Santa Cruz: Heckler X.O XC Hard Trail
It wasn't as if the outgoing Heckler (known at Santa Cruz as the H5) sorely needed a revamp. Its single-pivot design is already stable and efficient, and plenty of Santa Cruz's pros are as happy to ride the H5 as any other bike in the SC line. But engineer David Allen says the goal was to take the beefy, single-pivot Heckler and even out its weight distribution while stiffening the rear end (on the H5, according to Allen, the rear triangle is almost a half pound lighter than the front; on the new Heckler, the H6, the triangles weigh the same). Both bikes have been virtually tested with CAD machines, as well as in the lab, and the H6 comes out with a rear end that's 20 percent stiffer without adding a gram to the overall frame weight.
This might all sound like hocus-pocus, but it doesn't ride like marketing mumbo jumbo. The Heckler is one fun bike that also means serious business when you need to carve with sudden--as in yesterday--quickness, or launch down a set of stairs on a previously unknown-to-you trail. The Heckler is so unfazed by any obstacle that might've fazed you previously that you find yourself trying stunts you wouldn't have believed possible on another bike. Yeah, we rode those stairs, and yeah, we carved those corners, too. And yeah, that stiff rear triangle makes a lot of that happen. Sure, when you read the specs, like a 69-degree head angle, you might think this bike would steer too slowly for tight-woods antics. It doesn't. It's not Jack Russell terrier-quick to turn, but the short chainstays and fairly compact wheelbase make it agile enough. And besides, the now-even-taller bottom bracket drop of 13.5 inches gives you all kinds of clearance in the going-over (logs, rocks, small children) department. Who needs lightning-quick steering when you can just bomb it? The kicker is that for a bike with nearly 6 inches of travel, the Heckler is fairly light and climbs as beautifully and efficiently as some bikes with half that suspension. Yeah. You read right. And let's add one more word.
