The Santa Cruz Heckler is an all-mountain ride that's agile and light enough to keep with the hypoxic cross-country crowd on the climb, yet possesses enough travel and slack angles to hang with the gravity crew on the descent -- a pretty sweet trick. The Heckler does it all with a classic design. After all, single-pivot suspensions weren’t supposed to keep up with linkage suspension a few years back. The experts were wrong when they said single-pivot suspension would go the way of rigid mountain bikes. They're not only here to stay, but their presence is growing again. The reasons are simple. They are easier to build, easier to assemble, easier to maintain. The result is a quality frame that rides great, is less expensive and takes less attention on a ride-to-ride basis. Single pivots are back. People who have been around since the early days of rear suspension might be a bit surprised, but advancements in pivot placement and axle-path have honed the design. Santa Cruz's refined pivot placement and swingarm design paired with the latest-generation of rear shocks, yields a result nothing short of amazing. Things like unwanted bobbing, a drawback of early designs, is no longer a worry. The Santa Cruz Heckler yields 150mm of travel courtesy of its low-leverage ratio (2.5:1) and stock 8.5 x 2.5 Fox Float R damper. Or, if you prefer the ProPedal platform, an additional $92 will upgrade the shock to the Fox Float RP23. Or $161 nets a Fox DHX 5 Coil. Inertia valves, sophisticated damping, and greater adjustability help bring this simpler rear suspension design near to perfection. For those people who want a larger footprint or can't decide what tire works best, the rear triangle is spread so a 2.5" tire fits comfortably. For those who want to err on the side of too-powerful brakes, the ISO mounts are designed to accept up to 203mm rotors. From a glance, the Heckler looks almost indistinguishable from the Superlight. With a stare, you can spot the differences. It’s a bike ready for an all-mountain thrashing -- the same tough 6069 aluminum tubes, but they’re larger in diameter and more shaped than those on the SL. In addition to the taller, externally-butted head tube, there is more gusseting behind the head, and a beautifully shaped, curved down tube. The curve allows for any single-crown fork to fit, and it will take forks up to 170mm in travel, though built around a 140mm fork. The swingarm pivots on a 15mm axle that runs on bearings with a lifetime warranty from Santa Cruz. Lifetime seems just about long enough -- we expect to ride longer. The Santa Cruz Heckler frame is available in your choice of Black, Lime, Liquid Blue, Red, White, or Yellow powder coats. Or for an upcharge of $150, it can be anodized in Black or Silver. It requires a 30.9 seatpost and a 34.9 top-swing front derailleur. And best-of-all, the right dropout has a replaceable derailleur hanger with an integrated bottle-opener. There are braze-ons for an under-the-down tube water bottle cage. The weight, with a Float R shock, is, according to Santa Cruz, 6.5lbs (2.954kg). The frame has a two year warranty against manufacturing defects, while the bearings are guaranteed for life. US Santa Cruz dealers are prohibited from shipping Santa Cruz bicycles outside of the United States.
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