Dec 26, 2025

Custom Bikes of 2025: Best of the Santa Cruz Bronsons

2025 has felt like the year of the Bronson here at Tweed Valley Bikes, with a tonne of our customers (and some of our staff) all picking them for their excellent balanced ride. The 150mm travel MX wheeled all rounder from Santa Cruz, they are light and tough, pedal well enough to ride big days and yet are fast enough to race an Enduro World Cup. Slightly shorter than some bikes, they're also especially well suited to our local technical trails and seem to work well under riders of just about any level.

Along with those perfectly good stock bikes, were lucky enough to be part of many peoples custom builds as they put their personal touch to their new bike. Over the year, we saw everything from custom sticker kits to almost completely custom builds and enjoyed helping every one of them come to life, so here are some of our favourites.

Enjoy the bikes below and maybe find some inspiration for a future build of your own.

The Scotland Bike

Blue and Silver themed Santa Cruz Bronson

Starting from a simple C S build kit, this lovely Small Bronson V4 got the full treatment. Hope Evo cranks (165mm) and chainring, along with some Penthouse V5 pedals brought the colours down through the bike, while a set of Hope E4 brakes and floating rotors would give more than enough stopping power for the young lady the bike was destined to. Up front, a 42.5mm Burgtec Enduro stem and Top Cap with Silver spacers kept the colour scheme consistent.

Mechanic Toby's V5

A full custom build, Toby's Kalimoxto V5 is quite the eye catcher. Starting from a CC frameset, he went with a 160mm Zeb, Super Deluxe Coil (with a Sprindex spring) and Reserve AL wheels provide a solid base to the bike, with a set of ultra dependable Hope V4's in Silver on stopping duty. SRAM GX AXS drivetrain, but with a Garabuk cage & jockeys on the mech. Elsewhere a Burgtec Enduro Stem and seatclamp add more touches of silver. It's a classic shop guy build and just look at his seat angle!

Battle of the Bronzesons

Santa Cruz Bronson CC XO with invisiframe decals

Bronze highlights turned out to be an ongoing theme, two of the nicest here above and below.

Both Bronson V4s were built from the hard to upgrade CC XO build and added an Invisiframe graphics kit, plus a few small parts from Burgtec to create subtle but clearly colour themed bikes that ended up looking both super classy and miles away from the stock version.

The Bronson of Dreams...

Take an already near perfect CC XO build, swap in Hope V4 brakes, floating rotors, a factory Fox 36 and X2 and you get this absolute stunner of a machine. Incredibly clean and simple, yet looks a million dollars. Its owner absolutely loves it and swung back up later in the year with a load of miles on the bike to let us know it was still going just as well.

Show us the colours!

Not everyone went with subtle, and a couple of the local ladies decided that standing out was the was to go, making two very bold bikes that would not slip quietly by in the night.

Between fully custom designed graphics kits and splashes of anodised parts, they both made two bikes that were very much their own. We loved them both and instagram agreed!

Fi's coaching bike

Can't pick your favourite colour, just have them all! A mix of practicality and style for Fi's Bronson V5. Hope V4 brakes, alongside a Burgtec cockpit, 155mm Evo cranks, Reserve wheels and Penthouse pedals are all sensible and bulletproof choices even if the colour choices are a bit of a wild mix. We all thought the overall finish ended up working out super well, and you sure wouldn't mistake it for a stock bike!

Simple colour themes

Not everyone went all in, with some just making a simple change here or there. Those minimalist bikes came out really well too; this black and silver CC XO was a great example making something your own without needing to do too much.

As was this Blue decal and Penthouse pedal equipped GX AXS bike.

Both simple, neither costing much to modify and both one of a kind.

The Boss's Bike

Last but not least, Janey even got in on the act and put together a V4 for herself.

As with all her bikes of late, it's a simple, reliable and lightweight build. Hope E4 brakes and crank, Burgtec cockpit part, chainring and quality suspension combine to make a bike where you'd struggle to improve any part of it.

Got a custom build floating around your mind? Let us know and we'd love to make it reality for you.

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