Santa Cruz is one of the latest brands to the eMTB party, but as of today, their chips are on the table with the all-new Heckler. At least they are taking it lightly.
The California mountain bike company didn’t indicate why they waited this long to get into the eMTB game, just that now is a good time.
“When someone like Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship founder Greg Williams told us that we should hurry up and make an e-bike we paid attention. When Greg Williams started the Yuba Expeditions and the SBTS he had a vision to breathe life back into old Californian gold rush towns through mountain biking. Today e-bike technology is expanding that concept on a completely different scale.”
With the Heckler, they say that accessing trails like the countless miles of singletrack in the Sierra Nevadas is more possible.
“Some of these trails have been under the nose of riders for years, they’re just protected by nightmare climbs that deter even the toughest riders.”
The Santa Cruz Heckler stood in the brand’s catalog for about 20 years, before taking a break in 2016. Formerly, it was a 150mm travel trail bike with a single-pivot suspension platform. Size medium frames had a 402mm reach, 439mm chainstays, and an 1139mm wheelbase. My, how the times have changed in just a few years, but even for 2016, the Heckler’s geo was pretty outdated.
The 2020 Heckler will again come with 150mm of travel, but will now be leveraged by Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) linkage. It is slightly overforked with a 160mm fork up front. The Heckler will keep 27.5-inch wheels and is available in sizes S – XXL.
The new carbon bike is powered by a 500wh integrated Shimano battery. Geometry takes a much more modern approach, and minds the fact that there’s a big motor stuffed under the downtube. Reach on a medium is 445mm, and each size is about a 20mm difference, up or down. The head tube angle measures 65.5°, the seat tube angle is 76.1°, chainstays are 445mm across all sizes, and the wheelbase is a lengthy 1211mm in a size medium.
Weights for the Heckler are all under 50lbs, and the weight savings are pretty minimal for the higher build kits. The XX1-equipped Heckler weighs 46.29lbs and the base model only weighs about a pound-and-a-quarter more at 47.66lbs.
Since Santa Cruz is only making the Heckler frames with its higher-end CC carbon, the base model starts out at a pricey $7,400. A SRAM XX1 AXS equipped Heckler tops the line-up at $12,600. Find out more information on the new Heckler at the Santa Cruz website.
