Santa Cruz Launch the New Bronson V5

The new V5 looks to maintain that well rounded character of the original bikes, but with a host of subtle changes and improvements in almost every area, it takes an already brilliant bike and elevates it even further. Travel and wheel size remain unchanged at 160mm / 150mm, but almost everything else has seen some revision.

Compared to the current Bronson V4, geometry has been slightly tweaked all round the bike. The head angle is just over a half degree slacker at 63.9’ in the low setting, while both reach and chainstays have grown by around 5mm, with the Medium now sporting a 460mm Reach and 440mm chainstay. Headtube lengths are slightly taller and wheelbases longer.  All those adjustments combine to give the overall impression create a bike with  increased stability and downhill ability compared to the V4, placing the rider lower in the centre of a larger footprint.

The lower link VPP has also been re-tuned, with the new Bronson 5 having quite a different set of suspension curves to their existing trail and enduro bikes. A new shock placement with the shock nested into the downtube generates less anti squat and progression than has been typical of previous VPP bikes, which should be noticeable both up and down the hill. More active while pedalling, the new design will improve traction on rougher climbs, and help to maintain momentum better with the suspension less affected by chain force.

 The drop in progression should also reduce pedal kickback while descending, and make it easier to use more of the travel while still having decent support in the mid stroke. A nice side benefit of the new layout is better visibility of shock sag through the ‘bird's nest’ BB area, which also looks like it will make washing easier than before. 

There are be two colours on offer, either the very visible throwback Magenta of Kalimotxo or the more subtle tones of Root Beer. Five build kits, plus frameset options provide the range, with three options on C frames which make use of SRAM NX, GX and GX AXS build kits, while the CC builds are both based round Fox Factory and SRAM XO setups. Notably, all the bikes now come with lifetime warrantied Reserve rims as part of the spec.

We’ve been incredibly lucky to also get a few rides on one of the new bikes, with Neil being blown away by the all round performance of it so far and Mark Scott giving it a proper full speed test. We’ll have a full write up coming soon, but the short version is that he’s almost never had such a good first couple of rides, with the bike going incredibly well everywhere from mellower Innerleithen trails to the Thornilee steeps. Keep an eye on our feed for the first ride review along with more of the technical detail or get in touch to reserve a bike. 

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