V10
Dirt Magazine : 3
“We don’t spend our time writing frivolous patents or coming up with silly acronyms for the innovations we employ. We’d rather go for a ride, wouldn’t you?”---Santa Cruz
The Frame
Back in the early nineties Santa Cruz made a big impact at all the major shows with their first full-suss, the Tazmon. Since then they have constantly pushed the single-pivot design as far as they can, with some undeniably good results along the way. They still continue this today but staying true to their goal of making the ultimate bike, they soon realized that a change was needed if they were going to get any closer to that ultimate bike. The change happened when they were given the chance to buy the license for the Virtual Pivot Point system that currently graces all of their top-end bikes. This was originally featured on an Outland bike, but for some reason it never really took off, and the design remained dormant until Santa Cruz came along.
The V-10 was first made available to Joe Public in 2001, and it managed to make just as big an impact as the Tazmon had. Not only did it have a massive ten inches of travel, but it also went like a rocket. Santa Cruz had managed to produce a bike that pedaled brilliantly without having to resort to screwing in every adjuster on your shock. They clearly got it right from day one, as the basic design has changed very little since, although you do now get a fancy new hydro-formed front end and much cleaner lines. How does it work? Well, basically the link configuration produces a moving ‘virtual’ pivot point, and therefore a fairly unconventional axle path. By tweaking this axle path it is possible to make the force from the chain counteract the motion caused by pedaling, thereby canceling out any unwanted bobbing. Because the whole thing is balanced, nothing actually moves until you hit a bump, the result is amazing acceleration combined with smooth and supple suspension. This balance of counteracting forces is optimized at the recommended sag’ of 4”, and so it is crucial to get your set-up right because otherwise you will be missing the whole point. This is enough sag to make this a truly active suspension system, meaning that it can both compress and extend in the fight to remain glued to the floor.
The flexibility in axle path and linkages also allows Santa Cruz to vary the suspension rate throughout the travel far more than with a single-pivot design. This enables them to fine-tune the bikes characteristics in order to provide the best possible suspension performance in a huge range of circumstances. Not only have they carried out extensive lab testing on every aspect of the bike, but they have also put in countless hours of real world riding. This has led to the gradual evolution of an already cracking design, it’s now stronger, stiffer and lighter than ever before thanks to their obsession with improvement. No aspect of the bike escapes their attention to detail; even the bearings are custom made to the highest possible specifications. This is definitely a bike designed to be out on the hill, not in a workshop.
The Ride
A rider’s view by Rich Cunynghame
After having ridden some bikes before that I didn’t really get on with, this year I decided to go for something that I really felt passionate about. The look of the V10 had me smiling and the idea of trying the VPP system had me excited and the fact that I’d heard off other people with them how good they were had me confident it’d be the right choice.
I picked my frame up in the morning in Yorkshire and went to ride my hardtail in the afternoon in Lancashire and managed to break my wrist while I was there. So that was the V10 frame sat next to telly in the front room for a few months without a single thing being bolted onto it. The more I sat looking at it, the more I started to like it, I mean normally to me a bike is just a tool, nothing more to riding than the knife and fork are to eating. But this thing actually looked quite sexy, in a butch kind of way. The earlier versions of this bike looked quite ugly to me but with this incarnation Santa Cruz have managed to craft quite a beauty. It did have a slightly odd look to start with for me, with the bulge up by the head tube but I absolutely love that now. By the time it got to building it up I was feeling all eager to get on it.
I normally feel a new bike will take a bit of bedding in and getting used to what you and it can handle and enjoy, kinda like with a new girlfriend. But this was different; as soon as I was on it I knew I could hit corners hard. It feels consistent and capable; I really felt I could trust it, unlike most new girlfriends. The predictable feeling it gives is really reassuring and lets you relax safe in the knowledge you won’t get bucked off without knowing something about it well beforehand.
The most important thing for me on a bike is the shape, if ya not comfy with the position you are in, it doesn’t matter how good the wheels go up and down. This feels just right, the head angles slack enough to make it stable at speed without compromising you on the tight stuff. The bottom bracket height is as low as most bikes are these days, personally I like to run mine as low as possible but I’ve gone down to running 165mm cranks on this to help prevent hitting the ground. I have clipped the ground with the chain device a few times but the feeling you get in the corners is easily worth this little situation.
Downhill bikes will never sprint like a road bike but the VPP system goes some way to help, because this thing does accelerate well, it doesn’t feel a whole world better than others but it does seem to be a touch above competitors on the pedaling front. The main thing for me is the way it sits in its travel, it tracks over the rough like nothing else but you don’t feel bogged down by it. It did take a little while and a little bit of tuning of the shock to get the hang of how was best to jump it but now it’s second nature.
The build as you’d expect from Santa Cruz is top quality, all the welds look beautiful and the pivots are all super smooth. You can feel all this in just how stiff it is when you are riding. The shock is a little fiddly to get to but it is well protected and in the perfect position to keep the weight of the bike feeling right. It feels great having the weight low and central. I love the way the rear axle works too, real simple, so many bikes fall flat on little things like this, just being awkward to work on when there’s no need.
All in all it has the feel of a serious downhill bike that really does stand out as one of the bikes that define this era we’re in at the moment, a time where bikes have finally got to a place where we’ve been wanting them to go for years - reliable, strong, exciting and exceedingly fun to ride. I would recommend this bike to anyone who’s after a downhill bike. It is definitely the best bike I have ever ridden, I just simply love it.