?
The powerhouse behind the pedals was a welcome change to the Bosch unit over the previous gen bike, while not the newest option on the market I was stoked to see the Performance Line CX mounted low within the Bullit. With 85nm of max torque and 600 watts peak power combined with Bosch’s super intuitive control system with plenty of options to customise to your hearts content. Santa Cruz opted to mate the motor to a 600wh main battery, once again purely for descending performance. Keeping the bulk of the “E” weight centred in the bike and low down makes for a predictable handling bike, which was a feeling that was sacrificed with larger batteries. Bosch do offer the PowerMore 250wh range extender for the days where you would drain through more than the always on hand 600wh. The PowerMore utilises a mount that bolts to your bottle cage mount bolts, so even that added weight is on a more desirable location that higher up near the head tube if they were to add a larger single battery.
Obviously the new Bullit and the Santa Cruz Vala share quite a similar appearance, largely due to the fact both models utilise a 4 bar rear linkage. From what you understand, is the linkage identical on both bikes or is the Bullit different in some ways?
The layout and appearance are the same between both bikes, both offer the same adjustable progression via a flip chip at the rear mounting bolts of the rocker link, however the dimensions and exact placements of the pivot points within the frame are different between both bikes. Naturally though there is a huge amount of crossover between the two and they were essentially designed and tested along side each other for the most part, so there will be bits and pieces learnt from each project that carried across to the other. They are definitely unique to themselves out on the trail in that sense though.
Does the Bullit feature adjustable frame geo?
It sure does, Santa Cruz have included a high and a low geo adjustment on top of the adjustable progression that I mentioned which change independently of one another. The high position gave the bike a more upright and lively feeling naturally, I spent the first day riding mostly in this setting as it was more suited to our adventure type schedule And lower overall speed of trails. There were some seriously steep descents thrown in there and the Bullit still had me full of confidence all day long. The 2nd day of the press camp saw us take on some faster paced terrain and this is where the low setting came into play for me, with a more “racey” downhill bike feel as the speeds build. While the geo may not seem like it makes a huge difference geo wise according to the numbers on the chart, it does drastically change the way the bike feels and behaves on the trail.
Tell us a bit about the types of trails you got to ride over at the press camp, and how long were some of those rides?
The first day saw us take on an epic day of trail riding through the Trbovlje trail network guided by the fantastic folk at Ride Slovenia. It was a huge day in the saddles, covering 40km, with 2000m of climbing and 3500m of descending. Conditions started of pretty slick thats to some overnight rain. There was a good variation of rocky, roots trails with plenty of fresh European loam sprinkled throughout. Most of the riding was quite tight, technical and steep! With only a handful of trails where I could fully let the brakes off for any decent amount of time. The second day saw us join up with the crew at Maribor bike park, with it’s forever legendary World Cup track there is a decent amount of variation within the bike park, we were also taken on a morning of pedal assisted adventure into the hills above the bike park before spending the afternoon lapping the gondola, getting plenty of repeat laps in on the same few trails to really get a feel for the bike with some familiarity.
All in all a bloody awesome trip with some of our finest European peers.
How did you find the feel and performance of the new Bosch motor?
I hadn’t Spent a huge amount of time on the CX Line motor before these 2 huge days on board the Bullit and I have to say I became a massive fan. To me it comes across as one of the quietest motors and has fantastic options and abilities to setup and tune to your own preference on it’s app. A relatively small thing but I love the wireless controller to switch between the modes and it feels like the whole package of components within the system integrate into each other so well creating a little eco system of performance. Also the assistance take up when pedalling feels fantastic, there are no unnatural, jerky sensations even when in boost modes, the same goes for when you reach the speed limit of the assistance, it tapers off nicely compared to other brands that just fall off into no where. They are a tried and true drive unit too, the reliability and liveability will be second to none.
We all know you like to launch jumps – how does the Bullit go on that front?
Whilst the Bullit has been built and designed as Santa Cruz’s burly descender, I had a really easy time playing around, jibbing, jumping and whipping the long travel machine. The bike feels very balanced with it’s weight and has a natural feeling riding position “within” the bike, which can be a tricky aspect to achieve on a long travel bike with a full size motor and battery. There was certainly no shying back from any gaps on trail, whether it was a sneaky pull to clear some roots or a perfectly sculpted lip within the bike park.
It’s probably fair to say that usually bikes that are designed as descenders tend to go lacking in their ascending performance – how does the Bullit feel to ride back up to the top of a trail?
With the steepest seat tube angle of any bike that Santa Cruz make, it was no surprise that with the assistance of the strong Bosch motor we were winching ourselves up some terrain that a seasoned mountain goat would have trouble conquering. Once again that central riding position and the steep seat tube made it easy to shift your weight forward what the going got steep enough while still retaining a serious amount of rear wheel grip to crawl up just about anything!
Given how much travel the Bullit has and the fact that it’s built to tackle aggressive trails, it’s pretty remarkable that ‘Cruz have manage to get it’s overall weight down to just 21.8kg (that’s with DH casing tyres fitted too). Does that make it a bit easier to throw the bike around whilst you’re riding it?
It is for sure a huge factor, there have been plenty of bikes come out in that ballpark of overall weight in recent times and it doesn’t feel like a sweet spot, once you start creeping above that too much there are noticeable handling effects, particularly when it comes to leaning the bike over, or trying to stand it back up again quickly, it becomes much more of a conscious effort and sometimes not natural feeling or even possible in some extreme instances.
I am so glad that Santa Cruz stuck to their guns with the 600wh battery in order to achieve this weight, to focus purely on performance and ride feel over ticking the box of a small part of the market has paid off massively in the way the bike feels.
Overall what are the Bullit’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of riding performance of the bike’s overall build?
The Bullit really shines when the trail steepens and speeds up, the only thing that lacks from it truely feeling like a DH bike is the triple clamp fork and a little bit of suspension travel the overall feeling of the bike is that of a rugged downhill rig. Whilst still enjoyable on lesser trails, that is where the full Bullit package really comes into its own.
What sort of rider is going to get the most out of the Bullit over the Vala or even the Hecker SL?
As I’ve always said, any given rider should always choose their “daily” rider based on the trails that they will spend the most time on. While it might seem trendy at any given time to get a particular bike, if your bread and butter is cruisy trail riding without a whole lot of vertical metres to descend you certainly aren’t going to get the most out of the Bullit.
The rider that enjoys and regularly samples, rough, steep, rooty, rocky flat out terrain and isn’t afraid to give it some berries will enjoy the Bullit the most.
Santa Cruz are offering the Bullit in 4 models/build kits, with pricing starting at $10,999 – so the final question has to be now that you’ve had the opportunity to ride the bike and experience it’s nature is this a bike that you’d consider spending your own money on?
Absolutely! These bikes are seriously high-end, finely crafted pieces of kit. The 4 build options all feature carefully thought out parts lists from top to tail, with common sense on all components installed. Even down to speccing DH strength Reserve wheels across the board, while saving a little weight with an enduro wheel up front (both the alloy and carbon Reserve wheels are seriously impressive. I have had a bunch of sets & even I haven’t been able to total one yet. While it is hard to stomach writing that they are “good value”, when you consider the all round performance, longevity that you will get out of a Santa Cruz product and their unwavered after sale support, you really do get a lot long term for your money.
For more info or to check out the entire Santa Cruz range head on over to: www.santacruzbicycles.com