Blur LT
Singletrack World Review
http://www.singletrackworld.com
Before they got involved with all this VPP malarkey Santa Cruz were one of the staunchest defendants of the good ol’ single pivot. Their classic Heckler design remained practically unchanged for years and years because it did its job very well, thank you very much. This loyalty to suspension design is a reflection of how the Santa Cruz guys don’t like to arbitrarily alter their bikes every calendar year to suit the fickle demands of market forces. So clearly they believe that the Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) idea has an awful lot going for it. Let’s see shall we?
The Detail
Before there was the Blur LT there was the plain old Blur. Quite soon after releasing it however Santa Cruz realized that it kind of fell between two stools; not lightweight enough for XC racing and not enough travel for the aggressive technical trail rider. So they split the Blur into two separate models: the skimmed down Blur XC and this here bulked up Blur LT.
The LT still looks like the regular Blur shape with the dipped top tube for increased standover (30.5in on our large size) and the single vertical strut on the swingarm on the non-drive side. Unlike, for example, the love-it-or-loathe-it appearance of the Santa Cruz Nomad there is a refreshing lack of wackily shaped tubes on the LT. All the main tubes are just plain round apart from a subtle bit of squaring off of the down tube where it joins the head tube. Pleasingly, it looks a lot like a ‘normal’ mountain bike (especially if viewed from the drive side). Not so pleasingly we ended up with a rather boring white powdercoat test bike (which held on to dirt spectacularly tenaciously by the way). Can we have a more spangly anodised one next time Mr Roskopp please?
Any structural reinforcing is done the old fashioned way – gussets (four in total all at the top/down/head tube junction). The extra strength up front means Santa Cruz have no qualms about folk running 160mm forks on it. Our test bike came with the recommended 130mm travel fork – a Fox Float RLC. The 6069 tubeset is custom butted for Santa Cruz so there is an awful lot of unseen lightening and strengthening work going on inside the pipes.
The LT stands for ‘Long Travel’ (135mm) but this isn’t just a jacked-up and gusseted Blur, the geometry is significantly different. It is basically a bit slacker angled and has a tad longer wheelbase. Listing from front to back, the head angle is 69.5°, the effective top tube length on our large size was 23.5in, the BB height is 13.2in, the seat angle is 72.5 degrees and the chainstays are 17.2in long. The tyre clearance at the back was not massive and would clog up if ridden with a 2.3in tyre in sticky mud – but then again, we shouldn’t have been running 2.3in tyres in sticky mud. We don’t see it as a crucial failing of the frame, just something to be aware of and dealt with.
The VPP linkage has sealed bearings. The lower link is forged aluminum, while the upper rocker is formed from a pair of titanium plates. Like the other bikes here this many pivots will not last forever and on average a regularly aggressively ridden Blur will need a new set of bearings every 12 to 18 months depending on the mud (and resultant jetwashing) in your neck of the woods.
The Ride
At the start of most rides the most likely direction you’ll be heading is up. It was when climbing that the Blur LT felt a bit unusual. When slow-speed climbing over curbs and waterbars, there’s a pronounced amount of pedal kickback as the suspension begins to compress. It isn’t as jarring as it can be on single pivot bikes, the ‘kick’ is quite cotton wool-muted. After a few rides we got used to it and knew where and when it was going to happen and it quickly didn’t even think about it.
The initially rearwards movement of the axle path that creates the pedal kickback mentioned above also makes the bike fantastic at instantly reacting to mid and high speed hits either while contouring or (especially) when descending as it gives the rear wheel time to move back and then up and over the bump. We’re clearly talking mere milliseconds here but it really does make a difference.
Conclusion
The very linear spring rate of the middle part of the suspension travel (a feature of the VPP design) makes the shock give up a lot of travel very easily and it really did feel like we were riding a bigger travel bike when descending at warp speeds. Impressively we never felt the suspension bottom out or even notice its rate ramping up toward the end of the stroke either.
The longish wheelbase and relatively low BB also help it feel very stable and reassuring during fast descents – although it didn’t get airborne very easily if you like that sort of thing. These latter two aspects did mean it wasn’t so agile in steep, tight, twisty stuff and it took a fair bit of wrestling and bashing of big rings to get down some of the sketchier trails but get down it did.
Not as nimble or jumpy as some but this was the bike that felt like it could handle a variety of trails very capably. If it was our money and we wanted something that would behave itself and inspire us onward during some serious mile munching epics, we’d buy the Blur LT.