Previewed: The new Santa Cruz Driver 8

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Words: Chris Lesser
1/30/09

This has been a busy off-season for Santa Cruz Bicycles. The company just announced a long-awaited carbon fiber version of its venerable Blur, and just today, in yet another finely orchestrated and carefully choreographed product launch, the company unveiled the brand-spanking-new Driver 8—and boy is she a looker.

What you’re looking at, specifically, is 8 inches of “next-generation” VPP rear-wheel travel fed into an over-muscled, 1.5-inch-headtube, 83-millimeter-bottom-bracket, 150-millimeter-thru-axle rear-end, all-around bomber frame.

Santa Cruz wordsmith (and longtime Bike contributor) Mike Ferrentino says the bike is intended as a “daily driver” for anyone looking for a high-speed, long-travel trail or park bike.

Speaking to the longevity and general burliness of the Driver’s construction, Ferrentino said in a press release that the key aspect of the bike owes to heavy duty VPP links.

“The upper link is carbon fiber, insanely strong, and pivots on four beefy radial contact sealed cartridge bearings. The lower link gets grease ports for easy service, huge 15mm pivot axles with the same trick locking collet head feature as the Blur LT, Nomad and new Blur XC, and it swings on eight angular contact bearings. All bearing sets, top and bottom, are encased in a further set of lip seals and labyrinth washers to further combat the ingress of dirt. The bike comes with its own grease gun, and you won't need a personal mechanic to deal with any of that.”

The press release sums up the bike’s reason for being thusly:

“[The Driver 8] is a kick-ass park bike, more lively and pop-able and jumpable than the V-10. And it is also a very handy downhill race bike, probably a better race choice for most riders who aren't World Cup pros on most courses that aren't World Cup courses. But it can still plow through big rocks and huge drops with the best of them. Eight inches of travel is still a whole lot of cushion for the pushin'...”

All that may be true, but we’ll reserve judgment for ourselves. Driver 8 frames will be available mid-May for $2,399 with a powdercoated frame and RockShox Vivid 5.1; and $2,561 with a Fox DHX RC4. Santa Cruz is taking orders now, and we are hoping to get a test bike in to have built up by bike park season.