First-ride review: new Santa Cruz Bullit has put a beaming grin on my face that I can’t shake

Setup

Setup was easy. For my 82kg kitted-up weight, I inflated the fork’s air spring to 97.5psi and fully opened all the external damper adjustments.

At the back, I inflated the rear shock to 203psi and fully opened all the damper adjustments.

I left these settings unchanged for the duration of the test period.

I set the geometry flip chip to its low position and left the suspension progressivity setting also in its low position.

Santa Cruz Bullit X0 AXS RSV climbing performance

Winching to the top of your favourite enduro track, the Bullit feels like the ultimate shuttle bike.

It has an upright riding position and your hips sit directly over the bottom bracket.

Your legs pedal in an efficient and comfortable downward motion, rather than stretching unnaturally in front of you, as they do on bikes with slacker seat tube angles.

The high bar and low rear end add more comfort to the mix; the Bullit takes the shape of an archetypal winch-and-plummet bike.

This takes the weight off your hands and shoulders, instead concentrating it through your sit bones.

Long days in the saddle – permitted by the Bosch motor’s frugality – aren’t fatiguing slogs, and are as joyful as spending hours on your bike should be.

As the day goes on, you won't find yourself comfort-hunting, and continually repositioning and shuffling your backside on the saddle.

It gets even better…

The rear suspension is awesomely soft, supple and active – the rear wheel is sucked to the floor, tracing bumps, lumps and imperfections without fault.

Boosting grip from the rear tyre, and comfort for the rider, it’s not only a powerhouse on even the wildest, most technical and steepest climbs, but it’s also supremely smooth.

However, the rear end’s not sloppy. There’s loads of support as it compresses, helping maintain its dynamic geometry – including the steep seat tube angle – on neck-craning ascents.

The 155mm cranks take a bit of getting used to, especially if you’re coming from 170mm models; your legs feel as though they spin at higher cadences for any given speed.

But there’s loads of ground clearance – pedal strikes are few and far between.

Motor performance and battery life

Bosch’s Gen 5 Performance Line CX motor is frugal.

I managed to eke out 1,498m of ascent over 33km in just over two hours from a single charge using only the eMTB mode.

Weather conditions, trail type, rider strength and other factors will influence this, but it’s an impressive ballpark figure.

Santa Cruz Bullit X0 AXS RSV descending performance

If that all sounds impressive, once the Bullit is pointing downhill, its performance jumps to another level.

Exclaiming in my test notes “it’s just so f**king easy to ride”, I couldn’t get the stupid, beaming grin off my face at the bottom of each descent.

But what does that mean in practical terms?

You sit totally inert on the bike, hands on the bar, feet on the pedals – immovable and unshaken by anything.

Chaos can be unfolding around you, the trail monstrously rough, steep or fast; the bike takes that frenetic energy and distils it into bitesize chunks of manageable inputs for you to react to.

Filter like a pro racer

Like looking through the eyes of Jackson Goldstone or Tahnée Seagrave, the Bullit filters out any unnecessary bits of on-trail clutter, doing the hard work for you.

You only feel and perceive the most important bits.

Small rocks and roots are dealt with almost autonomously, thanks to its generous geometry, and its smooth suspension adapts seamlessly to trail-surface changes.

You just need to focus on the biggest, most important things – the drop to flat, a boulder to hop or a line to stick.

Feeling like an augmented extension of your own body, the Bullit complements your skills marvellously, even on the wildest terrain.

Please sir, I want some more…

Get involved in the ride and there’s more performance to be found.

Extra grip is only a small weight shift away; sticking the hardest, most ambitious lines requires a minimal amount of rider input.

Simply focusing on your desire to take the bike on a certain trajectory is enough to make it do so.

It’s unfazed by anything you encounter and, by extension, so are you.

In the low-geometry flip chip position, the bottom bracket is a belly-dragging 335mm – ideal for hammering turns.

Linking up successive corners makes you feel like a champion; the bike helps you tap into the skills and finesse of pro racers by morphing your body into the optimal shape.

The hand-to-feet relationship, reach-to-rear-centre ratio (51.6 per cent to 48.3 per cent), impeccable suspension and low weight mean perfection is in the making.