Blur LT
Price: £1699 frame only (painted), £1899 frame only (anodized)
From: www.santacruzbikes.co.uk
Yes, there she is; the lovely blue Santa Cruz Blur LT.
There seems to be a theme developing in this years long-termers and that is “all-roundness”.
Many of the Valleyaholics that live in Calderdale have ended up getting more and more specific bike suitable to the terrain where we live and making bikes that are more and more useless anywhere else. If not useless, then not as much fun as they could be. Big portly slack bikes are ace down steep things but take them, for instance, to most trail centres and they’re sluggish, want to run wide in the corners and are exhausting up hill.
So I want to build a Mountain Bike, one that pedals up stuff and can go down stuff in a dignified manner without sacrificing too much to either side of the hill.
I’m hoping that’s what I’m doing with this Santa Cruz Blur LT. As it currently stands it has 140mm of travel from the Fox Float RP23 rear shock and a Revelation Black Box Dual Air fork with 150mm of travel; so, although quite long in actual travel, with the steepish head-angle and the way the VPP design works under pedaling, I’m hoping for a more taut feeling bike than my current rides.
Weight weeniness.
Benji has been playing some cruel kind of mental torture against my mind regarding the weight of things and how my Blur is going to end up heavier than his Cannondale Prophet (his Cannondale is currently around 28 pounds).
So I’ve been doing things like this. Should I use the new Pace BB at 124 Grams?
Or
The XT one at 94g?
The chainring has gone…
…but has been replaced by this…
…which is exactly the same weight.
The rest of the finishing kit currently on the bike is from Syncros in the form of black seatpost, headset and stem with a pair of gunmetal Answer bars on there for the moment (the colour coder in my mind will probably remove them before the bike leaves the office).
So there she is. Currently with cranks and rear mech on she’s coming in at 15.4lbs.
Brakes are going to be Magura Marta SLs.
Wheels will be made up of DT 240 hubs on Flow rims.
Tyres, not sure yet but something tubeless and with a decent volume.
So, what do you reckon the weight will be?
Matt
UPDATE :- With a pair of Specialized Traverse Wheels with Bontrager Big Earl tyres and tubes (’til the Flow rims and hubs are built) the weight is 27.94 without pedals.!!
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The GF has a LT2 (painted version), built with thomson/syncros finishing kit, 2010 uturn rev black box forks, XT gears/crank, tech m4’s and pro 2’s on 5.1’s etc etc – it weighs 30.5lbs on certified scales.
Great bike I wish her medium fit me!
BTW I have the 150mm blackbox revs on my mojo sl – rides great up and down (similar HA & SA)
Brakes 1.5lbs, tyres 3lbs, wheels 4lbs, cassette 0.6lbs, front mech 0.3lbs, cables 0.3lbs, grips 0.3lbs, shifters 0.5lbs, pedals 0.75lbs. I reckon 26.7 with pedals. I’m such a geek 😉
Is the zip-tie on the Genesis a sophisticated northern anti-theft device?
LT looks lovely, will be seriously considering one for my next FS, looking forward to hearing how it works for you.
A pal of mine test rode a LT vs a 5 –
the 5 did everything really well.. storming up climbs
nippy, fast and lively through the singletrack.
and a cracker down the hill.
The LT felt lifeless on the climbs
dead (ok another way of saying lifeless) through singletrack
and about 5% better down the hill than the 5.
he bought a 5 and loves it – without trying he has a 27lb bike.
Go 1×9 (or x10!) with an MRP 1X. and save quite a few more grams…
You have an awesome beard ergo bike weight is not important.
27.99 pounds
soulrider. Funnily I couldnt get my head round with the Five (09 geom) needed such a slack head angle for a trailbike. Whereas my Blur4x makes you feel a better rider than what you are and has a steeper head angle the Five. I’d have thought a slacker head angle would be worse on a climb?!
PS. Dickon at Jungle commented that the LT2 feels very similar to his Blur4x (so that would be my next full suss in the future) :o)
if your saving weight why not do a 1×9 set up with a 11-34 cassette, as long as your not doing alot of road work there are enough gears.
26.7? geek yes right no. more like 29lb
It’ll be 31lbs when you see the light and Calderize it.
1×9/10 for def.
As a comparison Ive a blur LTC built up, not really for weight, just for long term survival. (I commute on it & ride trails all year too so i eat chainsets)
At the moment its on the non certified bathroom scales at 27.5 lbs.
Kitout includes 15G triple ring crankset, XT block & mechs, Fox 32 140mm (tried 150mm & didnt like). Same wheelset as you have Matt. Tyres are Kenda Nevegal stickE 2.35. Theyre ridiculously grippy in the winter muck but not exactly light. Fantastic ride overall, & thats after 4 months use & approx 900 miles on/offroad so far. It can get lighter, but its not worth the money i guess.
looks nice in that colour
This thread is a great showcase of pi$$ poor grammar and spelling!!
Lovely bike, want one, can’t have one (yet).
Having been a strict SC rider for a while now my tastes have often strayed to other brands,however I keep being brought back by images/bikes like this. I just wish they’d make the 4x again instead of this Tallboy mallarky.
I’ve got an unused (new) one of these frames (black ano) in a box somewhere.
Having read this I’m getting the urge to dig it out and stick some of my surplus bits on it…….
Love the idea of the 240 hubs, iv got a blur lt2 and run proII on 5.1s – great wheels but I think the 240s will offer a faster rolling ride
rapiddave – not meaning to sound funny, but could you really feel the difference between pro11’s and 240’s (ignoring the clickyness of Hopes and everything else being equal)?
Personally I’m too busy focusing on other things while I ride.. such as avoiding the next tree, landing the next drop rubber-side down etc etc..
I’m just intrigued by weightweenyitus , that’s all! 🙂
It will be somewhere around 30lbs if mine is anything to go by. For a bike with that much travel and big hit potential why would you compromise with a few lightweight components that will not reduce weight percentage by much, but will decrease reliability.
If you’re a weight watcher get something with 120mm travel and ride XC
RopeyReignRider – ha yes the 240s are the sex. Its not about the weight its about the ‘spin wheel, go for a cuppa, come back.. wheel still spinning’ Well, maybe a slight exaggeration but you get the idea 🙂
🙂