We know what you're thinking. "It's about time." And we couldn't agree more. Mellow Johnny's is now Austin's premiere Santa Cruz Bicycles dealer.
Santa Cruz Bikes Now At Mellow Johnny's Austin
Why Santa Cruz Bicycles?
Santa Cruz Bicycles was founded in 1994 in a small space in the Seabright Cannery, in Santa Cruz, California. The first bike, the Tazmon, was a single-pivot dual suspension bike that rattled established sensibilities. Back then full-suspension bikes weren't the norm, and a do-it-all bike (what we’d refer to as ‘trail’ or ‘all-mountain’ now) with rear suspension was out there. But Santa Cruz's founder, skateboarding legend, Rob Roskopp, wasn’t tied to trends or told how to think. He saw full-suspension as an innovation whose time had come. Ever since Santa Cruz Bicycles has built bikes to go further, faster, and higher, for longer.
Santa Cruz makes a range of high-performance bikes for riding enthusiasts. Made from carbon fiber or aluminum, there is everything from hardtails to 8.5" travel downhill machines. The carbon bikes are produced in Santa Cruz's exclusive manufacturing facility. And they use their advanced VPP (Virtual Pivot Point) technology on all full-suspension models. Each bike is available with a wide range of component and suspension options, each hand-assembled to order in our California factory. And Juliana, their sister brand, is the original women’s mountain bike and produces a full range of high-end women's bikes. Santa Cruz also makes their own high-end Reserve carbon wheels which have set a new standard for strength and reliability. Evert frame and Reserve wheel comes with a lifetime warranty. And every bike is the distillation of their desire to ride and build the world's highest quality bikes.
For us, we know the quality and performance of Santa Cruz Bikes. Many of us here at the shop have ridden Santa Cruz in the past, and the team up in Fort Worth has been a Santa Cruz dealer since day one. When the chance to bring this iconic brand to our customers came up, we knew we had to do it. The bikes themselves are great and there's a perfect Santa Cruz bike for you however and wherever you ride, in Central Texas and beyond.
Here at the shop we'll carry a specific line-up of Santa Cruz bikes that we think fits the riding here in town and throughout Central Texas. Not each is available now, but will be soon. And if there's a Santa Cruz model you want that we don't stock, let us know and we'll get it ordered and have you ripping in no time.
The Line-Up Here At The Shop
The 5010
The 5010 with its 27.5" wheel size turns obstacles into features. Its nimble, poppy feel makes even the most mundane rides feel like they're loaded with features to hop, skip, and jump over. It's the kind of bike that makes new trails feel as familiar as the back of your hand.
Smaller wheels provide an ideal balance between toughness and weight saving making them the most fleet-footed whether launching logs or weaving through stumps. The 5010 has become a go-to plaything for progressive riders the world over.
It also is a bike that goes harder than its vital stats may suggest. A 140mm-travel fork is paired with 130mm at the rear, the lower-link VPP™ configuration of which leaves you feeling there’s a lot more travel at hand. And you can choose how out of hand you want to get, as this pocket rocket fits all sizes and types of rear shocks. The relatively slack head angle makes it predictable to steer, the relatively low BB height turns like it's on tracks, and the short chainstays make this plaything easy to pick up and throw around. Overall, the geometry is tailored so frame size is matched to size specific chainstay lengths. Combined with super-low standover heights and it makes it feel (almost) like that BMX you had as a kid. The 5010’s balance and poise can turn any rider from cautious neophyte into a fully fledged flyer.
The Hightower
The Hightower has been Santa Cruz's do-it-all-well trail bike since its inception. More maneuverable than the Megatower and more at home in the steep-and-chunky than the Tallboy, Hightower excels when the route covers ‘all points in between,’ and the descents that come courtesy of big climbs. The VPP suspension’s lower-link-mounted shock creates a nearly linear leverage curve, meaning it mops up bumps of all sizes and maintains the kind of progressivity normally reserved for our V10 DH bike!
145mm of rear travel complemented by a 150mm front end gives Hightower just a bit more front and rear travel over the first generation model. Combined with a slacker 65-degree head tube angle, the Hightower still sits squarely in the Goldilocks zone, but with a touch more “get me out of here” capability.
The Hightower also sports the flip chip. In the High setting, the BB height is a little higher for those tricky tech trails and/or when Plus sized tires are required. In the Low position the shock rate is more progressive, to provide additional bottom-out resistance. Whatever mood you’re in, the tone of the Hightower can be adapted to meet your individual taste. And speaking of taste, there’s a room for a water bottle inside the main frame and a threaded BB for convenience. There’s refined cable routing for better shifting performance, simpler installation, and no cable rub. On top of that, there’s a tailgate shuttle guard, downtube protector, shock fender, and noise-canceling chainstay protector keeping things quiet.
The Tallboy
The 120mm Tallboy takes a leap further into what short-travel bikes really are capable of. With lower-link VPP suspension, a streamlined design, the typical Santa Cruz refinement, and rather radical geometry, the Tallboy is back to being a genre bending folk hero.
It’s the kind of bike that makes you sprint while going up, along, over, or down due to the maximum efficiency of the VPP design and responsive, lightweight chassis. But because it shares the same engineering principles as our longest travel bikes, the progressive lower link-mounted shock feels equally at home doing cross-country as it does in extreme-country. Paired with a 130mm fork the new Tallboy becomes ever more appealing to riders who like to open it up.
Established theory suggests shorter travel bikes get ridden slower, therefore require steeper and more conservative geometries. In reality though, when was the last time you ever throttled back on a fun trail because you weren’t on a bigger bike? So Santa Cruz mimicked their longer travel geometry to create a bike with a 65.5-degree head-angle, generous front center, and short offset fork. Something rarely seen on a bike of this ilk.
And the radical thinking doesn’t stop there. The Tallboy’s short-short 430mm chainstays have +/- 10mm of rear axle adjustment to ensure riders of all sizes and styles feel equally at home. Match that to a relatively low BB (335mm and 37.5mm drop) and you’ve got a combo that’s ready to haul into every pocket turn and launch out the other side.
The Blur
The Blur is a ride fast, ride far, ride-harder-than-your-heart-can-take XC race bike.
Light enough to scorch hot laps and tough enough to endure a long-distance beating, the Blur does it all without compromise. No matter how demanding your next XC endeavor, the Blur is ready to go full gas, 24/7.
Make no mistake, at just 2060g this is Santa Cruz's lightest ever 100mm full suspension frame. The ultra efficient VPP® suspension design, complemented by a dual remote lockout and super stiff carbon frame, means you’ve got more thrust on demand than SpaceX.
The one-piece carbon VPP® rear triangle shares a similar twin upright architecture as Santa Cruz's World Cup-winning downhill bikes. Paired with a one-piece carbon front end it delivers a lateral stiffness and tracking ability you just don’t see on featherweight bikes of this genre. Confidence-inspiring geometry and components worth their salt allow you to take those sketchy overtaking lines that are the difference between getting on the podium or ‘winning’ the wooden spoon.
The Chameleon
Santa Cruz took the fun-loving, shreddy spirit and adjustability of the beloved aluminum Chameleon and added a lighter, faster, more advanced version of the species. It’s now a do-it-all carbon hardtail that is as happy making the most of backyard (mis)adventures as it is fully-loaded with camp gear and a color-matched dangle mug. Two bottle cage mounts, including a triple-bolt cargo cage mount under the downtube mean you can escape from the crowds, too.
The Chameleon changes to suit its environment. Twenty-niner or 27-plus, geared or single-speed, this adaptable hardtail utilizes a suite of simple, swappable dropouts to convert it from aggro trail charger to single-speed racer to husky bikepacking mule, or anything in between.
Depending on setup and skill level, the Chameleon is capable on a wide range of terrain—aggressive trail riding to jump lines to all-around use. Going for maximum speed and rollability? Go 29er. Riding mostly loose terrain? Get some Plus tires that provide traction for days.
The Stigmata
When the Stigmata was resurrected in 2015, Santa Cruz fused a number of MTB standards and design features to create their spin on the modern CX bike. Something must have clicked, because within months of launch it raced to victory at the legendary Three Peaks, and has continued to contend at elite cyclocross races around the world. Nowadays, the internally routed disc brakes, generous tire clearance, and thru-axles approach that made the Stigmata famous have become more of a norm, so Santa Cruz took a fresh look at which standards the riders of tomorrow wanted access to today.
Threaded bottom brackets remain a perennial favourite across our entire line thanks to their proven robust, cost-effective and compatible design. Fender mounts add a bit of CYA, and highlight the Stigmata’s ever-widening scope of purpose. And three bottle cage mounts means the frame can still hold at least one normal bottle even when running a front triangle bag. Deeper adventures, bigger tires perhaps? The frame now clears up to a 45mm 700c or a 2.1” 650b tire. Marry the latter to our Force/X01 AXS mashup kit and you’ve got yourself the kind of drop-bar singletrack rallycat we can all get onboard with.
And when it comes to good old-fashioned off-road etiquette, the Stigmata’s had some coaching at the Highball school of stiffness, handling, and offroad feel. The carbon layup borrows knowledge gained from not just the Highball, but also Danny MacAskill’s trials bike. Geometry plays a big part here too, so Santa Cruz made tweaks to improve handling for smaller riders and reduce toe overlap. The reworking of the 52/54cm frames means the Stigmata now comfortably suits riders from 5’3” and up. Meanwhile different fork offsets—50mm for the 52-54cm sizes, and 45mm for the 56-61cm sizes—help reduce tow overlap. Topped off with tidy details like 12mm front axle, flat mount brakes, and build-specific Reserve wheel packages, the Stigmata is designed to let you decide whatever the heck you want this category to be.
Danny MacAskill and the Santa Cruz Reserve Carbon Wheels
You have to see this to believe it. Then head on in and talk with us about getting some of Santa Cruz's flagship wheels for your bike.