Staff Bikes: 8 months for Neil aboard the Santa Cruz Bullit

Quick Summary

A benchmark and well rounded long travel E-Bike, ideal for all kinds of gravity riding. Not the ultimate bike by any one metric, from motor power, to range or travel but a near perfect compromise between them in a high quality and durable package. 

Pros

✅ Exceptional handling for a long travel E-bike

✅ Reliability & build quality

✅ Balanced performer, well rounded and easy to ride on a wide range of trails

✅ Relatively light at sub 23kg with a solid build

Cons

❌ Not quite as snappy to manoeuvre as the very best shorter travel bikes

Comporomises

🤷 600W battery is a trade off between improved ride quality and maximum range

Neil's experience

A latecomer to E-Bikes, Neil finally cracked towards the tail end of last year, after a few months of experimenting with our Santa Cruz demo fleet. After a fair bit of back and forth between the Vala and Bullit he settled on the longer travel option and put together a very nice build with the bike gradually taking shape over the months since. Now over eight months and 1700 km into his bike, he’s had plenty of ride time to really get to grips with it so we wanted to check in and see if it’s what he thought it would be.

TVB: Let's start with the obvious question, why did you go with the Bullit over the Vala in the end?

Neil: Well, it’s not my only bike. I think if I had to cover all the bases with just one thing, I might have swung the other way to the Vala as it is the most well rounded performer, but I also have a Tallboy in the garage (a 120mm 29er). The Tallboy handles everything trail centre, XC and mellow, so the E-Bike is really only for winch and plummet type rides. Given I use it largely for gravity fed trails, the Bullit seemed like it made sense, it might not hustle through the tightest bits of trail as well as the Vala does but it’s very good indeed for any combination of steep, rough or fast riding. It’s exceptional at muting out impact, so it both saves energy and has more grip when things are chunky compared to shorter travel bikes. 

What size did you pick?

Medium. I’m 5,9’ (176cm), so in between sizes on the chart, but our terrain is mostly quite steep and tight and I find most Large bikes just feel a bit too big on our traisl for me. The Bullit isn’t hugely long in reach at 455mm but it’s got plenty of wheelbase at 1253mm and a reasonably tall stack height and that combination suits me well. It never has the ‘running away’ feeling which bikes that are a bit long in Reach can have in steep sections and there’s easily enough stability that it’s definitely me rather than the bike which is the limiting factor when things get fast and bumpy. I think being on the Medium also helps when trying to pick up and manipulate the bike in technical sections.

Happy with the Bosch CX motor? 

Totally happy, the CX and a 600W battery is somewhere close to the ideal compromise for me at 74kg as a person who still wants some exercise from their E-Bike rides. I still find it a bit odd that some people refuse to consider Bosch bikes because they think they aren’t powerful enough, 120Nm torque is a lot and if you use too much power too much of the time, you just end up needing a bigger battery to support it, adding more weight in the worst place. That said, I’m glad to have the option of high power modes available when I occasionally need them, but I find that going out for longer rides I spend most of my ride time between Tour and Eco. Reliability is part of the appeal too, we sell a lot of E-Bikes across a few different systems and Bosch is in its own league when it comes to keeping warranties to a minimum. 

Have you used the Flow app to tune it? What kind of ranges do you get? 

I have customised all the modes actually. In terms of power, my Eco mode is tuned to +2 so that I use it more, and then Tour is set at +1 to maintain a noticeable gap between them. EMTB+ is at 0, but with the max torque and wattage bumped up a little and Turbo has the full 120Nm torque and 750 watt update enabled for the odd time it’s needed. I don’t gel with overrun, so that’s off on all modes. As far as range goes, I get somewhere around 2200m height gain in Eco, 1600m or so in Tour and while I’ve never done it, I would think I’d be at just a bit over 1100m for a ride using only Turbo. 

No Powermore, is the 600W battery enough?

I don’t have the 250W Powermore extender and haven’t really felt the need for it; part of what makes the Bullit ride so well is the weight distribution and adding more battery weight to a bike does impact that for me. At 74kg, I find the 600W battery a good compromise between range and weight, especially given that the Bosch CX seems like a very range efficient motor. I will pick up a fast charger when it becomes available however; that’s going to make super long days possible with only a small time gap in the middle needed to top up. At the moment, I do sometimes have a partial mid day re-charge if I have all day to ride so being able to accelerate the recharging process has some appeal.  

Talk us through your setup, you’ve come quite a long way from the stock bike at this point.

There’s nothing too crazy about the build. I’ve gone a little higher in the cockpit than normal for me with 15mm of stack under the stem and a 38mm Burgtec Josh Bar cut to 760mm. That slightly taller front works well on this bike, given that I mostly ride it on steeper stuff. Stem length is 42mm and the grips are the new Burgtec Vero push ons. Bar roll and brake angle are both pretty neutral I think.

The suspension was switched to the new RockShox Linear XL Zeb and Vivid about 1000km ago and they both suit the bike well. There will be a full write up on the suspension later, but the short version is that the Zeb is stiff without being harsh, super composed, consistent and was easy to set up. I think it’s the best single crown fork I’ve ridden all in all. It’s a similar story out back, the Vivid is supple off the top and very linear so it’s possible to set it up to have a firm midstroke, without losing access to the end. It does sacrifice some pop compared to the Super Deluxe, but it’s a very impressive bump deleter. 

Hope brakes as always, the new GR4’s in this case. They’ve been faultless; all I’ve done is change pads when they wear out and reset pistons. They are massively powerful, yet also easy to feather and control. Anyone looking for a potent brake for a gravity bike should have them on their list. My rotors are ‘back to front’ which catches some odd looks but works for me. I have a 200mm rotor out front to help stop me from accidentally overbraking at the front tire and then the rear is a 220mm for maximum heat dissipation since it gets dragged a bit more. Both are in the 2.3mm thick solid universal discs.

The wheels started out as a full set of Reserve Alloy HD|30’s, but I ended up putting an HD|30 carbon rear in as a quick swap after an early puncture and it has stuck around. The extra burliness is very welcome on this bike and I think the carbon rim also significantly helps to reduce the chance of punctures as it’s wider and rounder at the rim lip compared to the edge of the HD alloy. I've two front wheels set up right now with different Maxxis tires on each, either an Maxxgrip High Roller III or Assegai in EXO+, depending on whether it's dry or muddy. The rear is always a Maxterra DD DHR II. 

SRAM GX AXS T-Type has been a non-event in a good way. I changed the chain after 1400km of all conditions riding and it’s never missed a shift. It handles heavy loads well, has plenty of gear range (arguably more than necessary on a full power E-Bike) and seems super tough.

How does it ride?

For me right now, this bike is still the benchmark I measure all other E-BIkes by and nothing has topped it yet. It’s by some distance the most agile longer travel full power E-BIke I’ve ridden with excellent weight balance coupled to a relatively low overall weight (my bike comes in at 22.6kg).

I’ve got my Bullit in the Low Geometry and High Progression settings and it seems almost ideal for our trails. At 63’ I wouldn’t want it any slacker, but I have the shock fairly firm (28% sag) to keep the head angle in check when riding. I did start out with more sag, which worked well when fully up to speed on steep ground but made the bike felt a bit lethargic and in slower or flatter sections. Moving to a firmer shock fixed that, with very little if any apparent loss in performance on the faster stuff. 

At 443mm the rear centre on the Medium is also relatively long in proportion to the wheelbase, helping to keep load on the front tire. The BB is low, but not to the point of constantly smashing pedals and overall it’s a very easy bike to ride, with the rider able to simply stand in the middle and let the suspension do its thing for the most part. 

That well balanced geometry and weight combined with an excellent and supportive suspension design produces a bike that is easier to move around on trail than you might imagine. It's never going to be quite as agile as the Vala, but with the shock set up slightly firmer than suggested, unweighting the Bullit to skim over roots, lofting the front wheel over a hole or making quick direction changes is unusually easy for a long travel E-bike and that encourages an active riding style which is the way I prefer to try to ride. For those coming from enduro mountain bikes rather than motorbikes, there’s less difference in feel and timing to get used to compared to most E-Bikes, with the Bullit still able to be ridden much like a regular mountain bike, just with a dose of extra grip and stability.

When it does need to just keep the wheels down and smash, the Bullit is a better bike than I have the skill and nerves to maximise. The linkage has plenty of support, stays decently active under braking and it can truck through braking bumps and rocks with the best of them. A strong and brave rider can push 170mm of well designed travel very far indeed and for the rest of us mortals it’s simply a confidence inspiring ride when navigating difficult sections. 

Overall it’s a very well balanced ride with no weird traits or odd behaviours. It pumps well, corners well, is hugely inspiring in the steeps with good braking grip, takes big hits in its stride and despite all that is still fairly lively. If Santa Cruz were to ask me what I’d change about the frame tomorrow I wouldn’t really have very much to suggest. They’ve designed a good E-Bike here. 

And climbing?

It’s great, it’s got a motor (sorry). Most of our local climbing is forest roads, so not at all technical, but the longish chainstay is good for clawing up steep stuff on the odd time it happens, and the suspension design seems like a good compromise here as well. 

It’s not a bike that needs to lean on shock lockouts as it’s not bobby when pedalling, but anti-squat is low enough for there to be good traction when under power. The climbing position works well for me, with a seat angle steep enough for steep climbing without feeling weird on the flat and I find the bike comfortable just to sit and spin away on for long days out.. 

1700km is a decent amount of milkage. Is everything holding up?

So far, mostly yes. The worn out & killed parts list so far is:

• Three sets of brake pads (I think)
• Three rear tires (one puncture and a lot of skids)
  One front tire (wear)
• One GX T-Type chain replaced at 1300km
• One set of headset bearings (at 1200km) 
• Two disc rotors (one of them damaged in a small random incident and the other swapped at 1300km)
• Motor Bushings at 1400km
• POD shifter mount after a crash
  

Considering how much riding the bike has seen on steep and / or muddy terrain, that’s about as good as you could hope for I think. 

The frame itself is still on the original bearings; I'll replace them before the winter. As for the motor system, it has not skipped a beat. I’ve not had a single bolt work loose and everything has stayed quiet and creak free so the whole bike has been very low maintenance all in all. Eight months in and I can't find much to fault it, we’ll see what the winter brings....

Give us a quick summary of the bike and who I t would suit.

It's an ideal off piste and gravity riding E-Bike for someone who wants a riding experience that's not too far removed from regular mountain biking. It balances the conflicting demands of weight, power and handling well and for someone who is more interested in how their bike rides on the way down than maximum speed on the way up, its about as good as full power bikes can get. Anyone who's considering a bike at this travel should ride one. 

Fancy trying a Bullit yourself?

We’ve got most sizes in the shop for demo, along with new CC XT and XO builds and a handful of 2025 C90 bikes on sale at 15% off. 

☎️ 01896 831429

🖥️ shop@tweedvalleybikes.co.uk