The All New Santa Cruz Heckler 27.5″ -You’ll Want it Because it’s a Tweener!

bang something more exciting than epo and get a bronson then brah

The term “tweener” needs to go away right now. Call it 27.5 or 650b or anything else, “tweener” is just stupid.

“650b is the dumbest [deleted] ever” Brilliant.
How many have you ridden, bin judgin?

‘27.5″‘ needs to crawl into a corner and die. 650B is fine by me.

Blur XC

$2600 for an 18 year old design? sure, the seven “upgrades” have probably made a sizable difference, but not enough for a single pivot frame to cost $1300, even including the shock that’s worth, in real dollars, about $28.73. joe graney and co. need to re-evaluate their sense of self-worth.

filibuster,
glad you like the colors.
The Heckler’s price just reflects its manufacturing cost – tubing and fabrication doesn’t get cheaper because the pivot placement was determined 18 years ago. The Heckler is made to the same quality standards as our aluminum VPP frames in the same factory. It saves some $ to have less parts to the frame, but the thru-axle adds cost compared to the last generation, as well as tapered headtube, hydroformed upright tubes on the swingarm, hydroformed top tube, and so on. One could make a single pivot frame at a lower cost, but we have a certain quality level we aren’t comfortable sacrificing for a frame that is meant to be ridden hard for years under shredders, not parked in a garage.

And I’m not sure where you buy your shocks, but you think a US made Fox Float CTD shock is really that cheap?

mr. graney–
thank you for the well-reasoned response!! i guess i’m more than anything voicing a concern those of us (mechanics, sales kids, etc) at the bottom of the industry pyramid have with the lack of affordability in our chosen world. there’s no room, or reason, here for feature vs. benefit debates, or market- vs. perceived-value discussions, but when the equipment that makes sense for our riding abilities and frequency, shredder or not, is out of reach, and when the tenor in all bike media is to believe a $1000 bicycle to be of wal-mart quality, we get frustrated. angry, even. i’m not calling out your company’s commitment to quality. that is not and has never been in question. (and again, this heckler is gorgeous.) i simply feel that those of us who do the vast majority of service hours on your (and every bike company’s) product are excluded from the party. i don’t want to be “elevated” to this imaginary party, but rather i wish it be more accessible to all of us, most importantly my customers. when i try to aim a customer a couple hundred bucks upward, usually from the $500 range to the $8- or $900 for a complete bike, i am nearly universally met with resistance. imagine how it must be when a frame and shock, considered by the industry to be a “budget” option, is another $4-$500. most customers, when confronted with this, walk away. many are angry with me personally. i understand that i am guilty of pointing out problems without handing over solutions, but there you go.