Blur LT
Mountain Bike Magazine Review
The Santa Cruz Blur has been one of the most popular full-suspension XC frames on the market for several years running. It is a celebrated race or trail bike, but its fans started to ask for more travel and control in strenuous riding situations. The folks at Santa Cruz listened, and at this Springs Sea Otter Festival, released the new Blur LT to address those concerns.
Frame and Forks
The BLT frame is basically a Blur on steroids from a construction point of view. It's built of the same 6069 aluminum tubing and comes in the same dizzying array of nearly a dozen different finishes as its little brother, however there are a few key differences. The BLT's geometry is stretched out for greater stability and improved handling in the steeps. Strength is increased with four gussets at the headtube/toptube/downtube junction, and other select tubes also are beefed up for added muscle. Finally, rear tire clearance is increased to happily accept 2.35" treads.
The new Blur LT is graced with 135mm (5.3") of virtual pivot point travel, 20mm more than the original Blur and the Blur 4X. The frame is also designed so that it can be ridden with up to a 160mm (6.3") travel front fork if you want even slacker angles.
Our BLT came with a Manitou Nixon Super Plus fork with 145mm (5.7") of travel, a Hex thru axle option, SPV compression damping, 32mm stanchions, and reverse arch magnesium casting. An externally adjustable SPV platform pressure, progressively adjust, rebound damper, and air spring provide more than enough controls to dial in any trail.
The rear shock included on out BLT is the top-of-the-line Fox Float RP-3 with adjustable air spring, rebound, and ProPedal compression damping. The ProPedal compression damping on the RP-3 is adjustable via an easy-to-reach three-position lever giving you three choices of varying ProPedal settings for a range of pedaling efficiency and rear suspension plushness.
Spec
All Santa Cruz bikes are available to order with a variety of build kits and fork combinations. Ours happened to come with a Shimano XT component group in conjunction with an Easton EA-50/70 cockpit, Hayes HFX-9 disc brakes, and Mavic 321 disc rims rolling on Kenda Nevegal 2.35" tires.
The Ride
When we first climbed on the BLT, it felt considerably different from the Blur's we've ridden in the past. Gone is the tall XC feel that places your weight forward and ready to sprint out of the saddle. Replacing it is a more laid-back and stable layout that sets your body back farther for better control while descending. Pedaling on the BLT is familiar though, very little bob, especially as the ProPedal switch gets flicked on.
Geometry details on the BLT can be described as relaxed. The rear chainstays have been lengthened to 17.2" for greater stability and tire clearance, which expands the wheelbase on our large sized frame to 43.7". The head and seat angles sit at 69.5" and 72.5" with a five-inch travel fork but stand to lose about a degree if you up the ante with a six-inch model. The bottom bracket sits at 13.2", which is 0.6" higher than those found on the original Blur and the 4X.
We were lucky enough to test out our BLT on some of the finest slickrock trail in the US near St. George, Utah for some solid hammering over the relentlessly technical and always challenging terrain know as Gooseberry Mesa. Rocks, drops, technical steep climbs, and high-speed needle threading all reminded us why we love this sport so much. The BLT never let us down either, it was up for any challenge, and felt completely natural traversing such a harsh and punishing landscape.
The rear suspension feels a bit squishy with the ProPedal lever turned off, but it offered lots of comfort on hard-edged rocky terrain. Flipping on the Pro-Pedal damping eliminates almost all bobbing in the suspension but firms up some small bump suppleness. We definitely preferred the ProPedal on for any extended climbing, and enjoyed the middle setting for the majority of our riding.
The Manitou Nixon Super Plus fork was well matched to the BLT's technical and aggressive tendencies. Our thru-axle model fork was incredibly stiff, allowing us to pick just about any line we wanted with surgical precision, although the axle design makes it slow to change a front tube. The SPV damping has a wide range of adjustability, letting us eliminate most of the bob or run the fork very plush if we wanted.
Short Cut
The Blur LT is an important part of the growing family of Santa Cruz bikes. It is the link between their XC race bikes and the big all-mountain frames. If you already have a Blur and find your gravitational desires leave you wanting more, or you're just looking for an efficient pedaling, tech-savvy frame that's still light enough to ride all day long, then look no further than the new Santa Cruz BLT.