Bible Review: Santa Cruz 5010 X01 Carbon
X01 Carbon CC with Carbon Reserve Wheel Upgrade | $8,100
Testers were still in XC 29er mode when we moved on to stacking our laps on the Santa Cruz 5010. After riding all the light-weight, short-travel big-wheel chargers, it seemed as though the 27.5-inch 5010 might be a bit of a chore on our lengthy test loop. Well, that apprehension couldn’t have been more unfounded. By the time we rolled away from the trailhead, the 5010 was already the undisputed parking lot champ of the test, and the good times just kept rolling throughout our test lap. This bike has a way of inviting you to jib, skid and wheelie like you’re a high schooler ditching class to go ride. It’s nothing but fun.
Playing around in the parking lot and confidence on the trail are two different beasts, though. That’s where the 5010 really surprised us. The redesigned linkage that we’ve become familiar with on Santa Cruz’s longer-travel offerings is a perfect match for this short-travel platform. Running the linkage in the low position with 30-percent sag achieves a really predictable, snappy ramp-up without losing any traction in the initial part of the stroke. This made the bike a surprisingly confident and quick climber. A 77.2-degree seat tube angle on our size large, combined with a not-too-slack-for-a-small-wheel-bike 65.7-degree head angle only aided in the unexpected climbing prowess. The riding position and the way this linkage behaves under pedaling power almost makes you forget that it even is a small-wheel bike. In fact, with its snappy handling, one tester successfully linked more of our technical climb on the test loop than on most of the 29-inch bikes.
Enough about the climbing, though. That’s not the feature that most people eyeing up this bike are interested in. They want to see if its creative personality lives up to the hype. Yep, it does. There’s something really special about a short-travel 130/140 bike with small wheels wrapped into a package with a geometry built for bike control. This redesign didn’t stretch and slack it out to the point where speed is its only objective. The conservative angles intentionally complement what a short-travel bike should be in this day and age: nimble, agile and rewarding to creative approaches to trail riding.
Descending is an absolute treat on the 5010. It’s so responsive that it has a special way of making you look at the trail through a different lens. Any opportunity to manual, nose bonk or slide into a turn seemed like not only the best option, but the only option on the 5010. It’s got ADHD in the best way possible. You can’t stay still on this bike. You’ve just got to play around. It’s such a refreshing feeling given how race-oriented many trail bikes are these days.
We were on the top-end build for the 5010 with the X01 Carbon CC package. Ultimate level RockShox Super Deluxe and Pike takes care of suspension duties, while SRAM’s X01 components with the new Eagle 52 cassette round out the drivetrain. The 52-tooth top end gear was a hotly debated topic on all the bikes we tested. The jump from the 42 to 52 tooth is undeniably big. It had us thinking of whether tinkering with front chainring size could actually be a good idea on a quick, efficient 27.5-incher like the 5010. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to opt for a 34-tooth ring to be more in the middle of the cassette in the shreddy, jibby gears.
Adding to that, details like a Burgtec stem, Santa Cruz’s carbon bars and Reserve wheels are beautiful touches. Right down to details like the grips this may have been the only bike we tested where none of us wanted to change any components right out of the gate.
To be honest, some of us thought this bike would be proof that our small-wheel days are over. To finally settle the issue that trail bikes are 29ers and only 29ers. And dammit, that’s not what happened. It was just way too much fun. In fact, it had the opposite effect. It really made us realize how a carefully considered package like the 5010 can accentuate all the positive attributes of small wheels and short travel. It’s a real stand out alongside bikes with longer, slacker angles as an unique alternative for a daily driver trail bike.
