Situated between the short-travel Tallboy and the long-legged Megatower, the Hightower is the most versatile 29er in Santa Cruz's lineup. Boasting 145mm of rear travel, 150mm up front, and well-balanced geometry figures, the Hightower is ready for big climbs, chunky descents, and everything in between. The lower-link VPP suspension pedals very efficiently, and offers a smooth, predictable feel when you're charging through rocks and roots. Santa Cruz likes to think of the Hightower as their greatest hits album, incorporating all of their best design elements into one extremely capable steed.

The Hightower has long been known as a do-it-all trail bike, capable of backcountry endurance adventures in the Santa Cruz mountains, and fast laps at your local trail network when you need to hammer out as many post-workday miles as possible. The current generation remains as that, but is ultimately a more capable bike than before, stretching its reach out 20mm (on sizes small through large), offering more room in the cockpit to play with, along with a more relaxed 65.2-degree head tube that elevates confidence on the downhills. You might think this stretched out cockpit comes at the cost of pedaling efficiency, but the Santa Cruz designers mitigate sluggish climbing by moving the seat tube to a steeper 76.7-degrees, putting you in a more comfortable position for tackling steep climbs and hammering out high-mileage days.

While previous versions of the Hightower used an upper-link VPP configuration, the current bike enjoys the increased bump compliance and glued-to-the-trail traction you'll only get with a lower-link mounted shock. This lower-link VPP platform is something that's previously been reserved for gravity-fueled sleds like the Nomad and Bronson but has slowly trickled down to the rest of Santa Cruz's lineup, the reason being that it simply rides better in every situation while also lowering the bike's center of gravity to ensure confident, predictable handling.

Santa Cruz combines the new lower-link suspension with flip-chip technology for adaptable geometry, allowing you to slacken things out for park laps with your crew, or steepen things up for taking on epic backcountry missions with thousands of feet of vertical gain. The switch is easy to make with the turn of a hex key, and changes the geometry quite significantly. The bike comes to you in Low mode, with a head tube angle that sits low and long at 65.2-degrees, perking up to 65.5 in High mode, while the seat tube angle shifts from 76.7 in Low, up to 77.1-degrees in High for a pedal-friendly position that's ready to attack the climbs.

One thing you can always count on with Santa Cruz is their industry-leading carbon frame construction that provides legendary strength and unwavering stiffness. This particular Hightower benefits from the top-shelf Carbon CC layup, which drops weight, thanks to its use of a higher-end carbon, resin, and manufacturing process that sheds grams without sacrificing an ounce of strength or stiffness. You can count on this lighter Carbon CC version to drop anywhere from 250-to-280-grams below the lower-spec Carbon C model, making it well worth the upgrade if you covet a lighter build.

Santa Cruz pairs up the CC level carbon of this Hightower with cherry-picked components to maximize performance, efficiency, and reliability. It aims to please with top-of-the-line suspension from RockShox and Fox to soften harsh blows from unruly rock gardens and gobble up small bumps to keep traction locked in on technical climbs. The suspension partners up with SRAM's X01 Eagle 12-speed drivetrain to provide plenty of range on the days that tickle 5-digit ascent numbers, and offer you SRAM's new 52-tooth bailout cog to help save you from hiking your bike up the steepest climbs.