Santa Cruz has announced the latest version of the long-travel Megatower enduro bike with big wheels.
This bike is designed to keep Santa Cruz at the forefront of the discipline and help top athletes and individuals reach their potential, whether racing the Enduro World Series or hanging out with friends at events like the Stone King Rally or the Ard Rock Play Blindfold Games. .
Despite increasing suspension travel to 165mm, Santa Cruz says it wants to keep the Megatower’s efficiency and predictability. To do this, the brand has updated the geometry, damper settings and suspension kinematics.
With Santa Cruz sticking to its time-honored Virtual Pivot Point platform, the new bike represents more of an evolution than a revolution. More travel, longer distances and chains of a certain size.
There are 11 build kits to choose from, including coil and air damper options. Prices start at £5,499 / $5,649 to £9,699 / $11,199. (You can read our review of the 2022 Santa Cruz Megatower CC X01 AXS RSV at launch).
The Megatower now has 5mm more rear wheel travel up to 165mm and is designed around a 170mm fork instead of a 160mm fork. It also has 170mm of rear wheel travel and a longer-travel shock if you think 165mm is too soft.
The Santa Cruz is stuck with 29-inch front and rear wheels, while the 150mm-travel Bronsan has hybrid wheels. Available in five sizes, from small to extra large.
The carbon frame is available in two stacking options. Those familiar with Santa Cruz bikes will recognize the C and CC naming convention.
Both bikes have the same strength, stiffness, and impact protection, however, according to Santa Cruz, the CC frame offers all of the above in a lighter package, around 300 grams. This feature is available for more expensive builds.
Frame size now also depends on stiffness. Larger frames have more material to make them stiffer and the overall goal is to give every rider the same riding experience, no matter the size. Lighter riders have a more flexible frame, while heavier riders have a stiffer frame.
Pause adjustments include a new lower lever and a straighter curve. Santa Cruz says the lower leverage ratio was used to help the new Megatower use shock damping more effectively to absorb bumps, especially high-speed bumps.
In addition, the more linear curve is intended to make the suspension more stable throughout its travel and provide a more predictable acceleration feel.
Santa Cruz arranged the links differently for each frame size, allowing each size to have a specific chainstay length. This means that larger bikes have slightly higher anti-squat values, which is an added bonus for taller riders.
Depending on the model, there are two different shock absorbers on the Megatower. On low spec bikes, you get the RockShox Super Deluxe Select or Select+. Santa Cruz has worked closely with RockShox to get the best tunes from pre-selected RockShox punch tunes available.
More expensive models are equipped with Fox Float X2 Factory or Fox Float DH X2 Factory Coil shocks. Both provide the Megatower with fully customizable armatures and do not use standard Fox tunes.
The California brand also offers internal storage in the form of a “glove box”. It was developed by Santa Cruz in-house and no stock parts were used. The clip-on hatch features a water bottle cage holder and two interior pockets, including a tool pouch and a tubular pouch. This will allow you to silently store your tools and spare parts, according to Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz also makes their version of the SRAM UDH, which has an all-metal universal derailleur hanger with no SRAM plastic parts.
Elsewhere, the frame has 2.5-inch tire clearance, water bottle space, a threaded bottom bracket body, and internal cable routing through channels. The frame has a 200mm brake frame with a maximum rotor size of 220mm.
Santa Cruz offers the Megatower a lifetime bearing replacement service and says no matter where you are, you can use the multi-tool to repair the hinge. There are plenty of frame protections on the Megatower, including a tailgate pad for those who want to toss their bikes in the back of a pickup truck.
The main geometry changes are a looser head tube angle and a steeper effective seat tube angle. The Megatower has high and low settings thanks to the flip chip located on the bottom link. Headroom on this bike is high.
The head tube angle has been reduced by 1 degree and is now 63.8 degrees on the high setting and 63.5 degrees on the low setting. That’s almost the same backlash as a Santa Cruz V10 downhill bike.
The effective seat tube angle is now 77.2 degrees on the small frame and gradually increases to 77.8 degrees on large, oversized and oversized frames – again, taller frames. This reduces by 0.3 degrees in the down position.
The range of values increased by 5 mm for all sizes, but not significantly. For small sizes the range is 430mm, increasing to 455mm, 475mm, 495mm and 520mm for M, L, XL and XXL frames respectively. Putting the bike in a low potion reduces the range by 3mm.
Another big change is the increase in chain length. As the frame size increases, they progressively get longer to help keep the same front to rear center ratio, allowing each frame to have the same feel. Santa Cruz abandoned the old flip chip that allowed it to switch between two positions.
The chainstays have grown from 436mm to 437mm, 440mm, 443mm and 447mm, from small to very large. In the low position they are 1 mm longer.
Santa Cruz raised the bottom bracket a bit to make the bike more comfortable to pedal on rough terrain. His bottom bracket is now 27mm lower in the top position and 30mm lower in the bottom position, meaning he’s still squatting.
The short seat tube length allows riders to accommodate a wide range of sizes. This should allow you to choose your frame size based on your range and wheelbase preference. S-XXL length changed from 380mm to 405mm, 430mm, 460mm and 500mm.
The Megatower line has seven models available in Trans Blue and Matt Nickle. However, four of them have air or coil shock options, which means there are 11 bikes to choose from.
Maxxis Double Down tires also come with spring damper options. Santa Cruz thinks that riders who prefer to use coil-over shocks may want to ride harder.
We haven’t received full international pricing yet, but the bikes start at £5,499 / $5,649 and top out at £9,699 / $11,199. The UK will receive a stock of the new Megatower during May.
There is also a limited edition Megatower CC XX1 AXS Stewardess RSV model, only 50 available worldwide. Price $13,999.
Luke Marshall is a technical writer for BikeRadar and MBUK magazine. He has been working on both games since 2018 and has over 20 years of mountain biking experience. Luke is a gravity oriented racer with a background in downhill racing, having previously competed in the UCI Downhill World Championship. With an engineering background and a love of working hard, Luke is fully qualified to test every bike and product, providing you with informative and independent reviews. You will most likely find it on a trail, enduro or downhill bike riding the ski slopes in South Wales and South West England. He appears regularly on the BikeRadar podcast and YouTube channel.
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Post time: Nov-10-2022
