Santa Cruz has just unveiled the Vala – a brand new all-mountain e-bike that replaces the similarly intentioned Heckler. Instead of a Shimano EP801 motor like its predecessor though, the Vala gets Bosch’s latest gen 5 CX Performance Line motor and a non-removable 600Wh unit. It’s a brave choice in battery capacity then, given that most brands fitting the new CX are going for the new, bigger 800Wh option Bosch offers… and that the old Heckler came with a 720Wh unit.

The Vala is also MX only and many will be surprised to see that Santa Cruz has decided to go with a four-bar suspension system rather than its in-house VPP (Virtual Pivot Point) design, but the short answer is it just wouldn’t fit with the new motor. So how does it ride compared with the best e-bikes on the market? We tested the Vala over a couple of sessions on the trails around Santa Cruz to find out.

The Vala is svelte enough to pass for an SL, despite packing the latest full power Bosch CX motor

Vala need to know

• The Vala is a new, full-power e-MTB powered by the latest gen 5 Bosch CX motor
• Santa Cruz replaces the Heckler with the Vala – its brand new, mid-travel e-bike
• Rather than its in-house VPP suspension, Santa Cruz opts for a four-bar, 150mm system
• A 600Wh battery is fixed in place and compatible with a 250Wh range extender
• Designed to be a mixed wheel mullet only bike
• Deep seat tube insertion means the large Vala can handle a 210mm dropper and 180mm on the medium-sized frame
• Independent geo and progression rate flip-chips can easily adjusted on the trail

Santa Cruz has gone with a four-bar suspension design rather than VPP, which just wouldn’t fit in there with the full size motor

Frame and geometry

Despite having a four-bar suspension system rather than more usual VPP, the Vala still manages to exude that it’s a Santa Cruz bike with a carbon frame that looks properly stunning in its high gloss finish and super clean lines. The downtube is pretty slim, and at first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking this was an SL rather than a full power bike. Employing Bosch’s Bluetooth Mini Remote means there’s no extra wiring to clutter the cockpit, while the System Controller battery and power display inset into the top tube keep the signs of electrical assistance as lowkey as possible.

Like all modern bikes from the brand – like the Gen 4 Santa Cruz Hightower and the latest Bronson , the Vala gets a geometry adjusting flip-chip with Hi and Lo settings. Geometry is basically what you’d expect for a mid-travel trail bike with a 64.2º (Hi) or 63.9º (Lo) head angle, and a 77.5º / 77.2º effective seat tube angle. The actual angle is proportional to the frame size so the saddle position doesn’t get pushed backwards on bigger sizes with longer droppers.

High and low geometry settings are accessed through a flip chips on the seatstays

Reach on my medium-sized test bike was a tad more generous than most at 460mm in the Hi geo setting and 456mm in the low. The same measurement comes in at 435/432mm on the small size and tops out at 525/522mm on the XXL.

The Vala comes in a mixed wheel configuration only. Santa Cruz says MX setups naturally put more rider weight on the rear wheel which counteracts the front end bias of the battery weight. Chainstay length on my test bike was 440mm, but it’s another measurement that’s proportional to frame size – ranging from 439mm on the small to 450mm on the XXL.

Suspension

Like the Hightower and Gen 5 Santa Cruz Bronson, the Vala gets a 160mm travel fork and 150mm of rear suspension. The big news here is that Santa Cruz has opted for a four-bar suspension design rather than its in-house VPP system. The brand is still using VPP on its recently updated, mid-travel Hightower and Bronson, as well as the Heckler SL e-MTB launched last year. However, the size requirements of a full-power motor meant that the shock couldn’t be placed in the low position that Santa Cruz now favours in its most recent VPP setups designed to reduce suspension stiffening anti-squat and anti-rise. 

The Heckler proved a great bike despite its underwhelming EP801 motor

Santa Cruz say that the improvements it has recently achieved with VPP aren’t possible on a bike with a full-size motor (the Heckler SL’s Fazua setup is much smaller), so the design team decided to opt for a four-bar system with a vertical shock for more active suspension when pedalling or braking.

On the rear of the rocker pivot there’s a pair of two-position geometry adjusting flip-chips, and a similar setup that gives two different suspension progression options via a second flip-chip on the lower shock mount. Both are easy to adjust out on the trail.

You can change the progression on the Vala, making it coil-shock compliant

Components

At the heart of the Vala is Bosch’s recently revealed gen 5 CX Performance Line motor which comes with a number of upgrades. The new drive unit is around 100g lighter than before, it definitely runs more quietly, and it’s said to be more robust. It also comes with an array of additional sensors which are designed to be responsive to trail and rider inputs. I was really impressed with the natural feel and super controlled power output during testing –  for a deeper dive into the new motor, see Danny’s Bosch CX gen 5 first ride.

Control the CX motor modes from the wireless bar remote, or just whip it off and fettle from the top tube controller

A 600Wh Bosch Powertube battery powers the motor magic. Santa Cruz says it went for a mid sized option as it provides enough capacity for most rides and larger/heavier batteries didn’t give the ride feel it wanted. For those times when 600Wh won’t be enough, there’s the option of bolting on Bosch’s Powermore range extender which gives an extra 250Wh of power. I was pleased to see Bosch’s Bluetooth Mini Remote on the bars paired with the System Controller on the top tube for minimum e-clutter.

The XO AXS RSV version of the Vala I rode comes with a top end Fox combo of a 38 Factory fork and Float X Factory shock – both sporting the latest Grip X dampers. Suspension aside, the rest of the hardware comes from SRAM with the superbly powerful Maven Silver brakes on 200mm rotors at both ends and XO AXS T-Type Transmission with the latest Rocker Shifter rather than the Pod version.

With no VPP suspension and through shock design there’s enough seat tube to run a full 210mm dropper post

My test bike came kitted out with Santa Cruz’s in-house Reserve 30 IHD carbon rims on DT Swiss 350 hubs. Instead of the brand’s usual Maxxis tyre MTB setups, Santa Cruz has opted for Schwalbe’s new Magic Mary Radials on the Vala. I didn’t have a massive amount of time on the bike to get used to the tyres, but I would have preferred the more familiar feel of an Assegai or Minion DHF up front.

All the Vala models bar the entry level S version come with OneUp V3 dropper posts. Santa Cruz was keen to point out that deeper seat tube insertions mean there’s space for a 180mm of saddle travel on the medium-size bike I rode and 210mm on the large frame.

Performance

On a Transatlantic trip to Santa Cruz’s California factory (it’s in Santa Cruz itself), I got in a couple of rides on the Vala in the surrounding hills still very much scarred from the wildfires that swept through in 2021.

The riding was on bone dry, super dusty trails that had not had any rain since April – a far cry from the UK. The mostly natural surfaces were root strewn with smoother sections in between and the odd dust pit to catch out anyone not paying close attention (yes, that was me). We hit undulating climbs and swooping sections, as well as steeper and more technical enduro-like runs.

A supple back end lends the Vala a ton of confidence

Once out of the city away from traffic noise, the first thing that struck me was how quiet the new Bosch motor was. Even at higher cadences the whirring was comparatively faint. It didn’t take long to get used to the Vala, it’s a really easy bike to get to grips with and has a really well balanced feel. That ride feel was enhanced by the pedalling support from the motor that never felt overly frantic or undercooked. I mostly rode in eMTB mode which gave the right amount of acceleration I needed to power out of sections and attack the climbs.

The main thing that struck me when hitting steeper descents with chunkier hits was how well the suspension still performed when I felt the need to haul on the rear brake. On multiple hits it still felt really active and alive which helped keep my speeds up. Despite being a new suspension system for the brand, Santa Cruz seems to have done its homework very well. Over the course of the initial ride I was definitely braking less as my confidence increased in what the Vala’s rear end could do.

Santa Cruz seems to have balanced the Vala’s four-bar setup so well the bike seemed to have sacrificed little in terms of pedalling performance in the pursuit of lower anti-squat and anti-rise. Without a motor between the cranks I may have felt differently about that though – more time on the bike would help figure this out.

Santa Cruz has ditched Maxxis on the Vali in favour of the latest Magic Marys

Handling-wise, the Vala basically felt good whether I was riding down, up or across. You really would be forgiven for thinking it was an SL e-MTB at first glance and the same goes for the way it rides. While the 21.6kg weight doesn’t make it the lightest full-power e-MTB around, (it’s not too far off though), and the battery is on the small size, Santa Cruz has done a top job of somehow making the Vala feel lighter. Yes, I was on fancy Reserve carbon wheels, but the bike weight is superbly balanced. Once back home I jumped on a similarly setup rival e-MTB with a 600Wh battery and weight – the difference was apparent.

If a 600Wh battery might give you pause for thought, my initial ride on the Vala was 2 hours 45 minutes over a distance of 40km with 1,100m of climbing. I did some battery management to begin with, but once I was confident I had plenty of charge in the tank I hit Turbo mode as much as I wanted. At the end of the ride I still had two orange bars left on the charge indicator, which is 30 to 21% according to Bosch, so I reckon I could have squeezed another hour out of the battery, which would be a decent length ride.