Santa Cruz Blur LT Frame Only

It’s almost two years since we went to see Santa Cruz in, er, Santa Cruz and came back with a brand new bike. So how is the Californian after two years’ hard labour in Yorkshire?



Well, it’s still impressing the hell out of people – not because of any particular technical aspects, just the sheer amount of fun it is. The relatively compact size frame and the easy rider-reactive compression of the rear suspension make it a hop-and-pop fiend.

Despite only 140mm of rear wheel travel, it’ll convince you that you can launch and land things you wouldn’t normally go anywhere near. The more you ride it the more effortless it seems, and the BLT has set some frightening precedents on pretty much every techy trail we’ve ridden it on. It’s continuing to do so too, despite the fact that we’ve been upgrading it with lighter components since summer.

Long-term tests are about longevity though, so what have we learnt in the last 24 months that we didn’t know in the first 24 hours? The biggest change, in terms of lifespan, is the new bearings that Santa Cruz introduced on the BLT and have rolled out across every new chassis they have introduced since.

As well as being locked into place with coned collets and protected by metal shields and labyrinth seals, the bearings are fitted with grease ports. This lets you slap on a grease gun and pump the bearing assembly with fresh grease. It should push old, dirty grinding paste gunk out in the process, but the bearings are so well sealed that there’s been very little contamination.

In fact, we’ve never even had to strip them down and clean them – and they’re still running silky smooth and wobble free. The only wear and movement we’ve seen is in the rear shock bush, which we had to replace after a year.

Fragile paintjobs were another frequent complaint from Santa Cruz owners. Happily, our BLT has shrugged off multiple crashes, general careless treatment and weeks in the Alps without any cosmetic damage apart from a few cable rubs and scuffs on frame stickers.

However, we are starting to wish it had a Maxle-compatible rear end and a tapered 1.5-1.125in head tube – like its recent carbon version – to make the most of the latest component developments. There’s still definitely plenty of flat-out fun to be had well beyond the 1,000-mile mark though.

(br)