Web Exclusive! Blur 4X Tested

Santa Cruz Blur 4X www.santacruzbicycles.com $1499 (powdercoat), $1649 (anodized), frame and Fox Float shock.

Santa Cruz’s Blur has rapidly gained a strong foothold amongst the trail riding and endurance racing communities, and is regarded as one of the finer handling x-c bikes currently on the market. It’s light, stiff, and snappy, and lends itself well to hard pedaling over rough terrain.

That’s not to say it is perfect, however. The Blur is a lightweight design, and as such, there are limits on what it can be expected to do. Heavier and harder riders have endured their share of frame breakages when pushing limits. Santa Cruz does not endorse the use of forks with more than four-inches travel as the added leverage resulting from increased axle-to-crown length can lead to frame failures at the head tube. Some riders in rougher, steeper climates hungered for longer travel forks and slacker head angles. And, for two years, prior to the Bigfoot swingarm being introduced last summer, the rear tire clearance was, in most situations, inadequate.

Enter the Blur 4X (pictured on the left). This is a production version of the bike that members of the Santa Cruz Syndicate have been using to race slalom and 4X for the past two seasons, and is designed primarily for that arena. However, out in the real world, this slacker, beefier, Blur is likely to win over some hard charging converts from the standard model.

Featuring the same VPP design as the regular Blur, the new 4X gets a much shallower head angle (68.5 degrees as measured with a four-inch travel fork) while retaining a low bottom bracket and steep seat angle. The head tube is thicker than what is found on regular duty Blurs, and is gusseted to the top and down tubes, both of which are stouter (this is visibly most evident in the down tube, which is about a half-inch larger in diameter than on the regular Blur, and is ovalized laterally at the bb and vertically at the head tube) than their more x-c oriented sibling.

The frame is rated safe to use with a six-inch travel fork. Rear travel remains the same, at a little under five-inches. The ability to run long travel forks, combined with the slacker head angle and the Bigfoot swingarm (which can handle 2.5” tires), transforms a snappy handling x-c platform into something a lot more at home in super-steep, rocky terrain.

As a trail bike, set up with a four-inch fork, the Blur 4X has a few quirks. One, it is heavier by about a pound and a half than the regular Blur. Two, the bottom bracket is low, and this can cause some pedal smacking fun in the rocks. Three, even with a short-ish travel fork, the head angle is slack. Climbing switchbacks and trials-speed slow terrain requires an adjustment in riding style. But, dear God, it is stable.

Our large model frame has a rock-solid 44.5-inch wheelbase. With a longer travel fork, such as the 5.6” travel Pike Air on our test bike, the wheelbase can stretch out to an even 45”. At that length, with the head angle at least another degree slacker, we doubt that anything (earthquake, hurricane, act of congress, whatever) could throw the bike off its line. It is very, very, very stable. The longer travel fork also lets the cranks clear rock gardens a little better, too. It wheelies like a fiend. In the air, it is balanced and predictable. All stretched out and slack, it’s more endo-resistant than anything this side of a tandem.

And, while it may not be the lightest wonderbike out there (as pictured, with 1200g DH tires and a coil shock, out test bike weighed 34lbs. Swapping the tires and shock out for something more trail-sensible would shave the weight back down to under 30lbs pretty easily), it’s still much lighter and a far better climber than any full-tilt freeride bike we could mention.

The 4X is an odd duck, for sure, and not everybody’s cup of tea. XC racers will be happier on the stock Blur or something similar, while full-on freeriders will probably want something more toward the seven-plus-inch of travel, dual crown fork end of the continuum. There are also rumors swirling about a lightweight, long travel Blur in the works, something along the lines of Intense’s 5.5 EVP, for the long-haul, big mountain crowd. But in the meantime, for those of you hankering for a super-beefy trail bike, one with long legs, loads of tire clearance, abusable construction, and ultra-stable handling, the 4X might be worth a look.

A note on our test rig - the one pictured: The guys at Santa Cruz are not too stoked on the way this is set up. They recommend sticking with shorter-travel forks even though the frame can handle more, because some there feel the head angle becomes too slack when running longer than four-inch forks. Santa Cruz also favors either 5th Element air shocks, or Fox Float RP3 units over the coil pictured. At this point I’d have to say I agree with them regarding the shock – the one pictured was not valved specifically for the design and as such didn’t behave as well as it could have – but I also kind of like the slacker, longer front end for the crank clearance and the added stability it offers.