Santa Cruz Blur
By James Sharp

The evolution of the modern full suspension mountain bike is best described as a slow refinement of solid designs, punctuated by rapid leaps of innovation. Take, for example, the single pivot rear suspension. It has been around since the first mountain bikes had a shock in back. However, today’s single pivot rides much, much better than the original high-pivot bikes. Over the years the pivot location has migrated down a bit, toward the bottom bracket. This varies by manufacturer, but most single pivots have the pivot near the bottom bracket and in front of the seat tube. Slow refinement since the early nineties has made the design very good and reliable. On the other hand, the Virtual Pivot Point (VPP), patented originally by Outland, now owned by Santa Cruz, was a rapid leap of innovation that was ahead of its time. Unfortunately for Outland, the idea never really took off for them and they were forced to close their doors in the late Nineties. One of the first bikes that Santa Cruz produced with the VPP design was the Blur. This bike marked a distinct departure for Santa Cruz who, until then, only produced single pivot bikes, which worked very well. For a company, whose main selling point was the single pivot simplicity of its bikes, to produce something so different the Blur had to be something special. We knew we had to try one.

Our medium test bike was outfitted with their 2003 Super X disc kit. The wheels are Mavic disc specific X717 laced to DT Swiss Onyx disc hubs. A mix of Shimano’s LX and XT components handled the drive train duties, while Hayes was called in to stop the bike with their HFX Mag stoppers. Kenda supplied the rubber in the form of the 1.95-inch Kharma with a Kevlar bead. Easton gave us a place to hang on to; the saddle is Titec’s Ithys Gove. The uber-reliable Thompson seat post hangs on to the saddle. Manitou provided the Minute 2 (100mm) fork to keep the front wheel on the ground, and the bike going where we pointed. The complete bike, sans pedals, came in right at 25.5 lbs, and carries a MSRP of $2850 as spec’d, the frame is available alone for $1349 (powder coated) or $1499 (anodized).

Let me sum up how the VPP rear end works. The seat and chain stays are welded together, forming a rigid triangle, which pivots on a pair of counter rotating links. The placement and length of these links dictate the path the wheel takes as the suspension moves through its stroke. In the case of the Blur, the axle path is a very shallow ‘S’. This is the key portion of the patent. As the axle first arcs rearward and then forward, the Santa Cruz design uses chain tension to eliminate bob usually associated with suspension bikes. As the swing arm continues through the compression stroke, the axle path looks more like a standard 4-bar suspension system. Keep in mind that you can feel the suspension move through it’s stroke, since the distance from the rear axle to the bottom bracket changes as the wheel follows the ‘S’ curve.

Let me say that this is a fantastic bike. About the first thing you notice is how fast the bike feels. While 25.5 pounds isn’t the lightest full suspension bike we’ve ridden, the combination of light weight and the VPP suspension made the bike feel snappier than any other bike we’ve spent time on with this much travel. Usually this sort of acceleration is reserved for hardtails and short travel race bikes. The Blur doesn’t care if you stand and mash, the harder you mash, the more resistive it is your input. Our test bike came with a (non-ProPedal) Fox Float R high volume shock, without a lockout. We never felt that the rear suspension needed one, whether standing or seated. Given the right tires, this bike climbs like a scalded cat. The Kharmas that Santa Cruz spec’d were fine, but not near durable enough for a trail bike. They are light, but we cut the sidewall on the rear tire the third time out. After that, we switched to some Nokian NBX 2.1’s and never looked back.

I do have some complaints (it’s my job, you know) but they are really minor. Tfirst is that the rear triangle only accepts tires up to 2.2 inches, depending on the tire. That is kind of skinny for a trail bike, though I wouldn’t race the bike with tires wider than that. (Santa Cruz doesn’t market the Blur as a race bike, in the traditional sense of the word; their Superlight fills that niche) Our second complaint revolves around the nature of the VPP design. As mentioned above, the motion of the rear suspension can be felt through the pedals. While this is most evident in the small chain ring, it can be felt in the middle chain ring. Take this with a grain of salt; only half our testers felt anything at all. It probably won’t be a big deal, or even noticeable, unless you are really sensitive. Our last complaint is regarding the fork. I’ll go into the performance of the Minute in … well, a minute, but the bike didn’t feel balanced. Out back was the oh-so-plush Fox, while duties up front were handled by a very nice, but not as plush Minute. The forks performance wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as smooth as the Fox shock on the rear. If I were to build up the bike for myself, I would go all Fox, or all Manitou/Progressive 5th Element with a Swinger 3-way Air, or a 5th Element Air out back, and the Minute 2 up front, just to balance the bike more. That would give me all day comfort (Fox) or a firmer pedaling platform to get the power down (Manitou/5th Element). The Blur will not accept any fork with more travel than 105mm without voiding the warranty.

On it’s own the Minute is a fantastic fork. Once set up, and it pays to take your time and set it up right, the SPV did its job of eliminating rider inputs, as long as the rider stayed seated the fork didn’t bob at all, really. Standing, however, easily overwhelmed the SPV damper and the fork moved with the rider. This isn’t to say that it moved like a normal 100mm fork, it didn’t. The motion was well damped and it settled down very quickly. The fork was a little harsh on the small stuff due to the SPV damping, but the controlled manner that the fork handled bigger/harder hits more than made up for it. The harder you pushed the fork, the better it felt.

Other component highlights? The Titec Ithys Gove saddle was universally loved. The Hayes worked, but, please people, stop spec’ing 160mm rotors on a trail bike. Or, for that matter, on any bike that isn’t a cross-country race-only bike. 185mm offer more power without giving up too much in the way of modulation, and for anyone over 160lbs, the larger rotors are less likely to fade on extended downhills. We are in the process of reviewing a set of the Hayes HFX 9-Carbon brakes, so look for a review in the next few months on those. Everything else perfomed as expected, nothing broke and the LX shifters banged off shifts without a hitch. We would recommend replacing the Kharmas with something a little more durable.

Summary: This is a hard bike to pigeonhole. It is almost light enough for a race bike, and with some minor changes, our test bike could have lost significant weight. With 4-inches of travel up front and 4.5 out back, the Blur is borderline as far as the current trend of 5-inches front and rear goes for a trail bike. So who is the ideal buyer? The ideal Blur buyer would enjoy all day rides and epic racing, like 24-hour races and ultra-marathon races. That said, I can’t think of anyone, short of freeriders, who would not be satisfied to have the Blur as their only mountain bike. It really is that good. The Santa Cruz Blur delivers on the VPP promise Outland made years ago.

(A big ol’ Thank You to the guys at Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life in Eugene, Oregon, for setting up our test bike, nice job!)

James Sharp is a contributing editor for GearReview.com specializing in mountain biking.

For more information, contact:
Santa Cruz
104 Bronson Street, #22
Santa Cruz, California 95062
Phone: 831-459-7560
E-mail: info@santacruzbicycles.com
www.santacruzbicycles.com