Santa Cruz Hightower 2 C/XT (2021)

Santa Cruz Hightower 2 C/XT

If ever a bike resembled your most cherished mix tape compilation, the Hightower is it.  Featuring the lower-link mounted shock design, updated, adjustable geometry, this “Engineering Best Of...” assembles some of our biggest design pleasers into one belter of a road-trip companion.

The Santa Cruz Hightower has been a does-it-all-well trail bike since its inception. More maneuverable than its longer-travel sibling, the Megatower, and more at home in the steep-and-chunky than its snappy cousin Tallboy, Hightower excels when the route covers ‘all points in between,’ and descents come courtesy of some big-ass climbs. The VPP suspension’s lower-link-mounted shock creates a nearly linear leverage curve, meaning it mops up bumps of all sizes and maintains the kind of progressivity normally reserved for the V10 DH bike!  

140mm of rear travel complemented by a 150mm front end gives Hightower just a bit more front and rear travel over the first generation model. Combined with a slacker 65-degree head tube angle, the Hightower still sits squarely in the Goldilocks zone, but with a touch more “Oh sh*t get me out of here” capability when the porridge gets too hot!

Balancing stiffness and weight savings in all the right places is a hallmark of all Santa Cruz carbon frames and the Hightower flies the flag yet higher. The advanced composite chassis tracks well across all trail surfaces, holds a line, and is reactive to rider directions while isolating pedal-influenced inputs.

The Hightower also has a bonus disc to heighten the experience—the flip chip. In the High setting, the BB height is a little higher for those tricky tech trails and/or when Plus sized tires are required. In the Low position the shock rate is more progressive, to provide additional bottom-out resistance. Whatever mood you’re in, the tone of the Hightower can be adapted to meet your individual taste.

What the Flip?

It wasn’t so long ago that chainstay length and shock rate were set in stone. It was either short or long and progressive or linear: a real Finkle or Einhorn situation. You got what you got and that was that — until flip-chips came along.The first iteration of the Hightower was also the first of the range to be graced with a flip chip. It started as a way to keep geometry inline when you swapped from 29in wheels to 27.5+ wheels. This evolved a little with when a flip-chips found their way into the chainstays of certain bikes. Now it was one chip to tweak the suspension tune and one to tweak the chainstay length. Beyond wheel size swapping, each of these adjustments gained a different, more nuanced purpose and, although small, these are the kinds of tweaks that can give your fire-breathing monster truck the benefit of adjustable power seats.

And speaking of taste, there’s a room for a water bottle inside the main frame and a threaded BB for convenience. There’s refined cable routing for better shifting performance, simpler installation, and no cable rub. On top of that, there’s a tailgate shuttle guard, downtube protector, shock fender, and noise-canceling chainstay protector keeping things quiet.

Made for anywhere, anytime, no matter the ride. At home on punchy , technical jank and high-speed single-track.

• Frame geometry High
• Frame geometry Low

Further information about the Hightower series:

• Santa Cruz Hightower