Santa Cruz E-Bike Shootout: Vala vs Bullit
When the Vala launched last year it raised a few eyebrows, as the first longer travel Santa Cruz in some time not to be based on their iconic and recognisable VPP suspension platform. Once the shock had faded and people had a chance to get riding on the new bike, the changes started to make more sense with the Vala riding exceptionally well and delivering a ride character closer to that of a regular mountain bike than any normal full power E-Bike. At 160mm / 150mm travel it joined the ranks of well rounded E-Bikes aiming to cover all kinds of riding and quickly established a reputation as one of the benchmarks for the category. Just look at the Bikeradar review for an idea of how much it was impressing some very capable journalists as well as the public.
As good as the Vala was, it was also obvious that while it had essentially replaced the Heckler, the previous VPP based Bullit was also due an update leaving an obvious gap for another new bike. Sure enough, as we reached spring 2025, a revised version of the Bullit joined the party bringing a fresh long travel (170mm) option to the Santa Cruz E-Bike line up.
With both the Vala and Bullit looking very similar to each other, weighing essentially the same and sharing the same motor there was immediately some confusion. Did the new Bullit make the Vala obsolete? What would each bike suit and were they for different levels of rider?
Vala and Bullit Tech: Common ground
Both use a Horst link suspension design which achieves a few different things compared to the VPP suspension on the older Heckler and Bullit. It allows for a full length seatpost above the Bosch motor, where the VPP bikes needed to sacrifice a chuck of the frames seatpost for the shock tunnel, drastically reducing dropper insertion. For riders in the smaller sizes especially, that extra space is significant, allowing even the Medium bikes to use a 180mm dropper.
The Horst link design reduces anti squat compared to VPP (how locked out a bike feels when putting pressure on the chain) allowing the suspension to stay more active while power is being applied. On a regular mountain bike, that choice can make a bike feel less efficient, but for a full power E-Bike traction and suspension activity are of much more benefit than a tiny efficiency gain so it’s a system well suited to the job. Anti-rise is also lower than with the VPP bikes, keeping suspension more active when dragging the rear brake. That trait again pairs well with E-Bikes where more time is spent controlling speed than on a regular MTB.
The power system is also the same on both bikes, with a Bosch Gen 5 CX motor delivering the climbing grunt, powered by a 600W internal battery. As of July this year, the Bosch motor now maxes out at a substantial 100Nm and 750W at full power bringing it near to the top of the league in a straight drag race with only the Avinox system delivering more outright power.
There’s more to a motor than just max power and torque figures however. The Bosch motor is especially range efficient, quiet under power, completely silent when descending, almost drag free when the power is off and one of the most reliable systems out there. All in all it’s a very solid package and a really positive change.
The choice of a 600W integrated battery was more divisive with many questioning why Santa Cruz had not chosen the larger 800W option for both bikes. Santa Cruz’s argument (that we agree with) was simply that the use of the smaller battery keeps any weight high in the downtube to an absolute minimum, which in turn means that the handling is affected as little as possible by the mass of the battery. If you ride a Vala or Bullit back to back with an 800W bike, that difference can be instantly felt, with the smaller battery making it easier to lift the front wheel with and direction changes made quicker and more effortless. It does mean that range might be a bit limited for some heavier riders (there is a 250W range extender available) but for everyone else the handling benefits are obvious from the first ride.
Both bikes are light for their respective categories, coming in at around 22kg depending on build kit. The Bullits are very slightly heavier, but most of the difference is just down to the fact that they come with burlier tires from stock. Otherwise, even the build kits are closely matched between the two bikes, with both using Maven brakes, a Fox 38 fork and SRAM T-Type drivetrains. Pricing is also the same between both.
Where do they differ?
So - two bikes with near identical weights, build kits, motor and battery. What is actually different? The answer is geometry and travel, and riding both back to back reveals that the apparently small differences in those two areas create two bikes which ride more differently from one another than you might imagine.
Drilling into the geometry, the changes actually come down to just a couple of key measurements. Stack and reach are consistent to within a few mm between the bikes so the overall fit is quite similar. Sit on both in a car park and they are not going to feel much different. The Bullit does have a slightly steeper seat static angle than the Vala on paper, but will sit sag a little more (due to the longer travel shock) when being ridden, which will largely cancel out the change.
What is significantly different between them are wheelbase, dynamic BB height and head angle. The Bullit is simply a longer bike, with a slightly longer chainstay and slacker head angle combining to add about 10mm to the wheelbase compared to a Vala of the same size. That may not sound like a huge amount but 10mm is almost half a size and definitely enough to feel on trail. At a glance you might think both bikes have the same BB height, with a quoted static figure only 2mm apart both but bear in mind that with the Bullit being both longer travel and more progressive that its BB will sit lower when actually being ridden than the Vala. A lower BB adds front / rear stability to a bike, so combine that with the fact the Bullit is already longer and you start to see how a few small differences combine to produce a larger effect.
Finally, the Bullit simply has an extra 10mm of front and 20mm of rear travel. More travel also adds stability, keeping a bike settled at the expense of muting rider input so add that to the longer and lower geometry and the Bullit should feel like a more planted and stable but also more muted and slightly less snappy bike than the Vala. Unsurprisingly, when we get them out on trail that’s just what we find.
Riding the Vala
The Vala is a very, very capable 150mm bike. With a slightly firmer ride than the Bullit and a shorter wheelbase it handles exceptionally well, changing direction easily and jumping, unweighting and hopping as well as any full power E-Bike we’ve ever ridden.
Response to rider inputs is immediate and it feels totally at home everywhere from a jump based flow trail to our very steepest off piste tracks. Steep tech is a real speciality with the quick handling meaning it weaves through tight steep turns and switchbacks really well. Small chatter is dealt with smoothly and while it doesn’t completely mute out bigger impacts from the trail, it does a great job of dulling down hits and maintaining traction while still letting the rider feel what’s going on under the wheels.
As a true jack of all trades the Vala is overall the better of the two bikes, riding extremely well across a wide range of terrain without ever feeling like the wrong bike for the job. There is however a point at which any 150mm bike will start to get overwhelmed and the Vala is not immune to that effect. Once the speeds and impacts get beyond a certain intensity more and more of the chaos starts to make its way through the suspension with the pilot having to deal with the leftover. That’s no criticism of the Vala, just an observation that an all round bike can’t also be a full on downhill bike, which is where the Bullit comes in.
Aboard the Bullit
With the extra travel, longer wheelbase and lower centre of mass, the Bullit is a slightly different animal. Lower speed maneuvers don’t feel quite so effortless to initiate as on the Vala with more effort needed to pick up the front wheel or pop the bike over awkward roots. Rider inputs are also a little more muted out with the bike taking a hair longer to pump or accelerate and the longer front centre needs a slightly more assertive stance to keep the front wheel fully weighted. If that sounds somewhat negative so far, the good news is that all of that goes away once the Bullit gets up to speed.
Get it moving quick enough and the slight sluggishness to the slow speed handling morphs into huge stability with the Bullit settling into its travel and just absolutely erasing lumps and bumps in its path. It's ridiculously calm at speed, generating enormous traction and is incredibly confidence inspiring to ride when dealing with faster, rougher sections.
Steep sections are also dealt with easily, with great braking traction and grip. For pushing on down technical trails or through rugged bikepark terrain it's in a league of its own making what should be demanding sections feel easier to ride than they have any right to. If you’re pushing your limits, either in maximum speed or riding new trails out of your normal comfort zone it’s a great bike helping to calm everything down and add a feeling of security. For normal riders like ourselves, it essentially has no upper limit to what it’s happy to take on with the only limiting factor likely to be the pilot and the harder you can ride it, the better it gets.
How to choose then?
Both bikes ride super well, and either could make a solid choice for almost anyone or really, almost any trail, but the Bullit definitely has a strong bias towards higher absolute speeds, steeper terrain or a rider who's keen to crack on. For chasing PB’s and KOM’s or for someone who really wants to push their limits with a bit of an extra safety blanket then it’s the obvious choice. Equally, on a bike park run or lapping uplift style trails it’s the far better of the two.
The Vala on the other hand is an easier going bike that can handle a wider range of speeds and styles of riding, and is a bike that really rewards rider input. For someone who values feedback and responsiveness over flat out ploughing ability, it’s more involving to ride and sharper feeling. It’s also brilliant in tighter technical terrain with the shorter wheelbase and firmer travel making it super quick to pump and fiddle through awkward sections of track. For our local trails, it might even be faster than the big bike under the right rider.
Want to ride them to work out what you prefer for yourself? We’ve demo bikes of both here ready to ride so get in touch to try either or to ride them back to back.
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