Full-Suspension

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

THE MOUNTAIN BIKE, DISTILLED With 29-inch wheels, 145mm of rear Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) travel and a versatile personality, the newest Santa Cruz Hightower delivers mountain bike thrills over a wide range of terrain. Big on wheels, medium on travel, and short on fuss, this do-it-all model shines with a versatile balance of geometry, spec and durability. It's mountain biking, distilled.

MODERN MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS ARE FUN, FLOWY AND CHALLENGING. THIS FULL-SUSPENSION 29ER GETS YOU IN SYNC WITH THE TERRAIN, SO YOU CAN RIDE WITH MORE CONFIDENCE AND HAVE MORE FUN. KEY PERFORMANCE FACTORS Attainable trail performance Handcrafted with lightweight, stiff and durable ALUXX aluminum, it's the perfect entry to full-suspension performance. Smooth suspension FlexPoint Suspension technology helps you tackle challenging terrain and improve your trail riding capabilities. 29er confidence and control Larger diameter wheels roll over rugged terrain with balance and stability, giving you the momentum to tackle technical climbs and the confidence to fly on singletrack descents.

The Ripley AF is the beloved, category-defying, short-travel, singletrack-scorching Ripley - rendered in aluminum, with more aggressive geometry. All the sizzle and pop of the carbon Ripley, now available as a complete bike at a wallet friendly price. A trail-friend­ly 65.5-degree head angle and short (44mm) off­set 130mm fork com­bined with 29” wheels makes for a super plant­ed but still play­ful front end feel. A 76-degree seat angle puts your pow­er direct­ly to the ped­als, while the short chain­stays and ped­al-friend­ly dw-link kine­mat­ics deliv­er that pow­er with­out squan­der­ing a sin­gle watt. The 15-year col­lab­o­ra­tion with Dave Wea­gle has yield­ed yet anoth­er bike with unpar­al­leled climb­ing effi­cien­cy and tractabil­i­ty. Incred­i­ble snap and respon­sive­ness are its trade­marks, and a whole mess of plush, chun­der-eat­ing, down­hill-crush­ing good­ness gets thrown in for good mea­sure. Wrap that togeth­er and you get the best sus­pen­sion you’ll find any­where. It’s that good.

The Ripley is the snappy, flickable, playful, fast, lightweight, and versatile 29” trail bike. Its combination of modern geometry, a stiff lightweight carbon chassis, and 120mm of ultra efficient dw-link travel, means it’s equally happy popping off bonus lines as it is crushing all day epics. LONGER, SLACKER, STEEPER With its well bal­anced mod­ern geom­e­try, the Rip­ley is ready for any adven­ture. The long front end, slack head angle, and short rear end gives you the con­fi­dence to try new lines, while the steep seat tube angle and short­er off­set fork makes it easy to maneu­ver tech­ni­cal climbs and flowy singletrack. REVISED SWINGARM The Rip­ley V4S fea­tures a new UDH dérailleur for max­i­mum future com­pat­i­bil­i­ty and moves to a 55mm chain line. The wider chain line allows for a stiffer chainstay.

THE TRAIL BIKES THAT LOVE TO PLAY The Santa Cruz Tallboy combines short travel efficiency with modern geometry to create a bike that's as up for the big climb as it is the big descent. These sporty 29ers are the perfect choice for riders considering a cross country bike but will likely never race. They climb efficiently, roll fast on the on the flats, and have some real capability for when the DH music goes from easy listening to rock-and-roll. Featuring a 130mm fork and 120mm of Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) rear suspension travel, Tallboy is sporty, capable, and fun.

THE MOUNTAIN BIKE, DISTILLED With 29-inch wheels, 145mm of rear Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) travel and a versatile personality, the newest Santa Cruz Hightower delivers mountain bike thrills over a wide range of terrain. Big on wheels, medium on travel, and short on fuss, this do-it-all model shines with a versatile balance of geometry, spec and durability. It’s mountain biking, distilled.

"Race bred". It's not just a slogan printed on the SB150 top tube. We've been pinning on numbers and pinning the throttle since 1985.

TRUE TO THE TRAIL. Our 140mm/150mm travel Primer 29 trail bike is pure perfection…everywhere. Rolling on super-fast 29" wheels the Primer 29 will give you trail-flattening speed over any obstacle, both on tough climbs and technical descents. In short, the Primer 29 is the ultimate all-round premium trail bike. It could be the only mountain bike you’ll ever need.

Introducing the Exie for all. Sharing the same geometry and performance as the World Cup winning Exie USA, the newest offering is hand built in Vietnam. It’s everything loved about the US made offering in a wallet-friendly build. Whether you’re rac­ing short track or on a mul­ti day epic, the Exie’s seat tube angles allows you to har­ness your strongest mus­cles, while reduc­ing any poten­tial knee or wrist strain. Ibis also steep­ened the seat tube angles as the frames get larg­er, to allow rid­ers with dif­fer­ent inseams to achieve the same rid­ing positions. Don’t squan­der a sin­gle watt. The dw-link sus­pen­sion plat­form offers incred­i­ble climb­ing effi­cien­cy and trac­tion along with plush, down­hill-crush­ing goodness. The Exie use bush­ings where it makes sense and bear­ings where it doesn’t. The IGUS bush­ings in the low­er link are lighter, stiffer, and vir­tu­al­ly main­te­nance free. Ibis also added fea­tures like a thread­ed bot­tom brack­et to help make any future main­te­nance easy. Inter­nal cable rout­ing doesn’t have to be a pain. Ibis has added inter­nal tubes to their tubes, no pick­sets, flash­lights, or swear words required. 2.4” Tire clearance means you can run over­built, chunky tires; you can run light, big vol­ume fast tires, but what­ev­er you run, you’re not lim­it­ed by width.

Our 140mm/150mm travel Primer 29 trail bike is pure perfection…everywhere. Rolling on super-fast 29" wheels, the Primer 29 will give you trail-flattening speed over any obstacle, both on tough climbs and technical descents. In short, the Primer 29 is the ultimate all-around premium trail bike. It could be the only mountain bike you'll ever need. The Primer 29 trail bike is the most versatile model in our range. With 140mm of rear travel and 150mm up front, we have designed a bike that is capable and balanced off road, but also nimble and fun at the same time. The Primer is a bike that is equally at home on long all-day rides, laps in your local woods, or multi-day adventures. It gives a confidence-inspiring trail ride and is the ultimate all-rounder. The frame is the heart and soul of any bike, and all of our Primers are built around our perfectly designed monocoque carbon frame, with a dual-strut design rear triangle, optimized carbon fiber layup, a carbon top link, titanium hardware throughout, and internal (and silent) tubes for shifter, dropper post, and brake routing. Additional features include ISCG05 mounts, Flak guard armor frame protection on the downtube, a threaded bottom bracket shell, and our adjustable 'Flip Chip' technology.

With the Sniper T we have created a pure full-suspension cross-country trail bike with a true INTENSE spirit. With the same soul as its sibling the Sniper XC, it features a super lightweight full carbon frame, rolling on 29" wheels, with progressive XC trail geometry but this time with 120mm of travel. The extra 20mm of suspension means that the Sniper T is still all about off-road speed…both up and down, but that you get a slightly plusher ride. It is fast, fiery, and fun, and a truly innovative XC trail bike…INTENSE style. It's all about the geometry. Long, low, and slack is no longer just for the downhill crowd, it's the 'new normal' for XC trail bikes too…it's really a game-changer. We believe that short-travel bikes should descend like their long-travel siblings, so with the Sniper T, we've created an XC trail bike with an aggressive DH spirit. It loves going uphill, but it always has one eye on the descents. A longer top tube, shorter stem, wider bars, lower bottom bracket, and slacker head angle all make for an exciting yet balanced bike. It is a complete system that is designed to work as one. The Sniper T's numbers are progressive, with geometry and design that's normally only seen on trail or enduro bikes…but it works. With sharp and crisp handling, and responsive pedaling, it is confident and efficient on the climbs—and with its extra travel, it is now even more stable, controlled, and direct on the descents. Add into that mix dropper posts and 1x12 gearing and you have what we believe to be the ultimate cross-country trail bike. We know that riding the Sniper T will fill you with confidence. Climbing, descending, or cruising along…it does it all with a powerful yet efficient ease. The way the Sniper covers the ground so quickly and effortlessly is inspiring and it is nothing short of a revelation on the descents. The Sniper T is our trail bike thrasher, and it's got the INTENSE spirit through and through. Sitting in the middle ground between a full-on XC bike (Sniper XC) and a slightly longer travel trail bike (Primer) the Sniper T offers the best of both worlds. You won't be disappointed. It's everything you could want in a modern-day cross-country trail bike.

BUILT FOR ENDURO. An Enduro bike needs to do two things: eat-up mountainous terrain on the downhills, and climb back up to do it all again. With our new Tracer we believe we have made a bike that can do just that. Borrowing design inspiration and technology from our M29 downhill bike, utilizing its bottom link driven rear shock and suspension design, we have created a bike with plush travel for the roughest of descents, and a firm pedal platform when needed. We’ve positioned the rear shock low down and centered in the frame, allowing the Tracer to descend and handle terrain impeccably. The INTENSE Tracer 279 Enduro bike has been completely reengineered for 2022. With 170mm (6.7”) of travel and a staggered wheelset (29” front/ 27.5” rear), we have created a bike that is stable and capable while also fast, fun and agile.

PURE SPEED MACHINE. With the Sniper T we have created a pure full-suspension cross-country trail bike with a true INTENSE spirit. With the same soul as its sibling the Sniper XC, it features a super lightweight full carbon frame, rolling on 29" wheels, with progressive XC trail geometry but this time with 120mm of travel. The extra 20mm of suspension means that the Sniper T is still all about off-road speed… both up and down, but that you get a slightly plusher ride. It is fast, fiery and fun, a truly innovative XC trail bike…INTENSE style.

BUILT TO PUSH THE LIMITS OF ENDURO. The "S" model designation is given to a build/model that pushes the limits of that segment. The new Tracer S model pushes the limits of Enduro/Freeride with a top-spec Ohlins suspension platform, DH casing tires, and powerful Magura MT7 Pro brakeset. Borrowing design inspiration and technology from our M29 downhill bike, utilizing its bottom link driven rear shock and suspension design, we have created a bike with plush travel for the roughest of descents, and a firm pedal platform when needed. We’ve positioned the rear shock low down and centered in the frame, allowing the Tracer to descend and handle terrain impeccably. COMPLETELY REDESIGNED. The INTENSE Tracer S Enduro bike has been completely reengineered for 2022. With 170mm (6.7”) of travel and a staggered wheelset (29” front/ 27.5” rear), we have created a bike that is stable and capable while also fast, fun and agile. STAGGERED WHEELS = STAGGERING SPEED. The Tracer S has been designed around a staggered wheelset. Taking what we've learned from our staggered wheel Tazer, we've found a great balance of agility and stability. When the trails get tight or you're looking to shave time off of race stages, the new Tracer is ready. FLIP CHIP GEOMETRY ADJUSTMENT. The INTENSE Tracer 279 has a ‘Flip Chip’ feature which allows you to alter the geometry of your bike between two positions. The bike comes from our factory in the HI (High) setting. The HI setting is engineered to perform the best in the roughest and most technical terrain. The LO setting is engineered to perform the best in slightly smoother, high speed trails such as what could be found in many bike parks. The LO setting will slacken the head angle a little, lower the bottom bracket and standover, shorten the reach by 5mm, creating slightly firmer suspension.. What position you have the Flip Chip in comes down to personal preference, riding style and the type of terrain you normally ride on. The Flip Chip on the INTENSE Tracer 279 is located on the Lower Link of the suspension system where it bolts onto the rear shock. With the bike fully built the Flip Chips are hidden, so in order to gain access to them you will need a 5mm Allen key and a torque wrench. The basic process involves removing the rear wheel, unbolting the Rear Triangle from the Top Link, which will then give you access to the Bottom Link and the Flip Chips.

The Trail Bikes that Love to Play The Santa Cruz 5010 has always been more capable than many expected. But now with a high-traction 29-inch wheel up front, a maneuverable 27.5-incher out back, and even more refined suspension, their touch is even more deft on the trails. Featuring a 140mm fork and 130mm of VPP rear suspension travel, 5010 was made for sporty performance.

Float through rock gardens, hit the jumps, and find the faster line. With quick-handling 27.5 wheels and adjustable frame geometry, this lively trail bike is a party on wheels. Built for those who favor the responsive, agile handling of 27.5 wheels, this trail ripper features flip chip that lets you adjust the frame geometry for riding style and terrain. You can choose a steeper or slacker headtube angle and either a 20mm or 30mm bottom bracket drop. The ALUXX SL aluminum frame is fitted with updated Maestro rear suspension featuring 145mm of smooth, active rear travel. A trunnion-mount shock and Advanced Forged Composite rocker arm help soak up bumps, giving you traction and control to float through rocks, roots and ruts. Confidence is further bolstered by a 160mm travel suspension fork up front.

What if we took everybody's favorite bike and made it a little slacker and little longer? Hell, what if we made it more progressive and coil compatible? And, that's exactly what we did for the Ripmo V2. Active ingredients include: 29" wheels, berm-defying cornering tendencies, and a love for long rides. The Rip­mo and Rip­mo AF share the same steep, 76-degree seat tube angle and a rangy but not stratos­pher­ic reach, which places rid­ers cen­tral­ly over the ped­als. It makes for an effi­cient posi­tion that can go the long haul. The slack 64.9 head­tube angle and 44mm reduced-off set fork doesn't wan­der while climb­ing, and doesn't hold you back descend­ing. It works—all day up, all day down, all day in between. TRACTION TUNE Our cus­tom-tuned front and rear sus­pen­sion fea­ture extra-light high-speed com­pres­sion and rebound damp­ing to deliv­er unpar­al­leled trac­tion. This allows the wheels to flut­ter through ter­rain like a tro­phy truck storm­ing through a set of whoops. COIL COMPATIBLE The Rip­mo V2 is com­pat­i­ble with both coil and air shocks due to a more pro­gres­sive lever­age rate. On the trail, it gives the sus­pen­sion a sup­ple feel throughout the entire­ty of the stroke, enhanc­ing trac­tion no mat­ter how deep you dig. DROPPER POST CLEARANCE Mo' drop­per, mo' bet­ter. On small frames, you can run 125 – 150mm, depend­ing on your pref­er­ence and inseam length. On Medi­um, Large, and X-Large, a 160mm—or, why not run a 185mm? Our short­er seat-tube lengths and low standovers allow you to choose your size based on your reach preference. TIRE CLEARANCE You can run over­built, chunky tires; you can run light, big vol­ume fast tires, but what­ev­er you run, know that you're not lim­it­ed by width. BUSHINGS Tired of hit­ting "pur­chase" on anoth­er set of bear­ings each sea­son? So were we. That's why we use bush­ings where they make sense, and bear­ings where they don't. The IGUS bush­ings in our low­er link are lighter, stiffer, and vir­tu­al­ly main­te­nance-free. We believe so strong­ly in them, we back them with a free life­time replacement. LIGHTWEIGHT PREMIUM CARBON FOR EVERYONE All our bikes are built from the high­est-grade mate­ri­als and opti­mized for the best strength, weight, stiffness, and ride per­for­mance-no mat­ter how much you spend. The Rip­mo weighs a svelte 6.25 lbs with a DPX2 shock, and com­plete builds start at 28 lbs. INTERNAL CABLE ROUTING Bikes that look pret­ty on the out­side should look pret­ty on the inside. We use car­bon fiber tubes mold­ed with­in each frame. Push the cable in, watch it pop out, a beau­ti­ful moment indeed. REMOVABLE ISCG MOUNT So, you're too fast for nar­row-wide chain reten­tion on its own? Chal­lenge accept­ed. Our remov­able ISCG tabs allow shred­ders to bolt on a chain guide, while the rest of us can shave grams. PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT A poly­car­bon­ate down­tube pro­tec­tor deflects debris, while mold­ed rub­ber swing arm pro­tec­tors keep things qui­et and clean. And, our sim­ple-yet-ele­gant link­age pro­tec­tors stop mud and rocks thrown by the tire, keep­ing your beau­ti­ful bike beautiful.

It's time to recalibrate your gray matter with what's happening in racing today. All it takes is "it's on!" ­– number plates not required. Born to naturally crush the climbs, the SB115 is evolved. Deft on the downs. Designed to race. Built to rally.

Each weekend, at race venues the world over, there is one rider who gets hoisted upon the shoulders of the crowd and carried to the podium. Or at least leaves with a water bottle as their prize. And between each of those races, innumerable wannabes are putting in the hours on the rollers and in the gym all because they want to feel what it's like to take the win. They know that to beat the pack every advantage needs to be acquired. That's where the Blur fits in. We tapped into everything we've learned from years of making the highest quality carbon full-suspension bikes so that we could put as little (weight) as possible into the Blur frame. The trim frame and super-efficient Superlight suspension will be the key to translating your input into competition beating performances. But the Blur isn't just for the short track. Two water bottle mounts within the front triangle should keep chuggers happy. And the high quality fit, finish and carbon construction promises multi-day racers a worry free existence—meaning there's no fiddly proprietary parts that could leave you stranded in a Cape Epic or Breck Epic campsite. The carbon frame, while being light, is made to go the distance and as always the legendary Santa Cruz lifetime warranty and Rider Support team has got your back. The Blur isn't guaranteed to make you a race winner but being the lightest, full-suspension carbon XC bike we've ever made (Approx 23lb as complete. Blur frame is 289g lighter than the previous model) it might be the difference between claiming first place...or just crossing the line.

The Ripmo AF (Aluminum Frame) brings the award-winning performance of the carbon Ripmo to a wider, rowdier audience. It’s everything we love from the carbon Ripmo, plus a few tweaks. Over a long tenure from moun­tain biking’s awk­ward ado­les­cence to its cur­rent any­thing-shred­dy era, we’ve exper­i­ment­ed with steel, alu­minum and tita­ni­um?—?remem­ber the Bow-Ti, the first super­bike? We remem­ber the met­al times too, and it feels good to offer a pre­mi­um ride expe­ri­ence to the broad­en­ing fam­i­ly of rid­ers, cour­tesy of durable, afford­able alu­minum alloy. With a steep, 76-degree seat tube angle and a rangy but not stratos­pher­ic reach, the Rip­mo AF places rid­ers cen­tral­ly and upright over the bot­tom brack­et. It makes for an effi­cient posi­tion that can go the long haul with­out plac­ing too much weight on its slack, 64.9-degree head­tube angle. A 44mm reduced-off­set fork is more sure­foot­ed on steep descents and stead­ies high speeds. Bet­ter up, bet­ter down.

"Race bred". It's not just a slogan printed on the SB150 top tube. We've been pinning on numbers and pinning the throttle since 1985.

Shred hard and shred fast with this lively 29er. It's built on an all-new full-composite frame with adjustable geometry, giving you smooth control to blitz technical trails at speed. This versatile trail bike features a full composite frame that's fitted with a new Maestro suspension system that has 5mm more travel than the previous generation. The Advanced Forged Composite rocker arm has a flip chip that allows you to adjust frame geometry. Choose steeper or slacker headtube/seattube angles and either a 35mm or 45mm bottom bracket drop to adjust the handling for your riding style and terrain.

Our greatest hits compiled into one bike—just hit play. If ever a bike resembled your most cherished mix tape compilation, the Hightower is it. Featuring our lower-link mounted shock design, updated, adjustable geometry, this "Engineering Best Of..." assembles some of our biggest design pleasers into one belter of a road-trip companion. The Hightower has been a does-it-all-well trail bike since its inception. Hightower excels when the route covers 'all points in between,' and descents come courtesy of some big-ass climbs. The VPP suspension’s lower-link-mounted shock creates a nearly linear leverage curve, meaning it mops up bumps of all sizes while maintaining progressivity! 140mm of rear travel complemented by a 150mm front end gives Hightower just a bit more front and rear travel over the first-generation model. Combined with a slacker 65-degree head tube angle, the Hightower still sits squarely in the Goldilocks zone, but with a touch more "Get me out of here!" capability when the porridge gets too hot! Balancing stiffness and weight savings in all the right places is a hallmark of all Santa Cruz carbon frames and the Hightower flies the flag yet higher. The advanced composite chassis tracks well across all trail surfaces, holds a line, and is reactive to rider directions while isolating pedal-influenced inputs. The Hightower also has a bonus disc to heighten the experience—the flip chip. In the High setting, the BB height is a little higher for those tricky tech trails and/or when Plus-sized tires are required. In the Low position, the shock rate is more progressive to provide additional bottom-out resistance. Whatever mood you’re in, the tone of the Hightower can be adapted to meet your individual taste. And speaking of taste, there’s a room for a water bottle inside the main frame and a threaded BB for convenience. There's refined cable routing for better shifting performance, simpler installation, and no cable rub. On top of that, there’s a tailgate shuttle guard, downtube protector, shock fender, and noise-canceling chainstay protector keeping things quiet. The lifetime frame warranty, lifetime pivot bearing replacement policy, and lifetime guarantee on the optional Reserve carbon wheels assures you that the Hightower will keep delivering the hits for years to come. - Carbon C 29/27+ 145mm Travel VPP frame - RockShox Yari RC 150mm fork - FOX Float Performance DPS shock - SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain - WTB ST i30 TCS 2.0 rims - Maxxis Minion tires

Master of the gnarniverse. Bold claim for some. Fact-checked humility for the SB165. At home outside the tape, beyond the norm. Taken on the trails nobody talks about. Trusted on the lines where mistakes can't happen. Comfortable with all the chaos. Pleased when you're puckered. Fearless of your fear.

This full-composite frame is engineered for 135mm of rear travel and 150mm up front. The Maestro rear suspension has a two-stage adjustable Advanced Forged Composite rocker arm with a trunnion-mount shock. A flip chip lets you choose either low or high frame geometry settings, which adjusts the headtube and seattube angle, along with the bottom bracket drop, to fine tune handling for your riding style and terrain.

Forget the numbers. Mute the speculation. Let the other guys invent cute alternatives for "cross country." Steer clear of pigeon holes and limiting beliefs. Strap on your blinders and go get lost. Then decide what the SB120 means to you. And you alone. Definition ready.

Forget the numbers. Mute the speculation. Let the other guys invent cute alternatives for "cross country." Steer clear of pigeon holes and limiting beliefs. Strap on your blinders and go get lost. Then decide what the SB120 means to you. And you alone. Definition ready.

The All-Country Bike Effortlessly explore, seek, and pursue the mountain in ways you never imagined. The Spur provides a sense of connection to the bike as if it were an extension to your body. Fast and efficient with an anti-gravity feel and laser-pointer precision that begs you to climb more, go farther, and descend anything you may encounter along the way. You'll instantly appreciate the free speed you're awarded while accelerating where you're usually accustomed to pedaling. Don't judge a book by its cover though, with all these lightweight and uphill oriented character traits the Spur requires no adjustment to descend like you're used to, you might actually go faster.

Our greatest hits compiled into one bike. Just hit play. If ever a bike resembled your most cherished mix tape compilation, the Hightower is it. Featuring our lower-link mounted shock design, updated, adjustable geometry, this "Engineering Best Of..." assembles some of our biggest design pleasers into one belter of a road-trip companion. The Hightower has been a does-it-all-well trail bike since its inception. More maneuverable than its longer-travel sibling, the Megatower, and more at home in the steep-and-chunky than its snappy cousin Tallboy, Hightower excels when the route covers 'all points in between,' and descents come courtesy of some big-ass climbs. The VPP suspension's lower-link-mounted shock creates a nearly linear leverage curve, meaning it mops up bumps of all sizes and maintains the kind of progressivity normally reserved for our V10 DH bike! 145mm of rear travel complemented by a 150mm front end gives Hightower just a bit more front and rear travel over the first generation model. Combined with a slacker 65-degree head tube angle, the Hightower still sits squarely in the Goldilocks zone, but with a touch more "Oh sh*t, get me out of here" capability when the porridge gets too hot! Balancing stiffness and weight savings in all the right places is a hallmark of all Santa Cruz carbon frames, and the Hightower flies the flag yet higher. The advanced composite chassis tracks well across all trail surfaces, holds a line, and is reactive to rider directions while isolating pedal-influenced inputs. The Hightower also has a bonus disc to heighten the experience: the flip chip. In the High setting, the BB height is a little higher for those tricky tech trails and/or when Plus sized tires are required. In the Low position, the shock rate is more progressive to provide additional bottom-out resistance. Whatever mood you're in, the tone of the Hightower can be adapted to meet your individual taste. And, speaking of taste, there's room for a water bottle inside the main frame and a threaded BB for convenience. There's refined cable routing for better shifting performance, simpler installation, and no cable rub. On top of that, there's a tailgate shuttle guard, downtube protector, shock fender, and noise-canceling chainstay protector to keep things quiet. The lifetime frame warranty and lifetime pivot bearing replacement policy assure you that the Hightower will keep delivering the hits for years to come.