Today sees the launch of the brand new 2018 Santa Cruz Bronson which is, as you’d expect, longer and slacker than the old Bronhom.
We swung by the 50:01 pits to check out Josh Bryceland’s new Brondog for ourselves (and had a beer and watched Craig Evans get tattooed in the back of a camper van)
The new Bronburger is up to 15mm longer reach (depending on the size) with 1 degree slacker head angle and is now 65.1°.
The wheelbase is also now an inch longer. A size large used to be 445mm reach and the new bike is 459mm.
The seat angle moves from a relatively slack 74° to a much steeper and more up to date 75.3°.
There’s no point making a huge long bike if it feels like riding your dad’s bike… and Santa Cruz have dropped it right down, moving it from 748mm to 720mm.
It has 150mm travel out back, which hasn’t changed from the old bike but is now build around a 160mm fork, rather than 150m.
The suspension platform now changes to the V10 style linkage and is now the same as the Nomad. It’s a VPP system and is said to give better small bump perform then the old system.
Previously the linkage was attached to the top tube and seat tube, where as now it’s a slightly more complex system with the shock mounted to the downtube and the lower link tucked away in a split seat tube.
Josh’s new bike is pretty standard but with a few personal touches. He’s got a set of the new Fabric 50:01 grips and saddle and a Burgtec bar, stem and pedals. And that lovely water bottle, of course.
We chatted to Bryceland and Sam Dale and both reckon the bike feels totally different to the old version. It feels much longer up front, they said, and much faster and more composed in rough ground and a much better bike for big, nasty riding.
We’re looking forward to seeing how Bryceland gets on at the Megavalanche this week.
You can check out more about the new Santa Cruz here on SC’s website.
