Santa Cruz Hightower 4
Wheel Size: 29’’ front and rear
Suspension Travel:
- Frame: 150 mm
- Fork: 160 mm
Geometry highlights:
- Sizes offered: S, M, L, XL, XXL
- Headtube angle: 63.9° (Low), 64.2° (High)
- Reach (size L): 478 mm
- Chainstay length (size L): 440 mm
Frame material: Carbon fiber
Price: Complete bikes starting at $4,799 USD (build details below)
Intro
Hot on the heels of the updated Bronson, the Santa Cruz Hightower is the next bike in the brand’s lineup to get a refresh — but there’s more to the Hightower update than we expected.
Long positioned as Santa Cruz’s “one-bike quiver” option, the Hightower 4 follows along with some of the same updates seen on the Bronson, but the Hightower has also grown in travel, up to 150 mm rear / 160 mm front (from 145 mm / 150 mm).
Despite what its familiar aesthetic might suggest, Santa Cruz has revisited just about everything from suspension design to geometry. Let’s see just how far they went with their updates.
The Frame
For now at least, the Hightower is a carbon-only offering, with Santa Cruz’s typical split between the two grades of “C” and “CC” frames. The C-grade frames are used on the three lower-tier builds, while the CC-grade frames drop some weight at the cost of a higher price tag.
The Hightower also gets Santa Cruz’s latest version of the VPP suspension platform. By shifting the shock slightly down and forward, Santa Cruz was able to decrease anti-squat and correspondingly lower pedal kickback, which should result in less feedback through the pedals as the bike responds to bumps. The new frame shape also has a two-pillar structure that frames the shock; this makes checking sag a bit easier while also providing a slight aesthetic update on an otherwise familiar design language.
As with the revised Bronson, Santa Cruz has made a fairly strong gesture of commitment to electronic shifting on the new Hightower — while the C frame retains internal cable routing, the CC frame foregoes any routing for cable-actuated shifting. Santa Cruz isn’t the only manufacturer to be doing this (see the Specialized Stumpjumper 15), but I can’t help but question the “why” behind the decision. SRAM’s AXS system is seeing continued market penetration, but I still think that plenty of folks are happy with the lower cost and serviceability of good old-fashioned mechanical shifting (or maybe I’m a luddite).
That aside, the new Hightower gets you Santa Cruz’s familiar Glovebox frame storage, which allows for hiding away snack and tools, and there’s plenty of space for a water bottle. Santa Cruz also kept ISCG-05 tabs to allow for chain guides or bash guards.
Fit & Geometry
The new Hightower features plenty of geometry updates, many of which are rather similar to the updated Bronson. The Hightower’s headtube angle drops to 63.9° in its Low setting or 64.2° in High (switchable via a flip chip). Its chainstay lengths are now size-specific across the board, with the size Large getting 440 mm chainstays; lengths change at 2–3 mm intervals between each smaller or larger size.
Stack heights have also grown on the new Hightower, at 641 mm on the size Large (for the High position; it’s 643 mm in Low). Other highlights include a steep 78.2° effective seat tube angle (High position; 77.9° in Low), and a 29 mm bottom bracket drop (High position; 32 mm in Low).
Check out the geometry chart below for the full breakdown:
The Builds
As with most of their bikes, Santa Cruz offers lots of build options for the Hightower. Six different builds cover everything from the $4,799 “R” build with cable-actuated shifting to the $10,899 “XX AXS RSV” build with a SRAM Transmission, Fox Factory suspension, and carbon wheels from Reserve.
Aside from a RockShox Lyrik and Fox Float Performance shock on the R build, all other build options get Fox 36 forks set at 160 mm of travel, paired with Fox Float X shocks. Brakes and shifting are all provided by SRAM, with the four higher-spec builds getting electronic Transmission shifting and Maven brakes. Despite clear commitment to electronics in the shifting department, Santa Cruz has opted not to go with SRAM’s Reverb AXS dropper; even the highest-spec builds come with OneUp V3 posts — likely relating to the limitations of the Reverb AXS post’s 170 mm maximum drop.
All of the build highlights are as follows:
- Drivetrain: SRAM Eagle NX
- Brakes: SRAM DB8 (200 mm rotors)
- Fork: RockShox Lyrik Base (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float Performance
- Wheels: Reserve 30 TR 6061 rims / SRAM MTH hubs
- Dropper Post: SDG Tellis
- Drivetrain: SRAM Eagle GX
- Brakes: SRAM DB8 (200 mm rotors)
- Fork: Fox 36 Performance (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Performance
- Wheels: Reserve 30 TR 6061 rims / DT Swiss 370 hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Maven Bronze (180 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors)
- Fork: Fox 36 Performance Elite (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Performance Elite
- Wheels: Reserve 30 SL 6061 rims / DT Swiss 370 hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
- Drivetrain: SRAM X0 Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Maven Silver (180 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors)
- Fork: Fox 36 Factory (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Factory
- Wheels: Reserve 30 SL 6069 rims / Industry Nine 1/1 hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
- Drivetrain: SRAM X0 Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Maven Silver (180 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors)
- Fork: Fox 36 Factory (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Factory
- Wheels: Reserve 30 HD carbon rims / Industry Nine 1/1 hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
- Drivetrain: SRAM XX Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Maven Ultimate (180 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors)
- Fork: Fox 36 Factory (160 mm)
- Shock: Fox Float X Factory
- Wheels: Reserve 30 HD carbon rims / Industry Nine Hydra hubs
- Dropper Post: OneUp V3
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) Is the Hightower still Santa Cruz’s trusty all-rounder, or does its bit of added suspension travel push the Hightower into being a more aggressive bike?
(2) The Hightower now shares the same amount of suspension travel with the Bronson, along with some extremely similar geometry figures. So, is the Bronson basically a mixed-wheel version of the Hightower, or are there more notable differences in their personalities?
Bottom Line (For Now)
Santa Cruz often opts for incremental changes with each new bike, rather than sweeping redesigns. That’s partially the case with the new Hightower, but its increase in travel paired with a slacker headtube angle has us curious about the new bike’s descending confidence — and also whether any gains there come at a cost in other areas.
We enjoyed the last iteration of the Hightower for its versatility, and we’ll be working to get our hands on a Hightower here soon to see how much it strays from the outgoing model.