Santa Cruz Megatower Review: Even More Mega | 2022 Enduro Field Test
It feels like just recently that 150mm of rear travel seemed like plenty for an enduro bike, but the times have changed, and as the definition of an enduro bike has become brawnier, Santa Cruz’s long-travel 29er has grown to reflect that shift.
Presented By:
POC – http://pocsports.com
Rapha – https://rapha.cc/
00:00 – Intro
00:27 – Bike Overview
01:22 – Climbing
04:29 – Descending
09:03 – Components
12:21 – Timing
13:42 – Models
14:27 – Pros
15:06 – Cons
15:40 – Verdict
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After racing the last two EWS races on the east coast, I was shocked by the number of people who were racing the V2 Mega! I must have seen 40 of them…not including my own. I love mine and it's an improvement over the V1 which I also owned.
Hydraulic (lever-hose-dropper) dropper on 11k bike?..
Anyone else think Matt Beer looks like Michael Schumacher?
Honestly Santa Cruz bikes are just way too expensive!!! Same spec specialized is so much cheaper!
Mike levy is absolutely irresponsible with his inconsistent pronunciation of Commencal
ah yes, 11k for a mounatinbike. very nice indeed. 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Rockshox should really move to a 'conventional' dropper post. They tried fixing the reverb a million times, and it's still crp. No shame in trying something and realizing it was a bad idea.
How is the fox performance elite model casting 8.5k? That is a nice build, with the GX and alu wheels, all good. But, it should cost 5-6k max. Even that wouldn't be exaclty a bargain.
Only my gynecologist could afford this ‘mega pricey’ khunt! The 1% out there will love love love this review…
Come on pinkbike.
$11k for a bicycle, that’s a bit stupid…..
I think I’ll just buy a damn motorcycle 😅😂
The base model starts at $5649, not $8500
Looks super cool but the reviews make me think I should stay with my Bronson.
$11k with that terrible reverb dropper ….goodbye
Seems sorta like the story from the yt capra.
SantaCruz the "Over Hyped" and "Most OverRated" for that price tag its an absolute joke and really proves you dont need most of it… when a commencal is half the price and will do EVERYTHING the same and you dont have to worry about destroying some carbon and being out of pocket even further… its a wank factor and really unless your top elite it wont help your riding anywhere even racing it comes down to the rider
I would just like to say, my ebike that is all carbon, with top line Fox suspension, quad piston brakes and custom wheels is STILL cheaper by over $2000 than this bike. Santa Cruz is charging hard prices.
Wow, for an 11K bike, this review feels really low energy and "meh," like our hosts are struggling to say "This bike is worth 11k because it's the greatest bike we've ever been on." Makes me really happy to get a 6K bike instead, haha.
How tall are the test riders, heard bike was a large.
Ah man, 2 years ago I bought a bought a V1 Evil The Following new for $3000. A year later I added I-9 carbon Hydra wheels for $2000. So I now look at these $11,000 new MTBs and just laugh cause I think my orange rig is as good as any of them…..for a fraction of the cost!!!!!!! And !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The cost is vomit worthy.
Chain slap almost disappears if Shimano derailleur with a nicely tensioned clutch is used.
ride a the new megatower in moraine a couple months ago, my only complaints are the seat tube is long af and bothered me a lot (i am 6ft1 and the bike shop only had xl sizes so that may be on me) and that i ran out of skill!
eleven thousand one hundred and ninety nine. Let that sink in.
To Matt, what is your favourite reach on an enduro bike?
Most MTBs are more capable than the average rider at this point. Would be interested to hear a few words about the maintainability and future proofing of the frames. These bikes cost a lot of money and I try to get many years out of mine as possible. I've had wildly different ownership experiences depending on: frame quality, frame features (Santa Cruz's internal routing was amazing, not sure if the whole industry has moved to guided cables now), choice of standards (you don't want the "new" standard that no other company picks up and the components manufactures don't support), also customer support can make a difference.
for that kind of money i can buy a bike with 1 liter state of the art 14k rpm engine close to 200hp …and get so much adrenalin rush that i will forget about Santa brand forever …MTB brands what to buy lambos and invest in Real property …now …they want to go big! so you have to pay for all that …i feel sorry for you …i will never give that kind a money for bike …even that i am a real fan of high end suspension and kinematics …sorry…
Super excited about this new Megatower; coming from the Hightower V2 I can’t wait to test ride one.. I don’t know why Santa Cruz specs the Rockshox reverb on their higher end bikes. I feels great when it works well but so often it goes soft and squishy. I have replaced the reverb on both my bikes and never looked back
This review crew needs some color
Ooh, should I buy a small car, a morcycle or a bycycle with my $11,000?
ElevenThousandDollars!
It's a bike! Half the bits wear out each year.
Hilarious 😂
Does it ever stop raining where you test bikes?
I stopped watching at $11k. Prices have gone insane
does not sound so good for the megatower 🙁 Especially in this configuration do if you go for a lower spec it is even worse 😞
Sounds like most of the criticisms would be resolved with aluminum rims.
$$$. Looks like the 'S' build is the lowest cost worthwhile choice. It's $6799USD! The cheapest 'R' build is still $5649USD, but comes with NX drivetrain, which is a nonstarter at that price point. I don't really see any attractive Megatower models at the current pricing.
EDIT: I just looked up the bike I bought last year and see that prices have skyrocketed across the board over the last year 🙁
At this price, they could have specced an AXS dropper…
Or maybe it's kind of a "supply issue"?
So I have the lowest model Megatower R, and I have put some DT Swiss mx421 wheels on it with a GX drive chain. This bike rips as a little DH rig. It’s very poppy and fun to jump . It is a firmer ride through the suspension set up but I like that. I think you guys are are experiencing harshness on the ride because you have carbon rims. That setup is way too hard of a ride. Aluminum rims is the way to go on a shred machine like this. You all should be testing a more affordable bike model like mine as most people don’t like spending eleven grand on a bike?…Just a thought!
My 65 yr old dad bought this and he assembled it by himself. He absolutely loves Latest.Bike . He did however order a bigger seat.
The average rider doesn’t ride with a full face helmet, but I guess they are doing this because they are the test riders pushing the bike to its limit.
Get zip lock bag 💼 it works too