Although a couple of weeks ago, Santa Cruz brought relatively minor updates to its Bronson mountain bike, the brand has carried out bigger updates to its 29er trail bike, the Hightower. Now featuring 150 and 160mm of suspension, the Hightower gets a slacker headtube and the same suspension treatment as the Bronson.

• Best kid's mountain bikes - get the best MTB for your child
• Best titanium mountain bikes you can buy
• Best trail and enduro mountain bike wheelsets, tried and tested

With the updated Hightower, Santa Cruz has built it for those who want one bike to do it all and those who are just out there for a good time. To hit those aims, the bike has received several tweaks to its suspension travel, kinematic and geometry. 

2024 santa cruz hightower riding.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Starting with the suspension travel, it gets boosted from 140 and 150mm of travel front and rear to 150 and 160mm. However, like the Bronson, the Hightower's VPP suspension has had its layout changed to lower its anti-squat for a smoother and more efficient ride. Santa Cruz also says that this change in layout reduces pedal kickback while remaining active when pedalling through technical climbs.

As for the geometry, the Hightower's head angle has got slacker, now sitting at 64.2-degrees in the flip-chip high position. The seat tube angle and chainstay lengths are size-specific with a large frame boasting a 78.2-degree effective seat tube, a 439mm chainstay and a 480mm reach to boot. Touching back on the chainstay, it's longer than before to create a better-balanced ride.

2024 santa cruz hightower glove.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Putting the flip-chip into its L setting slackens the head angle to 63.9-degrees, the effective seat tube angle to 77.9-degrees and shrinks the reach by 2mm.

The new Hightower continues to roll on 29-inch wheels on all sizes and the frame can fit large shocks and coil shocks. Like other bikes in Santa Cruz's range, this one also benefits from the Glovebox down-tube storage. Carbon C frames get fully tubed internal cable routing whereas CC frames are wireless only.

2024 santa cruz hightower ht.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Available in a whopping six builds, those built with AXS drivetrains get SRAM Maven brakes and bikes S and above get Fox 36 forks and Fox's Float X shock. Each bike runs a Maxxis Minion DHF and DHR II tyre combo.

Prices start at £4,900 and go up to £10,000.

• www.santacruzbicycles.com

You might also like:

• How to set up your mountain bike suspension
• Jon's enduro blog pt3: Race day, crunch time?
• How to set up your mountain bike for winter