When the Santa Cruz Bronson was promoted over the Blur LT back in 2013, it heralded Santa Cruz’s acceptance of 27.5” wheels. Eight years later, Bronson has decided to mix things up a bit.

The gravity and trail riding brand has released a new Bronson with the mullet wheel configuration. Frame travel might remain at 150mm, but with the larger 29er front wheel, mounted in a 160mm fork, Bronson has become even more capable.

Read more: Mullet bikes – just when you thought the wheel size war was over!

It isn’t that difficult to understand the engineering theory behind these mullet bikes. You gain the steering stability and obstacle rollover of a 29er, with lighter overall weight and the promise of better agility, when having to navigate some ridiculously tight switchbacks.

Santa Cruz has retained its VPP suspension design for the mullet Bronson, but frame angles are new. Engineers and industrial designers on the Bronson project managed to add 15mm of reach per size, which means that a large now stretches out to 475mm across the top.

With a 64.5 head angle, in the low setting, the new Bronson is adequately slack up front, to make the most of its 29er wheel’s traction properties. A generous spread of sizes are on offer, from extra-small to extra-large, and unlike its predecessor, the new mixed wheel size Bronson has proportional chainstays.

Santa Cruz Bronson geometry

The range starts at £4999, which gets you a Bronson C R featuring SRAM’s NX Eagle 1×12 drivetrain. Suspension components tally Fox’s Float X Performance shock at the rear and a RockShox Lyrik Select up front.

If you want a wireless drivetrain mullet bike, that will be the Bronson CC XX1 AXS RSV. Priced at £9499, this premium Bronson variant rolls Reserve 30 V2 carbon wheels and shifts via SRAM’s XX1 Eagle AXS system.

Delivering traction and taming technical features on the Bronson CC XX1 AXS RSV, is RockShox’s Super Deluxe Ultimate shock and a Fox 36 Float Factory fork.