First Ride: Santa Cruz Vala AL 70

Nearly a year old now, the Santa Cruz Vala still represents our current benchmark as the best performing 150mm E-Bike that we’ve ever ridden. 

Launched late last year it brought with it a complete overhaul of E-Bike design for Santa Cruz, switching up everything from the motor system and suspension design, to battery strategy compared to the outgoing Heckler. We covered the Vala in detail at the time in our first ride review for the carbon version but let’s quickly recap the major changes and design philosophy behind the platform before we get into the specifics on the Aluminium bike. 

The most immediately visible change, and the one that generated the most internet reaction back at the launch was switch away from the brands iconic VPP suspension linkage to a much more ‘normal’ four bar suspension design, along with the swap from a Shimano motor to the new Gen 5 Bosch system. Those might seem unrelated, but it was partially the move to Bosch that triggered the suspension re-design, as the combination of the new motor shape and the seat tube shock tunnel used in VPP bikes would have left very little insertion for seat posts in the smaller sizes. By contrast the full length seat tube on the Vala (and Bullit) allows every size to make use of longer droppers, with even the Medium taking a 180mm post all the way to the collar. 

At the same time, the move to a four bar design also let the engineers at Santa Cruz tweak the suspension characteristics specifically for E-Bike use. Anti squat was lowered compared to their regular mountain bikes, which theoretically sacrifices a small amount of efficiency when climbing smoother surfaces, but keeps the suspension more active under power. That improves both traction and comfort when climbing rough ground, a trade off that’s very much worth making on a full power E-Bike. Anti rise was also reduced, which again helps with suspension activity, but this time when brake forces are being fed into the bike. For an E-Bike where a rider will normally spend a little more time on the brakes, that’s also a good thing preventing harshness while dragging the rear brake to control speed. 

The other move which generated a fair bit of pushback at the time was Santa Cruz’s decision to move to an integrated 600W battery, rather than going with a larger or removable 800W system as some other bikes do. A year down the road however having ridden quite a few other bikes, it's a decision that we now fully agree with. The key thing to understand in order to appreciate why they did it, is to know that when it comes to the way an E-Bike handles, battery weight is much more significant than just the overall weight of the bike (though that matters too, as we’ll get into below). 

Keeping the battery integrated helps keep the overall bike weight down and the elements out, but even more importantly, going with the 600W reduces the weight in the downtube which improves many aspects of the ride. If you want to quickly link corners, pop the front wheel over a hole or have your fork hold up the travel during steep riding, all those traits are impacted negatively by larger batteries and the weight they place up near the headtube. The 600W capacity does mean that for some heavier riders, the bikes might not have the range they are looking for, but if they do go far enough for you, then the Santa Cruz E-Bikes ride in a way that nothing else we’ve tried can, dancing through technical ground with a light touch. There is also always the option to add the Bosch Powermore 250w range extender for big days, upping capacity to a whopping 850W. It’s a very good and flexible system, giving the best handling possible for most rides, but with the option to add a booster for really big loops.

The Gen 5 Bosch motor has also established itself as one of the benchmark systems in the last year, with a recent power update pumping it up to 100Nm and 750W and narrowing the gap in the max power drag race between itself and the new Avinox systems. Away from max power figures, it’s a generally brilliant motor. It’s quiet under power, gives great range for any given battery size, is silent descending, easy to ride and reliability is proving better than any motor we have ever worked with before with virtually no warranty issues at all over an entire year.

In geometry terms the Vala isn’t anything extreme, just combining a good modern set of numbers to make a bike with a balanced and easy ride. It’s slack and stable enough to ride any trail you could want to, but not at the expense of handling in tight terrain or lower speeds unlike some longer bikes. As a ‘one bike for everything’ it’s an almost ideal compromise and that’s backed up by our customers, who have bought and ridden the bikes for everything from trail centres, to highland adventures, enduro racing and bikepark days. 

Overall then, the Vala is simply an exceptional all rounder. It rides incredibly well, has proven to be super reliable and every single person who has bought one through us is very happy with their bike. The mountain bike press seem to agree too, with Bike Radar calling the fancy CC XO Vala the best bike they have ever tested. That review, and the price tag associated with the bike in it does get to the only real issue with the carbon version of the bike, which is that even the more basic build kits are quite expensive, with the builds running for £6799 to £9999 putting them out of the reach of quite a few folk. 

Enter the Vala AL. Looking to bring the ride of the now well established Vala to more people, Santa Cruz have (for the first time in a few years) released an aluminium version of one of their full suspension bikes bringing the bike down to a more attainable price. It is noticeably heavier than the carbon versions, with a Medium 70 kit Vala AL weighing in at  25.2kg  compared to 22.5kg for the same bike in carbon fibre, but aside from the extra heft it matches the carbon bike in most other ways. The motor and battery system are the same, with the AL still using the newest Gen 5 Bosch motor, as is the travel at 160mm front and 150mm rear. Just like the carbon bike, there is a full lifetime frame and bearing warranty and the design intentions remain the same; it should be a full all rounder, capable of feeling good on everything from a mellow descent to a steep off piste track. 

One small change is that where the carbon Valas have two High / Low flip chips to tune suspension progression and geometry the AL bike uses a single position set halfway between the two in both cases. Given we’ve had customers use the carbon bikes in both modes, a mid position might well turn out to be every bit as good as either. Otherwise, the suspension feel and tunes are supposed to mirror the established bike, which if true, should give an excellent ride with good support, suppleness and drive. Keen to find out we’ve put two Vala AL’s into our demo fleet and to get them well bedded in we sent Neil and Andy out on two 70 kit bikes for a full day of riding to see how they perform in real life. 

Over their test day they rode a mix of trails and venues round the valley covering everything from fast and flowy singletrack to some classic well known trails on the Golfie. 

Ride Impressions from Neil & Andy

Lots of positive surprises for us from the day! Where to start? The suspension was probably the biggest one. Between the ‘cheaper’ frame and base level RockShox Zeb and Super Deluxe we had quite low initial expectations of how well the bikes might go in the rough stuff but they were actually very impressive. Comfort and grip were both excellent, and there was plenty of support on everything we rode from lumpy trail sections to bigger single hits. With only pressure and rebound to worry about, setup proved really easy for both of us with both bikes using their travel well and feeling comfortable almost from the very first lap. If we owned one of these, we wouldn’t even be thinking about changing or upgrading those parts, they just did the job really well. 

The ride overall was also interesting having spent a good amount of time on the carbon bike previously. We had thought the extra weight would be only a negative and while the aluminium bikes do have a heavier feel on trail compared to the carbon version with slightly slower and less snappy handling, there was also an unexpected positive. They had an even more calm and planted nature through the rougher sections, dulling down impacts and stutter a little more than the carbon bike does. If we hadn’t known better, we would have thought the Alloy bikes had just a touch more travel rather than being the same. When it comes to popping off the ground, or changing direction they are still totally manageable, though not as effortless and snappy feeling as the carbon bikes. We didn’t put bikes to the clock, but they seem like they’d be every bit as fast as the fancier ones, and that applies everywhere from the mellower woodland tracks to proper Golfie ruggedness.

As expected, the range was also similar enough that we couldn’t tell any difference over the day's riding. That shouldn’t really be a surprise as taking rider and bike together, system weight only changes by maybe 2%, which won’t be enough to matter hugely.

The SRAM 70 kit drivetrain was also a pleasant surprise. The older NX drivetrain used to feel cheap out of the box (sorry SRAM) but the 70 T-Type mech paired with a 90 shifter worked really well. Shifts were clean and quick and still worked well under climbing torque, once again it’s an area we had wondered whether people would quickly upgrade but if it was our bikes we’d be totally happy to just run the drivetrain as is for its full lifespan. The OneUp cockpit was comfy for both of us and Reserve Rims are already well proven so for a base build kit, the 70 spec gets a lot of things right. We did wonder if the SRAM DB8 brakes would be powerful enough, but they were actually fine. Heavier and faster riders might eventually want to upgrade them, but as a starting point they are well up to the job for most trails and uses. 

All in all then, the bikes punched way beyond our expectations. They were easy to set up, comfortable on everything we rode them on, shockingly capable for an apparently basic spec and carried over the excellent suspension manners and geometry from the carbon bike with complete success. For a bike at the price, they ride as well or better as anything else we’ve tried and we both think Santa Cruz have done a generally excellent job with them. 

Fancy a Vala AL 70  or want to find out for yourself they ride? We’ve demo bikes available to book online or you’re always welcome to give us a call with any questions you might have.

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