NEW BIKES
SWINGING A LEG OVER WHAT’S HOT THIS MONTH
SAN TA CRUZ 5010 C GX RSV
£8,899 • MX • santacruzbikes.co.uk
NEED TO KNOW
● 5010 ditches the small wheel up front, and moves to a mixed-wheel set-up: 29in front, 27.5in rear
● Kinematics overhaul, Santa Cruz has reduced antisquat and added progression, so it’s plusher with less risk of bottom-out
● Carbon-only frame choice, C or lighter CC grade, and all get size-specific chainstay lengths
● Glovebox storage added, with space for a Tool Wallet and Tube Purse
● Six sizes to pick from, bikes from £5,299 up to £9,599 for the AXS X01 build
Santa Cruz’s new mixed-wheel 5010 is far more than just a jibber’s playhorse
Santa Cruz says this bike is for playful riders, riders who want to roll up a tree trunk and fakie out of it and grind their mechs off on stumps – big kids who won’t grow up. “It ’s a trail bike that loves to play,” the brand says, and there’s even a little video from Handy MacAskill detailing all the mad skills you’re supposed to be aiming for on the 5010. Marketing hype, I thought.
Cut through that, though, and the new 5010 really is a vivacious little scamp of a bike. Santa Cruz hires ridiculously talented riders to show the world what its machines can do, and the 50to01 crew does tend to favour the 5010. But it doesn’t need to be that way. I’ve discovered that average Joes like me can have fun and rip on this bike… albeit in our own modest way.
Santa Cruz has accomplished this with a modest frame redesign and some tinkering here and there. There’s nothing like the big changes that went into the last redesign in 2020, when the bike adopted the brand’s now ubiquitous lower link-driven makeover with its shock running through a tunnel in the seat tube. Instead, it ’s settled on a suspension kinematic update – the 5010 now has reduced anti-squat to keep it active and sensitive over the ground, and reduce the effects of pedal kickback. The leverage curve is more progressive too, which is great if you’re big into loading the bike round corners, hopping over stuff and generally larking about on the trail. It ’ll also come in handy when you reach the end of the modest travel available, increasing support and bottom-out resistance.
That travel remains the same, 130mm rear and 140mm up front, which makes sense on a short-travel trail bike, not least because otherwise the 5010 would start wandering onto the 150mm-travel Bronson’s patch. There’s also now a little window cut into the shock tunnel so you can peer in and check you’re using all that travel and that the sag is correct. Santa Cruz aficionados will no doubt be aware the Bronson is a mixed-wheel size bike, and so too now is the 5010, with a 29er wheel up front.
This is a brave move from the Californians – moving away from the fun w
