Pros: Comfortable geometry.
Point and shoot on technical terrain.


Recommendation: My friend and I are the same size and swapped rides for a bit on the Mt Falcon trail.

In the geometry dept, the blur feels exactly like my Giant trance. And I mean truly identical.

The difference is in the suspension. Santa Cruz's VPP implementation is sportier, for lack of a better description. Where my Giant has a low center of gravity, the Blur feels a little higher, with the rider still positioned rearward. This is offset by the slacker head angle. Where my Giant likes to float through rough stuff, the Blur likes to be pedaled through it.

Overall it is a very pleasant bike to ride, whether for an all day epic, technical singletrack, or even some racing with the right components.

Pros: light weight comfortable frame feels solid on big drops, and once the suspension is tuned, it turns and climbs like a Blur, fast and smooth. I love this bike.

Cons: too much travel for many of the trails I ride. this bike is made for fast cross country downhill riding.

Recommendation: this bike is incredible if you ride big hills/ cross country and want plenty of travel.

Pros: Very solid and stable. Climbs decent but that all depends on your setup. One of the best features of this bike is that it can be set up as an XC bike or as a burly trail bike.

Cons: None that I can think of.

Recommendation: A great do it all bike that will surely have you grinning form ear to ear every time you hit the trail. As an all-mountain bike this is the closest thing to perfection I have ridden to date.

Pros: Solid performing bike climbs decently enough and can take some jumps..Some bigger ones that others depending on the fork you decide to use.

Cons: Pivots tend to make noise early on and need to be serviced.

Recommendation: A great bike that handles great, it still can do many tight technical stuff as well as get gnarly..

Pros: This bike is setup for some fun downhill technical trails. It will eat up bumps, roots, rocks, and drops of five four feet like they are not there. I believe it will do bigger drops but I have yet to attempt any because the trails I mainly ride do not offer them. As soon as I encounter a drop upto seven feet I will try it without hesitation. The climbs are a little more dificult than on my cannondale but that was to be expected. They were actually better than what I had expected. There was no bobbing what so ever when I was seated and actually less when standing than on my Jeykle.

Cons: None Yet. Only had the bike for 5 days.

Recommendation: This is a great bike for the all around trail rider that wants to have a lot of fun. It is a little pricey when you start picking the higher end forks, shock, and build kit. Overall I love my bike.