Santa Cruz have over 20 years of bike building expertise, and are one of many US bike brands based on the West Coast in sunny California. There must be something about having big mountains that tumble into the sea, and a very favourable environment. California is home to some well-known high performance bike brands – perhaps being able to test in your own backyard, and be inspired by it has something to do with it.
We have just adopted a new long term test bike. After the Whyte M-109 C and Lapierre Zesty 827 AM, the Santa Cruz 5010 C sits somewhere between the two. A little shorter travel than the Zesty, the 5010 is a stand out trail bike in the Santa Cruz range. With 125mm of travel, 27.5” wheels, a light frame, low bottom bracket and short chain stays, it’s meant to be a pretty nimble trail bike.
the 5010 comes in either an alloy or carbon fibre frame, and a number of build options. the 5010 C we’re playing with has the full carbon frame with a 2x10 mix of Shimano SLX and Xt with a sampling of SrAM. So why did we pick it? Well it’s their top frame with a great suspension package, but the parts kit has some room to grow. At 125mm of efficient pedalling suspension, it’s supremely versatile. It’s probably the kind of bike that would suit just about any Australian mountain biker, unless you took your up or down riding very seriously.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
You can pick the lines of a Santa Cruz from a mile away, the dropped top tube, and the look of the short, forged alloy links and Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) suspension stand out. It can be hard to pick the 5010 from its bigger brother the Bronson, or the bigger wheeled Tallboy.
the matte black carbon fibre frame is immaculate, thanks in part to the production process, where alignment of the materials is checked before compaction, and the shock mounts are moulded in at this point too – not added afterwards. Cables run externally save for a port for the Stealth dropper post, but they neatly run on top of the downtube. A real bonus for maintenance. the lowest bearing point has ports for a (supplied) grease gun. Pivots can be easy to avoid maintaining, so that’s a real helping hand for home mechanics. the 142x12 dropout is very tidy, as is the ISCg guide mount around the threaded bottom bracket. top points to Santa Cruz for that. I think PF30 bottom bracket servicing has taken too many hours from my life when I’d rather be riding. All up it’s a very well thought out, and immaculately produced frame.
ON THE TRAIL
We chose a large for the test bike, although many people comment that the large isn’t that large. that’s neither here nor there – choose on the fit not what it’s called. But I found the 610mm top tube perfect for my height, a nice change from often being between sizes. The 68 degree head angle isn’t crazy slack, and with a short stem and wide Santa Cruz branded carbon riser bars the cockpit was perfect.
The VPP suspension sort of sounds complex, but works likes other systems out there, in that it aims to isolate riding forces from the suspension. The two forged alloy links rotate work to create a ‘virtual’ pivot point, so the suspension can feel nice and firm for pedalling, with a supple midstroke before ramping up late in the travel. With the Fox Float CTD shock, it was easy enough to leave it in the fully open setting and just flick it to ‘Trail’ for extended climbing or for lots of punching out of the saddle climbs, where the bigger weight shifts can get it moving too much.
As a trail bike the 5010 C needs to be a great handler. The low BB, short stays (just under 435mm here) and nimble 68 degree head angle made the 5010 a joy to flick through one corner to the next. Even though it wasn’t ‘new school’ super long in the frame, the descending is as stable as you’d want. What needs to be said about the RockShox Pike? It’s the market leader for a bike like this, and works flawlessly on this trail bike.
But as a trail bike, the 5010 C needs to climb too. And it did. The 2x10 setup with 22/36 chain rings made for a huge gear range – when I remembered it wasn’t 1x. This bike screams to be single ring, but only if the range is there to suit your riding. If your trail rides are long and hard, you will probably prefer the range on offer with this setup.
With a pretty short period to test the bike in first time around, I didn’t get much time on proper technical terrain. Just your standard rocky Sydney sandstone, which didn’t faze it. The shorter wheelbase thanks to the short back end was great through tight corners, and easy to push into a slide in fast corners. I’d like to see how it goes over extended technical terrain though, and on some higher speed descents.
OUR TAKE
We’re lucky enough to have the 5010 C in the shed for the next few months, so we’ll make a few tweaks to it and get out into some broader riding environments. Right now, the overall package is awesome, but take a look at AMBmag.com.au where we will have a run down on some of the specific components and how they’re working.
Available Sizes S, M, L (tested), XL Frame Material Carbon fibre Fork RockShox Pike RC 130mm Shock Fox Float CTD Kashima, 125 mm Shifters Shimano SLX 2x10 Derailleur Shimano XT Shadow Plus rear, SRAM X0 front Crank SRAM S1400 22/34 Bottom bracket SRAM GXP Chain Shimano HG75 Cassette Shimano SLX 10sp 11-36 Hubs DT 350 Spokes DT Champion Rims WTB STi23 TCS Tyres Maxxis High Roller and Ardent Brakes Shimano XT Stem RaceFace Turbine Handlebars Santa Cruz Carbon low rise Seatpost RockShox Reverb Stealth Saddle WTB Volt Race Weight 12.41kg (as tested)
Price 8999$