I was expecting something better than this.
I was really expecting a new Shimano motor and something more innovative from Santa Cruz.
They will still sell shit tons of these, because it’s almost like they made the least amount of effort and know that the Santa Cruz name will just sell the bike for them.
Why would anybody buy this over a YT or the dozens of other E8000 bikes that cost considerably less?
Santa Cruz has always made good bikes, but they don’t ride any better or worse than the vast majority of bikes on the market. It was just the cool brand to have a decade ago. There are other brands that have taken away their market share in the last few years. Yeti, Pivot, YT, Transition, Ibis and Evil are all brands I see on my local trails just as often as I see a Santa Cruz.