Santa Cruz Bicycles


Santa Cruz Bicycles is a manufacturer of high end mountain bikes based in Santa Cruz, California. They sponsor the Santa Cruz Syndicate, a downhill racing team. The company moved premises from 104 Bronson Street to 2841 Mission Street in 2013. On July 3, 2015, Santa Cruz bicycle was sold to Pon Holdings, a family-owned Dutch conglomerate with a bicycle division including brands such as Cervélo, Focus and Royal Dutch Gazelle.

History

Santa Cruz Bicycles was founded by Rob Roskopp, Mike Marquez and Rich Novak in 1993. 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.
Their first bike, in 1994, was a full suspension bike called the Tazmon. It had an travel single pivot design, the first on the market. It was followed a year later by the travel Heckler, a model that was discontinued for the 2016 model year.
The company acquired the patents for their Virtual Pivot Point from Outland Bikes around 1999.

Models

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. Frame fabrication occurs in China or 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.
In 2017 Santa Cruz announced the addition of carbon fiber wheels to their product lineup.
Current Santa Cruz/Juliana Production Models
Current Santa Cruz Production Wheel Models
Discontinued Models
Santa Cruz Syndicate is a sponsored downhill team affiliated with the company. Current roster is Loris Vergier, Luca Shaw, and Greg Minnaar.