The new Heckler is Santa Cruz’s first eMTB. The Californian brand took their time in developing the bike and are quite late to the eMTB party. Have they made good use of the time it took to develop their first eMTB and can it live up to the high expectations set by its price? We found out.

There is no mistaking the Heckler for anything other than a Santa Cruz, despite this one being equipped with a motor. The eMTB was developed on the basis of the successful Santa Cruz Bronson and, like all of the Californian brand’s latest full-suspension bikes, it relies on a VPP rear linkage with the shock positioned low the frame. Santa Cruz offer their analog bikes in two carbon versions, a particularly lightweight CC version and a slightly heavier and more affordable C version, whereas the Heckler is only available with the higher-end CC frame.

The bike offers 150 mm travel at the rear and 160 mm up front. Santa Cruz deliberately chose to design the bike around 27.5“ wheels, as playful and fun handling on the trail was one of their top priorities in developing the bike. Choosing to rely on the complete Shimano STEPS system was also deliberate as Santa Cruz want their customers to be able to rely on Shimano’s worldwide service network. For this reason, the rear wheel is driven by an E8000 motor, which is fed by an integrated but removable 504 Wh battery. While most other manufacturers have bigger batteries on offer, this is the largest integrated battery currently available from Shimano.

[continued...]

View full post on enduro-mtb.com