While the Bronson is dramatically different, the 130mm travel 5010, and its Juliana stablemate, the Furtado, don’t look that different in silhouette from what went before. However, a whole lot has changed from the previous two iterations.
Santa Cruz 5010 – All New For 2019
While not changing travel for next year, the whole bike has been beefed up and stiffened up. The swingarm now has two upright supports to properly box in the rear triangle, along with a much wider, stiffer (threaded) BB area. There’s no longer a facility for front mechs, this bike is one-by only. As with the Bronson, the bike is longer (+15mm reach), the head angle is 0.5° slacker (to 66.2° on the slacker setting) and the seat angle steepens a touch to 65°. There is a ‘flip chip’ that alters head angle slightly (by 0.3°) but its main job is to lower the BB height if you’re running bigger tyres – and it’ll take tyres up to 2.8in, though Santa Cruz will be speccing (optional) 2.6in tyres for a less dramatic plus tyre experience. (’27 Plump’ it is calling the 2.6 size – something we refer to here as ‘British Plus’.
Standover has been reduced to allow riders longer dropper posts and more flexibility on sizes. This is an XL!Goodbye front mech. Hello stiffer rear triangle.
In order to show that it’s not just a cross country bike, the 5010 comes with a Fox piggyback shock on all but the bottom spec. Travel remains at 130mm. Frame sizes will be offered in XS to XL sizes, with XS to Medium in the Juliana Furtado model.
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Look at that standover!Two colours. A neat matte black and a purple/grey.Like the Bronson again, the cable management has been tidied up.Neat hollow top link. The shock is now a metric size unit.There are many spec levels, but they are all 1×11 or 1×12. No front mechs here.
The lower link pocket has been widened, thanks to a lack of front mech provision. There’s space for a bottle cage, with a second under the downtube. Weight for the CC frame with Fox DPX2 shock is a round 2.5kg on the nose.
Stiffer, wider, longer, slacker, steeper. What did you expect?A back-side view of the lower linkage, showing the twin uprights, where formerly there was only one.The bike is set up for 180mm rotors out back.That’s the bare carbon, unpainted logo, shining under the clear coat of the frame.The other colour is this subtle lilac/grey kind of shade.This is a size Large 5010 – worked for our 5ft 9in test rider with (170mm) post slammed.No more grommets for the cables, which are now channelled through the front triangle.Santa Cruz is very proud of its bearing longevity, even in British weather.The XL, but would also work for large riders wanting a long (486mm) reach bike.Dropping in…
And even though the Juliana Furtado is the same price and geometry as the 5010, it bears a quick look – especially as it has a great colour. With the only differences being a lighter shock tune and saddle/grips, we’d recommend looking at the Furtado too, especially if you’re a lighter or smaller rider.
A very nice wine-inspired paint jobNew, bolder Juliana graphics for next year.
With nearly 25 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 32 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.)
3 thoughts on “Santa Cruz 5010 – All New For 2019”
The Juliana logo reminds me a little of Jurassic Park’s logo.
& what a fantastic idea, a pinkish bike so we all know it’s for girls. Top marketing skills.
It’s actually a really nice brick red colour. Way less pinkish than some of Juliana’s bikes before and arguably the nicest colour of all of the new bikes this year.
The Juliana logo reminds me a little of Jurassic Park’s logo.
& what a fantastic idea, a pinkish bike so we all know it’s for girls. Top marketing skills.
It’s actually a really nice brick red colour. Way less pinkish than some of Juliana’s bikes before and arguably the nicest colour of all of the new bikes this year.
The headtube length on the XL is horrific