Santa Cruz Bicycles

Santa Cruz Bicycles Inc.

Founded	1993; 31 years ago (1993)
Founder	Rob Roskopp, Mike Marquez and Rich Novak
Headquarters	Santa Cruz, CA, US
Key people	CEO: Joe Graney
Products	Bicycles
Parent	Pon Holdings
Website	santacruzbicycles.com

Santa Cruz Bicycles is a manufacturer of high end mountain bikes based in Santa Cruz, California.^[1] They sponsor the Santa Cruz Syndicate, a downhill racing team. The company moved premises from 104 Bronson Street to 2841 Mission Street in 2013 .^[2] Formerly owned by NHS, Inc. On July 3, 2015, Santa Cruz Bicycles was sold to Pon Holdings, a family-owned Dutch conglomerate with a bicycle division including brands such as Cervélo, Focus and Royal Dutch Gazelle.^[3]

History[edit]

Santa Cruz Bicycles was founded by Rob Roskopp, Mike Marquez and Rich Novak in 1993.^[4] Roskopp had spent many years as a professional skateboarder, and Novak's Santa Cruz Skateboards company had put out a special "Roskopp" model before the two met. Roskopp and Novak went into partnership with bike engineer Mike Marquez, who had particular experience in bicycle suspension, and Tom Morris, a designer, to build some prototypes.^[5]

Their first bike, in 1994, was a full suspension bike called the Tazmon. It had an 80 millimetres (3.1 in) travel single pivot design,^[6] the first on the market.^[1][4] It was followed a year later by the 100 millimetres (3.9 in) travel Heckler, a model that was discontinued for the 2016 model year and relaunched in 2020 as an e-bike.

The company acquired the patents for their Virtual Pivot Point (aka "VPP") from Outland Bikes around 1999.^[4]

Models[edit]

The company manufactures around a dozen models of mountain bikes made of carbon fiber and aluminum, ranging from $1500 to over $10000 retail. Their bikes are suited to a wide range of mountain biking disciplines.^[1] Frame fabrication occurs in China and Taiwan, but all bicycles are assembled in Santa Cruz, built to customer specifications just before being shipped out.

In 2013, a single model, the "Juliana" was spun off as a stand-alone brand and range of mountain bikes for women, designed by and named for Juli Furtado.^[7]

In 2017, Santa Cruz announced the addition of carbon fiber wheels^[8] to their product lineup.

Current Santa Cruz/Juliana Production Models^[9][10]

• 5010/Furtado - 27.5" wheels, 130 millimetres (5.1 in) VPP Travel
• Blur - 29" wheels, 100 millimetres (3.9 in) VPP Travel (Re-introduced in 2018)
• Tallboy/Joplin - 29" wheels, 120 millimetres (4.7 in) VPP Travel
• Bronson/Roubion - 27.5" wheels, 150 millimetres (5.9 in) VPP Travel
• Hightower - 29" wheels, 145 millimetres (5.7 in) VPP Travel
• Megatower - 29" wheels, 160 millimeters (6 in) VPP Travel
• Nomad - MX (29" front wheel, 27.5 rear wheel), 170 millimetres (6.7 in) VPP Travel
• V10 - 27.5" wheels or 29" wheels,^[11] 216 millimetres (8.5 in) VPP Travel
• Chameleon - 29" or 27.5"+ wheels, hardtail trail bike
• Highball - 29" wheels, hardtail xc bike
• Jackal - 26" wheels, dirt jump frame
• Stigmata - 700c wheels, cyclocross/gravel bike
• Heckler - 27.5" wheels, e-mountain bike, 150 millimetres (5.9 in) VPP Travel (Re-introduced as e-bike in 2020)
• Bullit - MX (29" front wheel, 27.5 rear wheel) - Produced from 1998 to 2011 and then re-introduced as an e-bike in 2020^[12]

Current Santa Cruz Production Wheel Models

• Reserve Carbon Wheels - 27.5 or 29" - 25, 27, 30, 37mm^[13]
• Reserve Aluminum Wheels - 27.5 or 29"^[14]

Discontinued Models^[15]

• Bantam
• Blur LT
• Blur XC
• Blur 4X
• Bullit
• Butcher
• Driver 8
• Heckler
• Juliana Cushtail
• Nickel
• Roadster
• Super 8
• Superlight
• Tallboy LT
• Tazmon
• VP Free
• HighTower LT

Santa Cruz Syndicate[edit]

Santa Cruz Syndicate is a sponsored downhill team affiliated with the company. Current roster is Laurie Greenland, Jackson Goldstone, and Nina Hoffmann.^[16]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website