It’s been quite some time since Santa Cruz had a bike with 8 inches of travel in it’s range, arguably the ‘sweet spot’ between full-on downhill and “all mountain”. So what’s this bike for? the answer can only be ‘a bit of this and a bit of that’ Seven inches of seatpost adjustment clearly points to the bike’s ability to climb, putting the seat at the same height as the Nomad, but dropping lower than the V10 to give plenty of clearance for hooning down any hill you’re brave enough to attack.

83mm bottom bracket and 1.5 inch headset and 12mm “Maxle” rear axle ensure stiffness when you’re pinning it though those techno sections.

The VPP suspension is handled with a carbon upper link pivoting on four beefy radial contact bearings, the lower link rolling on eight (count them… eight!) angular contact bearings being fed fresh grease though the handy grease port and protected further from the elements with additional labyrinth washers and lip seals

Pricing in the UK is a wallet sapping £2399 for the powercoat frame and Vivid 5.1 Shock, the goldy-orange anodized frame is £2599 with the same shock.

Expect to start seeing them under some lucky people from late May 09.

Full details can be found here

Good luck, Brant, it’s gunna be ace.

In the meantime, you can watch as people speculate wildly over at SingleTrack World

Santa Cruz Blur XC Carbon - Sell Your Children

Bike pictured, in large 22.4lbs… not a fatty!

Our favourite ‘odd sized wheels‘ advocate Arleigh’s on the shortlist for this year’s Hell Ride.

Vote for her here as we all know nothing beats making a friend suffer.

(img via defamer)

a total nob slowed down in front of him at the SD velodrome last night and tim tried to go high and ended up hitting the boards at 30mph +. he sustained a concussion [he was out for 5 minutes], broken ribs, a few fractured neck bones and a mangled thumb

You can read more here or here.

Hope you get heal quickly, Tim.

Brant sent me over a sample stainless steel chainring a couple of weeks ago, now I’ve had it on the 29er for a few hundred miles I’m happy to say it’s great, and set against my previous “benchmark” singlespeed chainring from Surly, I rate this one much higher.

Expect to be able to pick one up for yourself in a few weeks time for a bargain price of (Brant’s not said yet but somewhere in the region of £20-25)

From On-One

New On-One 456 Blasted Frame option, very nice, Brant