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

Our favourite “does what it says on the tin” bike designer is on the move (or not, as he’ll still be working from the same garden shed) .. tune in on Monday for more details.

Good luck, Brant, it’s gunna be ace.

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

More new stuff from Santa Cruz, The Driver 8 first in the gap between the Nomad and the V10. Info Over at Dirt Mag

It’s far too late to mess with a proper post about this but Santa Cruz have just released details of the new Blur XC. Surprisingly they’ve ditched metal entirely and gone with carbon, more details here expect it to cost a *lot* (with the currently weak pound)

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

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Update, UK pricing is £2,299, thank you! terrible exchange rate