![]() They'd all be great for your rootiest or smoothest climbs, sure, but Hightower is more agile than the Scott and it pedals better than the Yeti, but maybe a smidge behind the Trek. I would have thought all of these bikes were impossibly good climbers if I'd ridden any of them as recently as three or four years ago. So while there's nothing between the two bikes if your climbs don't require much thinking, the SB140 is able to get around tight switchbacks and through awkward stuff with a bit less effort. ![]() How does it stack up against the new Yeti? That's a much closer comparison, but the Yeti might squeak ahead on traction and low-speed handling. At the same time, it seems to have less bob than the shorter-travel Norco Fluid and enough efficiency that I'd never bother reaching for the pedal-assist switch. The rear-end tracks as well as it would ever need to, and there's enough grip to put the onus on you rather than the bike when you fall over before you can unclip. The Hightower's VPP suspension is said to have a bit less anti-squat than the previous version, and while I'd have to ride the new and old bikes back-to-back to give you an apples-to-apples comparison, I will say that this bike nails that not too firm, not too soft middle ground. But the Hightower is more comfortable over a long day, and it's more manageable in the twisties to boot. That can work, but it's probably not going to work as well everywhere sometimes, it can feel like a bit too much. There are longer and slacker trail bikes that do benefit from a more upright seat tube, especially if it's really steep, and it would have been easy for Santa Cruz to follow the same path. That seems to be what Santa Cruz has done with the third-generation Hightower.Īs Kazimer described in the review video above, the bike's pedaling position feels quite neutral and easy to live with compared to bikes with steeper seat angles, the Genius ST being a prime example. It's sometimes best to leave that for the smaller brands and instead design something that you know will just work, period. ![]() You know where things go wrong? At the front of the pack. Santa Cruz does a pretty good job of making bikes ride well without needing to push the limits of geometry or manufacturing, and I mean that as a compliment rather than a critique. That little guy will apply just 0.3-degrees and 4mm of change at the bottom bracket, though. It also gets a 472mm reach and 76.4-degree seat angle, which are basically the same as on the previous bike, and you'll still find a flip-chip at the lower shock mount as well. There are some small changes in the geometry department as well, including a slightly slacker front-end that now sits at 64.5-degrees and 438mm size-specific chainstays on our large test bike. And unlike some of the other new bikes at this work party, a coil-sprung shock (or Float X2) won't fit on the Hightower adding clearance would have meant losing about 0.4" of seat post insertion depth. That means you're running out of excuses for not having your sag properly. ![]() That's not the only hole we need to talk about, however, as there's also a new one on the non-drive-side shock tunnel so you can see your shock's o-ring easier. It comes with some padded sleeves for your whatever, and the latch is easy to use. Much more obvious than invisible leverage ratios is the large hole, er, Glovebox, in the Hightower's downtube. There's also a touch more leverage at the start and a bit more bottom-out resistance from the same size 210 x 55mm shock that the previous bike used, so it's refinement at both ends of the Hightower's travel. There's a small drop in the lower anti-squat values for the first part of the travel to allow the suspension to be more active, but Santa Cruz says that it's still around 135-percent at sag before lowering later on in the travel. So, what's new with this Hightower? While the lower link-driven VPP suspension layout sure looks like the old one, small changes in pivot locations have made for some slight but notable differences to the kinematics. ![]()
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