2026 Santacruz Bullit Owners - Setup - Tricks - Discussion

Mojo_n_SB said:

Any chance at all to make this a non mullet?

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ebsocalmtb said:

@Mojo_n_SB Tried it this weekend, you cannot fit a 29r rear wheel in the frame. The tire will contact the chainstay yoke as well as the seat stay bridge.

@RSG I am 99% certain you can slam a 210mm oneup v3 into the medium frame. I seem to remember in the most recent santacruz roller door podcast stating that.

I didn't get a chance to do much riding on my Bullit this last weekend due to a saturday pedal bike suffer-fest. I did do a recovery ride sunday on it with my wife. I used it as an excuse to try a little range test. With the in bike battery and the range extender at full, I did 14.5 miles at 2,000' on the nose at finished with 72% remaining. I did this 90% in boost and 10% in emtb. My legs were smoked and I could barely manage keeping up with my wife on her rise while staying in zone 2.

I swapped some parts out and that resulted in dropping 350g off of the bike. Can't feel the difference but hey, every little bit helps. Going to ride the bullit hard this week, so I'll have more to report here by the end of the week.

Dawn patrol sketchy lines on the Bullit before work.
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Bullit Release day ride crew courtesy of the Path Bike Shop. All of the Bullits in the chamber.
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ebsocalmtb said:

@Mojo_n_SB Tried it this weekend, you cannot fit a 29r rear wheel in the frame. The tire will contact the chainstay yoke as well as the seat stay bridge.

@RSG I am 99% certain you can slam a 210mm oneup v3 into the medium frame. I seem to remember in the most recent santacruz roller door podcast stating that.

I didn't get a chance to do much riding on my Bullit this last weekend due to a saturday pedal bike suffer-fest. I did do a recovery ride sunday on it with my wife. I used it as an excuse to try a little range test. With the in bike battery and the range extender at full, I did 14.5 miles at 2,000' on the nose at finished with 72% remaining. I did this 90% in boost and 10% in emtb. My legs were smoked and I could barely manage keeping up with my wife on her rise while staying in zone 2.

I swapped some parts out and that resulted in dropping 350g off of the bike. Can't feel the difference but hey, every little bit helps. Going to ride the bullit hard this week, so I'll have more to report here by the end of the week.

Dawn patrol sketchy lines on the Bullit before work.
View attachment 159067

Bullit Release day ride crew courtesy of the Path Bike Shop. All of the Bullits in the chamber.
View attachment 159068

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ebsocalmtb said:

Rode the bullit again this morning, forgot my axs battery on the charger at home so I had to ride it single speed. I need to get off my A$$ and get my on the bike tool, spares storage figured out so this doesn't happen again.

So, I did two rides on the same charge of the main battery and the range extender: 600wh + 250wh
Ride 1 = 14.5mi - 2,000' elevation
Ride 2 = 9.8mi - 1,991' elevation
Total = 24.3mi - ~4,000 elevation
I finished this with 36% battery remaining. I was doing 90% of the riding in full boost and 10% in EMTB. Suffice to say, doing 5k' elevation gain in full boost is a layup with the main battery and range extender. I think you could easily do 6-7k of elevation gain in mostly emtb mode.

Overall, that's plenty of range for me. I used to do pretty epic rides on my rise with the 360wh main battery and 2 range extenders and spending most of my time in eco/trail. I have no problem using tour and emtb and going after 7-8k days.

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Rob Rides EMTB said:

Do you know what length Powermore cable you bought? I have one but its massive!

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ebsocalmtb said:

Rob, Santacruz finally updated the vala to faq to give cable size recommendations. That being said, my LBS and I played around with it and I'm not certain we completely agree.

At any rate, I went with a 250mm cable. Ideal would have been 200mm. Santacruz says that the L/XL/XXL can use the 150mm cable but when we tired it on my XL it was too tight for comfort for me. So, suffice to say, I'm running the 250mm and I put a loop in it with a zip tie to take up the slack. It's not perfect, but it works well and doesn't rattle.

I feel like orbea did a better job with the range extender cable management and sizing on this one.

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Druss said:

Good to see you battery consumption.
May I please know your weight ?
It plays a lot into the balance, to say so !

My aim for a new EMTB will be to do 50km/2000 meters elevation, and my "guess" is the Bullit cannot do it, but it has to be confirm !
Hope it can as the specs are good.

Did you any issue so far regarding the technicable climbing ?
Any issues to share regarding "lack of agility" when trails required to turn in 180 degrees ?

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ebsocalmtb said:

@Mojo_n_SB Tried it this weekend, you cannot fit a 29r rear wheel in the frame. The tire will contact the chainstay yoke as well as the seat stay bridge.

@RSG I am 99% certain you can slam a 210mm oneup v3 into the medium frame. I seem to remember in the most recent santacruz roller door podcast stating that.

I didn't get a chance to do much riding on my Bullit this last weekend due to a saturday pedal bike suffer-fest. I did do a recovery ride sunday on it with my wife. I used it as an excuse to try a little range test. With the in bike battery and the range extender at full, I did 14.5 miles at 2,000' on the nose at finished with 72% remaining. I did this 90% in boost and 10% in emtb. My legs were smoked and I could barely manage keeping up with my wife on her rise while staying in zone 2.

I swapped some parts out and that resulted in dropping 350g off of the bike. Can't feel the difference but hey, every little bit helps. Going to ride the bullit hard this week, so I'll have more to report here by the end of the week.

Dawn patrol sketchy lines on the Bullit before work.
View attachment 159067

Bullit Release day ride crew courtesy of the Path Bike Shop. All of the Bullits in the chamber.
View attachment 159068

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ebsocalmtb said:

I'm just a shade under 80kg and I have a power output of 3.8w/kg. Not to brag, but I'm a masochist of a cyclist and I ride 4-6 days a week and do at least 1 pedal bike ride per week that is 1,500-2,000m of elevation gain. I only say that to highlight that give context to who I am as a cyclist as that can impact range.

All that being said, I use my ebike as a recovery ride bike at least one day per week and in those cases, I'm soft pedaling and true my to stay in zone 2. So despite my tendency to be a hammerhead, I do have some experience sitting back and making the electrons do the work.

I digress, I can pretty easily do 1,200M of elevation gain using 80-90% boost and 10-20% emtb on the in frame 600wh battery. I find what drains the battery quickly is chugging along on false flats or flat trails up against the speed limiter. In order to maximize the range, that's usually where I nudge it down to emtb. Basically, just as I crest a climb, I will knock it down to emtb and I find that I don't notice the difference and it doesn't feel like a slog.

I think it just depends on what your expectations are. If you're are intending on doing 2,000M of elevation gain in boost the entire time soft pedaling, the 850wh may be cutting it close. If you do just the most basic battery/range management using emtb for 10-30% time, I think 2,000M is a reasonable expectation.

Regarding the bullit and technical climbing etc. I do a ton of technical climbing on my emtb and I have no complaints with the bullit. The front end will get a tough light on the steepest climbs, (25-30%) grades, but I haven't ridden a bike that wouldn't. The Vala is a bit easier to do these sort of climbs on, but not significantly so. The advantage that the bullit does have is traction, and it has a lot of it. I'm very chunky trails and climbs, the bullit has mind blowing traction. I'm able to climb things on this bike that I was not able to climb on my rise or my relay in the past. Part of that is the motor, but most of it is the centered position on the bike because of the steep seat tube angle. I'm able to run the bars higher on the bullit then any other ebike I've ridden before running into wandering front end issues.

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ebsocalmtb said:

Rode the bullit again this morning, forgot my axs battery on the charger at home so I had to ride it single speed. I need to get off my A$$ and get my on the bike tool, spares storage figured out so this doesn't happen again.

So, I did two rides on the same charge of the main battery and the range extender: 600wh + 250wh
Ride 1 = 14.5mi - 2,000' elevation
Ride 2 = 9.8mi - 1,991' elevation
Total = 24.3mi - ~4,000 elevation
I finished this with 36% battery remaining. I was doing 90% of the riding in full boost and 10% in EMTB. Suffice to say, doing 5k' elevation gain in full boost is a layup with the main battery and range extender. I think you could easily do 6-7k of elevation gain in mostly emtb mode.

Overall, that's plenty of range for me. I used to do pretty epic rides on my rise with the 360wh main battery and 2 range extenders and spending most of my time in eco/trail. I have no problem using tour and emtb and going after 7-8k days.

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Mojo_n_SB said:

Thanks for the data! Any updates on further riding/range? Over the weekend I rode my 2020 Turbo Levo total ascent of 4,419ft and 14 miles and my 750w Levo red barred. If the efficiency is the same or slightly better that's great as this was a solid day of riding.

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ebsocalmtb said:

I got out only once this last weekend. We covered 17 miles, 4,700' of vertical climbing and I was using mostly emtb with about 5% in tour and 10% in boost. I finished with 36% battery remaining. My buddy was on a scor 6080 with a bosch gen 4 and a 750wh battery. He weighs 270lbs (he's 6'6" and a former marine) and his bike was stone dead at the end and he had to nurse it up the last climb.

I think assuming 5,000' of climbing with the 600wh battery in emtb is pretty safe for most people in the middle of the bell curve.

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Mojo_n_SB said:

Thank you!! This is a good day of riding and if the range extender - plenty! Last question for you. I ride a 29er at 6'3", how is the mullet? is it noticeably different? I've never ridden a mullet

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ebsocalmtb said:

I'm 6'2" and go back and forth between mullet's and full 29rs. I don't have a hard/fast preference for one or the other, although I do prefer mullet's on bike park/emtb's. Mx bikes are something that I find you adjust to quickly. At our heights, the differences are subtle but noticeable, at least at first. We don't benefit quite as much as shorter riders do from the butt/thigh buzz benefits, but we do get the handling characteristics.

I would describe it as this... The MX bikes have a bit more of a rearward weight bias overall then a full 29r has. This isn't a huge difference, but it does provide a different feel on steep terrain, when pulling the bike back in a manual and just generally moving the bike around. This is something that you adjust to quickly and after 3 rides, you basically don't notice it until you get back on a 29r.

The one thing I particularly like on MX bikes, especially so for ebikes, is that they initiate corner entry a bit differently. The bike seems to intuitively drift on corner entry as you're transitioning from straight line braking to turn in. The MX bikes can feel a bit frantic and 'loose' on the first few rides because of this, but once you adjust, you'll find that it makes the bike a bit telepathic on initiating a corner. You don't have to be quite as deliberate for setting up corners, it's easier to get the back end to come around mid corner and to finish a corner and it's easier to break the back end loose and drift if so desired. This is a subtle thing, but it tends to feel a bit more like surfing or dh skiing where a 29r can feel pretty locked in on rails. It also gives the sensation that it's easier to adjust the bike mid corner where as doing that with a 29r can feel a bit more cumbersome.

Again, I think that at our height, these things are pretty subtle. The distinct advantage to being tall (regardless of weight) is that we can utilize leverage a bit easier then smaller riders. This tend to negates some of the locked in, on rails, sensations that shorter riders can battle and thus, the difference between mx and 29rs is less pronounced for us. That's a good thing, and it makes it about adjusting to the bike and nuance.

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• PNW Loam Carbon 50mm Rise Bars & RF Turbine R 40mm Stem. I find that my thumbs/hands benefit from the additional back sweep of the pnw loam bars. They are a touch stiffer then the oneup carbon bars (not quite as stuff as the oneup alu bars) and they provide a bit more direct feel. That being said, the benefits for me are a slightly shorter cockpit/reach and the hand position due to the increased back sweep.
• Avalanche tuned Marzocchi bomber CR - This was tuned for my transition relay and I am keeping it to try on the bullit. The first ride I did with it, I left the bike in low progression and I didn't quite feel like the coil shock was better then the stock float X. I did the second ride with the bike in the higher progression setting and it was way better. I am still fiddling with the compression, rebound and spring rate so it's very initial days. That being said, the coil shock does have some traction advantages, although they are not as significant on this bike as the difference between air/coil on other bikes IMO. I think right now, I'm 50/50 on if this is an improvement or not. I don't think that points to anything bad about the coil setup, but more that Santacruz did a great job with the float X tuning and that the kinematics for this bike are something special. More time/tuning to come before I will give a real comparison.

ebsocalmtb said:

I've had a gnarly run at work lately with a brutal grind to a deadline. I used that as an excuse to take a Monday/Friday off and treat myself to a 4 day weekend of bike riding and working on bikes. Much needed and overall it was a success. I had plans to ride all of my bikes in that time period, but the stress meant that my neck was a mess, so I changed my plans to spend 4 days riding the bullit... what a bummer

I do have a substantial amount of information to share with regards to range both with and without the range extender, see the below list of rides and battery consumption.

I've also been playing with bike setup and trying out some different parts:

• PNW Loam Carbon 50mm Rise Bars & RF Turbine R 40mm Stem. I find that my thumbs/hands benefit from the additional back sweep of the pnw loam bars. They are a touch stiffer then the oneup carbon bars (not quite as stuff as the oneup alu bars) and they provide a bit more direct feel. That being said, the benefits for me are a slightly shorter cockpit/reach and the hand position due to the increased back sweep.
• Avalanche tuned Marzocchi bomber CR - This was tuned for my transition relay and I am keeping it to try on the bullit. The first ride I did with it, I left the bike in low progression and I didn't quite feel like the coil shock was better then the stock float X. I did the second ride with the bike in the higher progression setting and it was way better. I am still fiddling with the compression, rebound and spring rate so it's very initial days. That being said, the coil shock does have some traction advantages, although they are not as significant on this bike as the difference between air/coil on other bikes IMO. I think right now, I'm 50/50 on if this is an improvement or not. I don't think that points to anything bad about the coil setup, but more that Santacruz did a great job with the float X tuning and that the kinematics for this bike are something special. More time/tuning to come before I will give a real comparison.

At any rate, onto the riding and the range impressions.

Day 1 - Epic Day Range Test - 27.6 Miles / ~7,000' elevation gain - w/Range Extender - 25% battery remaining. Mostly tour/emtb with boost a handful of times for steep climbs.
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Day 2 - 14.5 Miles / ~3,500' elevation gain - NO range extender - 40% battery remaining - Tour/Emtb and boost for some of the steeper climb sections only.
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Day 3 - 24 Miles / ~5,100 elevation gain - NO range extender - 5% battery remaining - Nearly equal usage of all modes.
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Day 4 - 24 Miles / ~5,500' elevation gain - Range Extender - 30% Emtb / 70% Boost - 15% battery remaining.
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And some bike glamor shot photos from the rides along the way.
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Geetsrevoel said:

Is that the oneup 100cc pump you have?

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ebsocalmtb said:

First two photos are of the 100cc pump, so yes. I changed to the 40cc pump (the last two photos) as the 100cc was contacting both the range extender and a water bottle. Long story short, mid to short frame mounted pumps only due to clearance.

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Geetsrevoel said:

Thanks. Appreciated….Do you think if you had a large frame the 100cc would perhaps fit? Alternatively, with the range extender fitted would the bottle/side mount work?

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