Santa Cruz Bicycles, LLC is an American division of Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings that manufacturers mountain bikes in Santa Cruz, California.[2] They sponsor the Santa Cruz Syndicate, a downhill racing team. The company moved premises from 104 Bronson Street to 2841 Mission Street in 2013 .[3] Formerly owned by NHS, Inc. On July 3, 2015, Santa Cruz Bicycles was sold to Pon Holdings, a family-owned Dutch conglomerate with a bicycle division including brands such as Cervélo, Focus and Royal Dutch Gazelle.[4]
History
Santa Cruz Bicycles was founded by Rob Roskopp, Mike Marquez and Rich Novak in 1993.[5] Roskopp had spent many years as a professional skateboarder, and Novak's Santa Cruz Skateboards company had put out a special "Roskopp" model before the two met. Roskopp and Novak went into partnership with bike engineer Mike Marquez, who had particular experience in bicycle suspension, and Tom Morris, a designer, to build some prototypes.[6]
Their first bike, in 1994, was a full suspension bike called the Tazmon. It had an 80 millimetres (3.1 in) travel single pivot design,[7] the first on the market.[2][5] It was followed a year later by the 100 millimetres (3.9 in) travel Heckler, a model that was discontinued for the 2016 model year and relaunched in 2020 as an e-bike.
A 2013 Santa Cruz Tallboy mountain bike (aluminum frame)Santa Cruz head badge
The company manufactures around a dozen models of mountain bikes made of carbon fiber and aluminum, ranging from $1500 to over $10000 retail. Their bikes are suited to a wide range of mountain biking disciplines.[2] Frame fabrication occurs in China and Taiwan, but all bicycles are assembled in Santa Cruz, built to customer specifications just before being shipped out.
In 2013, a single model, the "Juliana" was spun off as a stand-alone brand and range of mountain bikes for women, designed by and named for Juli Furtado.[8]
In 2017, Santa Cruz announced the addition of carbon fiber wheels[9] to their product lineup.
Current Santa Cruz/Juliana Production Models[10][11]
Blur - 29" wheels, 2 options for suspension travel: XC and TR. TR has 120 millimetres (4.7 in) of fork travel, and 115 millimetres (4.5 in) of VPP Travel. XC has 110 millimetres (4.3 in) of fork travel, and has 107 (4.2 in) millimetres in VPP Travel[12] (Re-introduced in 2018)
Santa Cruz Syndicate is a sponsored downhill team affiliated with the company. Current roster is Laurie Greenland, Jackson Goldstone, and Nina Hoffmann.[18]
