FIRST RIDE REVIEW

2025 SANTA CRUZ BRONSON V5

VPP GETS BETTER

Words by Drew Rohde  |  Photos by Grant Robinson 

Back for it’s fifth round of trail-shredding fun, the 2025 Santa Cruz Bronson 5 is here and seems to be making some noticeable leaps in terms of suspension performance and geometry. The new Santa Cruz Bronson will come in C and CC carbon frame options; continues to run MX wheels, and offers 150mm of improved VPP travel out back with 160mm of travel up front. I was only able to put a very short ride on this during Crankworx Whistler on a particularly fun little trail in Function Junction. Even with the short ride time however, I was able to pick up on the updates rather quickly, and we are excited to get a long-term review bike in our possession soon. So, let’s check out the details on the Gen 5 Santa Cruz Bronson.

WHAT IS NEW ABOUT THE BRONSON?

Two of the biggest changes to the Santa Cruz Bronson are the geometry and the reconfigured suspension layout.

Geometry – Santa Cruz is describing it as “Evolved MX geometry.” The Bronson V5 has a longer rear center to help balance the rider in the bike. Depending on the flip chip orientation, the size Large has a 442 or 443mm rear center length, with an overall wheelbase of 1,267 or 1,268mm. This should help with high-speed stability, climbing traction and weight distribution. Of course, there are drawbacks to longer stays, but we’ll have to spend more time to see just how much we experience those. In our first ride, it seems they’re still plenty short enough to keep this playful rig bopping around and manualing with ease.

Other geometry updates include proportional geometry, so that riders of varying heights end up on a bike with appropriate dimensions.

The head tube angle now lands at 63.9- or 64.2 degrees, depending on your Flip Chip orientation. The seat tube angle on our size Large test bike bounced between 77.9- or 78.3 degrees, however each size bike sees different angles to accommodate for optimized seat post height and reach. Speaking of reach, Santa Cruz will offer the Bronson in Small through XXL sizes. Our size Large had a reach of 478mm or 480mm.

Suspension – After taking feedback and input, Santa Cruz said one of their big goals with the updated Bronson was to improve VPP’s ability to handle square-edge hits and offer a smoother, more composed ride that doesn’t hang up or transmit as much pedal kickback to the rider. These are drawbacks to VPP bikes that we’ve mentioned in the past, and received some flack from SC fans for saying. The result? Santa Cruz has possibly created the best feeling VPP bike I’ve ridden, aside from the bump-eating V10. But that official verdict will have to wait until we get our long-term review bike.

To obtain these improments, the Bronson’s link position changed, tweaking the kinematic. The lower VPP link is forward and lower than the previous generation, which allowed Santa Cruz Bicycles engineers to reduce anti-squat. This means the bike may not be as spritely on the pedals as some lycra-clad Bronson riders wish, but the other 99.9% of Bronson riders will certainly love the improved rear wheel traction; seated comfort while pedaling, and composure in rough terrain.

FRAME DETAILS

The new Bronson’s Glove Box storage compartment is a nice touch and is executed well, at least from initial inspection. We’ve yet to see how weather-resistant it is just yet, but the size and usability of the compartment and latch are nice.

Something that will no doubt raise eyebrows is the lack of shift cable ports on CC model bikes. These models will all come with AXS drivetrains, so it’s unlikely a customer will “downgrade” back to mechanical after buying the bike. But, we know y’all still like to complain. For the most analog of analog riders, the C models will still offer internal cable routing ports.

Other features include ISCG05 chainguide mounts; a threaded BB; UDH hanger; IS headset, and Boost 148mm spacing out back. Max tire width for the 27.5” rear wheel is 2.5”.

AVAILABLE MODELS

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