2023 Santa Cruz 5010
Wheel Size: 29’’ front / 27.5’’ rear
Travel: 130 mm rear / 140 mm front
Material: Aluminum and Carbon Fiber versions available
Price: Carbon complete bikes $5,299 to $10,649; aluminum options TBD
Intro
The 5010 has long been Santa Cruz’s more playful short-travel Trail bike, slotting in between the Tallboy and Hightower in terms of suspension travel, but pairing that with smaller wheels and placing a greater emphasis on jumping, jibbing, and so on. But Santa Cruz makes it clear that they still view the 5010 as a Trail bike first and foremost — it’s just supposed to be a more playful, less XC-derived twist on one.
Santa Cruz has also brought back Handy McAskill to do the new 5010 launch video, after his highly-successful debut with the prior-generation 5010, and the result is well worth a watch:
The Frame
Santa Cruz has been migrating their 27.5’’-wheeled models over to MX mixed wheel setups for a while now, with the Bronson and Nomad making the leap (plus the V10, which has had MX and 29’’ options for a while now), and with the new 5010, the process is complete — pour one out for 27.5’’ front wheels.
The new 5010 still has 130 mm of VPP-driven rear travel, paired with a 140 mm fork, but it’s now offered in six sizes, from XS through XXL — with the XXL being a new offering for the model.
The outgoing 5010 V4 was only offered in carbon fiber, but the new V5 bike gets an aluminum option in addition to Santa Cruz’s standard C and CC carbon fiber layup options. In short, the C frame is a slightly more affordable option, whereas the top-spec CC frames get a fancier layup that trims a little weight, allegedly at no cost to stiffness or durability. Santa Cruz also notes that the carbon layup gets tweaked on a size-specific basis to tailor the frame stiffness for different-sized riders. As with Santa Cruz’s other models, the 5010 gets a lifetime frame warranty, including coverage of the pivot bearings.
A bunch of the other details will also be familiar to folks who’ve paid attention to what Santa Cruz has been up to of late. As with the new Hightower, there’s now a hole in the non-drive side of the shock tunnel to make it easier to view the sag indicator on the rear shock, and the shelf at the bottom of the tunnel has been reshaped to direct water away from the lower link pivots. There’s also the new “Glovebox” downtube storage compartment — on both carbon and aluminum frames — that we’ve seen on both the new Hightower and Megatower, which includes a “Tool Wallet” and “Tube Purse” to keep things organized internally. The 5010 also gets internal cable routing, a threaded bottom bracket, and rear tire clearance is stated at 2.5’’. ISCG-05 tabs are there if you want to run a chain guide, and the 5010 features a UDH derailleur hanger.
Santa Cruz’s familiar lower-link-driven VPP suspension sticks around on the 5010, but they’ve tweaked the kinematics a little, chiefly reducing the amount of anti-squat early in the travel (to about 120% around sag) with the goal of improving small bump sensitivity and reducing pedal kickback. The leverage curve has also been made very linear and quite progressive, starting at about 3.05:1 and dropping off to around 2.3:1 by bottom-out. It’s both a little straighter and also slightly more progressive than the prior-generation bike.
[And if all of that suspension talk didn’t make much sense, check out the Suspension Kinematics section of our Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide.]
Fit & Geometry
In addition to adding a new XXL size (bringing the total to six, starting with an XS), Santa Cruz has made some tweaks to the 5010’s geometry that are largely in line with what they did to the new Hightower. The headtube angle is now 0.5° slacker (to 64.9°, in the Low position), the reach has grown by a few millimeters, and the seat tube is very fractionally steeper (at around 77° effective, with slight variation based on frame size).
Maybe the biggest change is that the chainstays have grown substantially longer, by 7 mm in all sizes apart from the XS, which jumps a more modest 5 mm. The XS frame starts off at 429 mm, the Small gains two millimeters to 431 mm, and the rest of the sizes grow by 3 mm apiece, winding up at 443 mm on the XXL. Santa Cruz talks a bunch about needing to make geometry tweaks to suit the mixed wheel size configuration, and I think they’re right on the money with going for longer chainstays on an MX bike than they might for one with equal wheel sizes to not “need to leave the cornering sweet spot for good weight distribution,” as they put it.
The Builds
Santa Cruz offers the 5010 in two builds on an aluminum frame and in six carbon options, with the four less-expensive carbon builds getting the more basic C frame, and the two X01 options bumping up the CC.
We’re still waiting on pricing for the aluminum versions from Santa Cruz but will update the post as soon as it’s available.
- Fork: RockShox 35 Gold
- Shock: Fox Float DPS Performance
- Drivetrain: SRAM SX
- Brakes: SRAM Guide T w/ 200 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors
- Wheels: WTB ST i30 rims / SRAM MTH hubs
- Dropper Post: SDG Tellis
- Fork: RockShox Pike
- Shock: Fox Float DPS Performance
- Drivetrain: SRAM NX
- Brakes: SRAM Guide T w/ 200 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors
- Wheels: RaceFace AR30 rims / SRAM MTH hubs
- Dropper Post: SDG Tellis
- Fork: RockShox Pike
- Shock: Fox Float DPS Performance
- Drivetrain: SRAM NX
- Brakes: SRAM Guide T w/ 200 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors
- Wheels: RaceFace AR30 rims / SRAM MTH hubs
- Dropper Post: SDG Tellis
- Fork: RockShox Pike Select+
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Select+
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX
- Brakes: SRAM G2 R w/ 200 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors
- Wheels: RaceFace AR30 rims / DT Swiss 370 hubs
- Dropper Post: RockShox Reverb
- Fork: RockShox Pike Select+
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Select+
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX AXS
- Brakes: SRAM G2 RS w/ 200 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors
- Wheels: RaceFace ARC30 rims / Industry Nine 1/1 hubs
- Dropper Post: RockShox Reverb
- Fork: RockShox Pike Ultimate
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate
- Drivetrain: SRAM X01
- Brakes: SRAM G2 RSC w/ 200 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors
- Wheels: RaceFace ARC30 rims / Industry Nine 1/1 hubs
- Dropper Post: RockShox Reverb
- Fork: RockShox Pike Select+
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Select+
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX AXS
- Brakes: SRAM G2 RS w/ 200 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors
- Wheels: Reserve 30|HD rims / Industry Nine 1/1 hubs
- Dropper Post: RockShox Reverb
Fork: RockShox Pike Ultimate
Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate
Drivetrain: SRAM X01 AXS w/ GX AXS Controller
Brakes: SRAM G2 RSC w/ 200 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors
Wheels: Reserve 30|HD rims / Industry Nine 1/1 hubs
Dropper Post: RockShox Reverb
All the builds are rounded out with 2.4’’ Maxxis DHRII Exo tires at both ends (MaxxGrip rubber front, MaxxTerra rear). There’s not really anything that jumps out as seeming surprising or out of place — and we’re pretty excited to get on a 5010 and try out the new RockShox Pike, after being very impressed with the new ZEB.
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) How does the 5010 slot in between the Tallboy and the Hightower in Santa Cruz’s lineup, and how should folks think about which one makes the most sense for them?
(2) And will the new mixed wheel size feel like a major part of the 5010’s character — as it does on the Bronson?
Bottom Line (For Now)
The new Santa Cruz 5010 looks like an interesting update to their longstanding playful Trail bike, and we’re looking forward to getting on one to see how it compares to its Tallboy and Hightower siblings, as well as the rest of the market. We should have one in to test before too long, so stay tuned for a full review to come.
I’m addicted to my hardtails and already have the Smash….BUT if I am ever on the market I’ll be looking at Santa Cruz or the Pivot but will likely go with the metal Canfield but damn those SC are sexy