Santa Cruz Vala
Wheel Size: 29’’ front / 27.5’’ rear
Suspension Travel:
- Frame travel: 150 mm
- Fork travel: 160 mm
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes offered: S, M, L, XL, XXL
- Headtube angle: 64.2° (High), 63.9° (Low)
- Reach (size L): 480 mm (High), 477 mm (Low)
- Chainstay length (size L): 443 mm (High), 444 mm (Low)
Frame Material: Carbon fiber
Price: Complete bikes starting at $7,299 (build details below)
Intro
While many riders can still remember when the Heckler and Bullit weren’t eMTBs but more budget-oriented single-pivot bikes, Santa Cruz long ago pushed their entire lineup over to the brand’s signature VPP suspension platform. With new releases like the 2025 Bronson and Hightower, their continued commitment to the VPP platform is quite clear — so it came as a surprise when we learned about the new Vala eMTB and its move to a four bar, acronym-free suspension layout.
Of course, there’s a lot more here to talk about than the suspension design, like the Bosch Performance Line CX motor, thoughtful finishing details, and both suspension and geometry adjustments. So, let’s get into it.
The Frame
I’ll be honest — I’m so conditioned to seeing that signature VPP-equipped Santa Cruz silhouette, the Vala had me puzzled at first sight. Knee-jerk confusion aside though, it’s a sleek and purposeful design that still hides a whole bunch of impressive little details.
First off, the Vala is a mixed wheel affair. This seems to be an increasingly common trend as eMTB manufacturers try to design geometry around sizable motors, but also due to the somewhat more playful feel that a smaller 27.5’’ wheel can bring to a hefty eMTB.
The Vala’s 150 mm of travel is provided by a Horst Link four bar design, meaning that the rear triangle has a pivot at the chainstay just below the rear axle. According to Santa Cruz, building a frame around a large full power motor would require too many compromises in pivot placement with a VPP design. In order to get the suspension performance that the team wanted, Santa Cruz moved to a four bar arrangement which allows for much simpler packaging of the main pivot.
Suspension kinematics charts tell a clearer story. The Vala’s anti-squat is far lower and the curve is more linear than on the Heckler 9 and Heckler SL, which should offer more active suspension while reducing pedal kickback. Anti-rise also looks far different compared to the Heckler 9 — again lower with a more linear curve — for more active suspension under braking. The leverage ratio has been decreased on the Vala thanks to using a longer 60 mm stroke shock (compared to 55 mm on the Heckler 9 and Heckler SL), and a flip chip a the lower shock mount allows riders to choose between a low progression setting (26%) or high progression setting (29%). All of these details are included in the following charts:
The shock is driven by a one piece upper link, and a seatstay bridge just behind the link improves frame stiffness for the added weight of an eMTB.
Santa Cruz has a bit of a reputation for particularly robust frame hardware and pivot designs, and that holds true with the Vala. The main upper and lower pivots use locking collet axles to keep things secure, and all pivot hardware uses a 5 mm allen key. The threads at the lower shock mount and chainstay and seatstay pivots are all replaceable to prevent potential frame damage, and an axle at the seatstay pivots holds all hardware captive so that the pivots can be disassembled without washers and small parts being dropped.
The simpler shapes of the Vala’s frame afforded by the new four bar design also allow for more seatpost insertion depth relative to the VPP-equipped Heckler — 110 mm more, to be exact. And while the inclusion of a battery eliminates any chance of downtube storage, there are still accessory mounts under the top tube.
As a final point, the Vala frames come in Santa Cruz’s C and CC carbon designations, with the higher-end CC construction used on only the two top end builds. The inclusion of mechanical shifting on the two lowest spec builds implies that the C frame still has a routing for traditional cable and housing, though we will need to confirm if the CC frame follows the Bronson and Hightower in being electronic-only without internal routing ports.
Drive System
The Vala’s drive system is the latest Bosch’s Performance Line CX motor, which claims to be quieter, lighter, and smaller than before. We’ve spent extensive amounts of time on the earlier versions of this motor and have been very impressed with its performance, so it’s a welcome sight on the Vala. Bosch’s familiar display is nested in the Vala’s top tube, which connects wirelessly to the mode switch on the handlebars
The Bosch battery has 600 Wh capacity, which is perhaps a bit smaller than we expected given that a number of newer full power bikes are now packing 700+ Wh. Santa Cruz’s rationale for using this smaller battery makes a lot of sense though — for one, the 600 Wh battery is a full 2.2 lbs / 1 kg lighter than the next size up (800 Wh). The battery is also physically smaller, allowing designers more room while also helping to keep the weight sitting lower in the frame.
Of course, 600 Wh will of course provoke some range anxiety amongst some riders. For those folks, Santa Cruz offers a 250 Wh PowerMore range extender, which takes the place of a water bottle, providing a very large 850 Wh total capacity.
Fit & Geometry
Despite being an eMTB, the Vala sits in the same 150 mm rear travel bracket as the recently released Bronson and Hightower. Perhaps it’s unsurprising, then, to see some very similar geometry numbers.
In High mode, a Large Vala has a 480 mm reach, 641 mm stack, 64.2° headtube angle, 344 mm bottom bracket height, and 443 mm chainstays. Dropping to Low mode has some fairly subtle changes, with a 477 mm reach, 644 mm stack, 63.9° headtube angle, 340 mm bottom bracket height, and 444 mm chainstays. Chainstay lengths do vary slightly by frame size, maxing out at 451 mm on the XXL frame.
Flip chip adjustments are made at the rocker link and seatstay junction, and that hardware is captive to allow adjustment without fully disassembling the pivots.
Full geometry figures are as follows:
The Builds
Santa Cruz offers five build options with the Vala. The top four builds all get Fox suspension and SRAM Maven brakes with 200 mm rotors, in addition to shifting from SRAM. Only the base R build is an outlier here, getting a RockShox Zeb Base fork and SRAM DB8 brakes.
The Vala is the first complete bike we’ve seen to come with Schwalbe’s Magic Mary tires in the new radial casing option. For those unfamiliar, Schwalbe claims that the new casing design re-aligns the threads in the casing material to provide a significantly more compliant-feeling casing while still offering good puncture resistance.
[We’ve started spending time on the new Schwalbe Albert tires in the new radial construction. Much more on those coming soon.]
Santa Cruz also varies dropper post lengths by size, with the R build getting an SDG Tellis while all others get the OneUp V3. Santa Cruz says a size Large comes with a 210 mm post, and we always applaud brands who maximize dropper post length for a given size.
Full build details are as follows:
- Drivetrain: SRAM NX
- Brakes: SRAM DB8 (220 mm front rotor / 200 mm rear)
- Fork: RockShox Zeb Base (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Performance
- Wheels: Reserve 30HD AL rims / SRAM MTH 716/746 hubs
- Dropper Post: SDH Tellis
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX
- Brakes: SRAM Maven Bronze (200 mm rotors)
- Fork: Fox 38 Performance (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Performance
- Wheels: RaceFace ARC 30 HD rims / e13 SL E-Spec hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Maven Bronze (200 mm rotors)
- Fork: Fox 38 Performance Elite (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Performance Elite
- Wheels: RaceFace ARC 30 HD rims / e13 SL E-Spec hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
- Drivetrain: SRAM XO Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Maven Silver (200 mm rotors)
- Fork: Fox 38 Factory (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Factory
- Wheels: Reserve 30HD Carbon front, 31DH rear rims / DT Swiss 350 hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
- Drivetrain: SRAM XX Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Maven Ultimate (200 mm rotors)
- Fork: Fox 38 Factory (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Factory
- Wheels: Reserve 30HD Carbon front, 31DH rear rims / Industry Nine Hydra hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) With the Vala’s four bar layout, Santa Cruz seems to have pursued some of the same kinematics goals of lower anti-squat and lower anti-rise seen with the latest iteration of their VPP suspension. So how similar do the two suspension designs actually feel on the trail?
(2) How much range can we eke out of a 600 Wh battery paired with a full power Bosch Performance Line CX motor, and does it feel limiting in any way?
(3) How descending-oriented does the Vala feel, and do the weight and geometry help to boost confidence beyond what 150 mm rear travel would imply?
Bottom Line (For Now)
The Santa Cruz Vala isn’t necessarily the eMTB we expected from Santa Cruz, but it looks like a compelling blend of sensible geometry, an arguably best-in-class drive unit, and a well-sorted suspension design. The Vala does also enter a very crowded field of 150–160 mm travel eMTBs, so we will be very curious to see how it differentiates itself. We should have a chance to do just that very soon, so keep your eyes peeled for updates as we get some ride time on the Vala.