Santa Cruz Bikes’ New Bronson.

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As foretold by a recent Singletrack forum thread Santa Cruz today is announcing a new Bronson, a new 5010 (née Solo), a Juliana and a Furtado. Many of the new bits and pieces are shared by all four bikes, so we’ll detail them here and feature on the Bronson. The Julianas and the 5010 will get their own stories.

Ratboy absolutely thrashing the new Bronson

The new Bronson (not officially the Bronson 2 apparently) has had a major redesign, using some of the cues first introduced with the Nomad last year. It gets a degree slacker head angle, a 0.8 degree steeper seat tube angle and, start rejoicing now, an increased top tube length of 20-25mm depending on frame size.

Singletrack World Issue 143 - June ...
It’s not pink, it’s Raspberry Beret, OK?
ISCG mounts and threaded BB as standard

It also gets shorter chainstays and a shorter seat tube, to help accommodate the new 150mm droppers and also to help with sizing issues – just choose the reach that appeals. Rather oddly, Santa Cruz has left the 30.9mm seat tube size and gone to a 31.6mm diameter because the 150mm Reverbs apparently only came in 31.6mm sizes initially (though they now do come in 30.9) which is something that’ll annoy riders looking to swap gear over from their old Bronson.

Anyway, the VPP system, now in its third incarnation, has been updated to bring the lower link into the BB area (“eliminating the dangling dog’s balls’ of the previous system” according to the spokesman, who quickly tried to unsay it :-)) – this will please anyone who’s smacked a lower linkage or chainstays on a rock. The upper link has also been moved slightly, again something first seen on the Nomad.

Macho black too

 

There’ll be carbon ‘C’ and ‘CC’ versions initially, with alloy next year

 

Look, there’s one of those front mechs!

 

The spring curve has been changed so that the bike doesn’t sit into its mid travel as much as before, while also offering improved small bump compliance. Cable routing is now fully internal, including routing for a sideswing front mech if desired. BB is still threaded and the Bronson and Roubion gets a little lower, while the 5010 and Furtado stay as is.

Back ends on all the bikes will increase to 148mm (there goes your idea of keeping your old wheels/hubs) though Santa Cruz isn’t speccing Boost forks on any of its builds.

Colours will come in a wild and a mild for all models. The Bronson gets black and a vibrant raspberry colour. (It’s not pink, and its not magenta…)

I’ve just ridden the new Bronson and the 5010 for a couple of days in Downieville, California (yeah, OK, sorry) over a dry and dusty mix of rocks, more rocks, roots and gravel (it’s not rained here for months) I’ve got a fair idea of how the new bikes ride. The Bronson definitely benefits from the extra top tube (and shorter stem). It’s as stiff and responsive as you would expect and it doesn’t climb badly either. Like the previous Bronson, it really comes into its own when going full chat into chunky rock sections and its a bike the needs positive, almost aggressive input to get the most out of it. Whether that rear lower link is as big a mud shelf as it looks will be interesting to find out – I have confidence in Santa Cruz’ bearings and seals, and tyre clearance with a 2.3in is still good, but it does look like it’ll collect crap easily.

Watch for the new Ratboy film for the Bronson coming out…

The good news for eager beavers is that all four bikes are now in stock in the US and at UK distributors Jungle. And the other good news is that the Bronson and 5010 (but not the Julianas) will have aluminium versions released around April time.

Seemed a good place to test the new Bronson and 5010

 

Are you man enough to rock the Raspberry?

 

Plenty of mud room at the stays, but what about that link?

 

Before it got slightly dusty

 

Not sure about the non-removeable front mech mount.

 

We spent two days trying not to add up the cost of the shuttle van’s roof rack.

Forgive the screenshot, but here’s a quick idea of pricing for the UK. Some bikes shops should have stock this week.

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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