Licks Cycles: Santa Cruz Heckler SL: a brand new mid energy, mid journey e-bike with mullet wheels

The sunshine(er)weight, mid-power e-bike market has actually began to come back into its personal within the final 12 months, with quieter, extra refined choices which are genuinely interesting rides. Now, Santa Cruz has a scorching new entry into this class, with its extremely glossy, Fazua-powered Heckler SL.

Bear in mind when 29er mountain bikes stood out like a sore thumb? Huge wagon wheels, with skinny cross nation tyres and sometimes with goofy, dated geometry. Many speculated about this wheel measurement – and its future – however a decade or so later they’re not only a frequent sight however have matured into nicely proportioned and eye-pleasing bikes. They definitely don’t stand out anymore.

And it was a lot the identical with e-bikes too. Early adopters needed to forgive the cumbersome, clunky appears, a battery piggy-backed onto the down tube and outsized shows and controllers. However e-bike growth has been fast, particularly in the previous few years and the Hecker SL, a brand new mid-power mannequin from Santa Cruz could be the excellent illustration of this. The svelte carbon body definitely hides its motor and slimline battery nicely and it doesn’t stand out as a motorised machine. It appears similar to a premium stage up to date path bike.

It’s carbon just for the Heckler SL, in C or CC stage body choices. There’s no alloy model

We might not have seen this new e-bike within the flesh but however from the photographs it appears as near an everyday self-assisted mountain bike as its potential to get. With 150mm rear journey, a 160mm inventory fork and a mullet/MX (29in entrance, 27.5in rear) wheel arrange it mirrors the model’s Bronson path bike blueprint however with an built-in down tube battery and Fazua’s small and discrete motor. As common path bikes have bulked up, many e-bikes have trimmed some fats and as with Trek’s TQ-powered Gasoline EXe and its self-powered sibling, the common Gasoline EX, it’s getting exhausting to differentiate between the 2 breeds visually.

The Hecker SL is the primary mid-powered e-MTB from Santa Cruz

This new and evolving mid-powered e-bike class isn’t nearly slim appears and being inconspicuous although. These bikes are quieter and lighter, leading to a extra pure trip really feel and a extra manageable bike. Environment friendly low drag, diminutive motors, and the dearth of bulk from smaller, built-in batteries helps shed the kilos.

Santa Cruz didn’t rush into the full-power e-bike market, bringing again the Hecker and Bullit identify plates for its nicely offered Shimano-powered fashions. And its taken its time with its trail-oriented mid-powered providing too, dropping the Heckler SL right into a market when the expertise is maturing nicely and confirmed itself.

The Heckler SL mirrored the self-assisted Bronson in terms of suspension journey and mullet wheel arrange

Have to know

Carbon C and CC spec frames, no alloy possibility
150mm rear journey, 160mm fork journey
MX wheel arrange (29in entrance, 27.5in rear) on all sizes
5 body sizes S to XXL
Fazua Trip 60 (60Nm) light-weight motor
Fazua 430Wh built-in battery
Built-in prime tube show with USB-C telephone/GPS charging port
Three Fazua help ranges plus Enhance (450W) and Stroll Help mode
Fazua APP offers customisation of vary
Common bike weight of 18.5kg/41 kilos
Bikes begin at £6699 for an R construct on a C spec body

So, the Hecker SL actually is a motorized SC Bronson, utilizing the identical body and suspension blueprint, wheel sizes and journey. The geometry figures are nearly similar, aside from the chainstay size which is 5mm longer on the motorised bike.

With an built-in battery it’s on-bike charging just for this mid energy e-bike

With the confirmed Fazua Trip 60 motor and Santa Cruz promising a sub 19kg weight, this new Heckler SL goes head-to-head with one of the best bikes within the rapidly evolving mid-powered ‘eating regimen’ e-bike class.

The Specialised Levo SL, Trek Gasoline EXe and Pivot Shuttle SL are all high-scoring bikes of this style however the place the Specialised matches the Heckler SL in entrance and rear journey and MX wheel arrange, it’s the Pivot that opts for Fazua’s newest Trip 60 motor.

The Fazua show in neatly built-in into the highest tube of the carbon body

One subject the Santa Cruz press launch solely touches on is the bike’s vary. Definitely many components have an effect on this and Santa Cruz doesn’t checklist any figures, nevertheless is does counsel the the Heckler SL, with its 430Wh built-in battery, offers an equal vary to that of a full energy e-MTB with a 630Wh battery.

After all, one compromise is that the battery isn’t detachable for charging, so that you’ll must bear that in thoughts, though a full cost is claimed to take solely take 3.5 hours.

As with all Santa Cruz frames, the Heckler SL has a lifetime guarantee and that features the pivot bearings

After our current E-bike of the 12 months take a look at we’ve bought stacks of perception, confirmed take a look at tracks and a whole lot of collective assisted-riding hours behind us, so we’re eager to see how this new providing from Santa Cruz performs and stacks up towards our mid energy ‘eating regimen e-bike’ benchmarks.