Description

The Santa Cruz Hightower 3 C S 2023

Santa Cruz engineer’s greatest hits
Not all frames are created equal. Hightower represents Santa Cruz’s greatest hits, showcasing our design, engineering, and performance prowess.

Lower Link assembly
The highly-sculpted and optimized Lower Link (A) houses a geometry adjusting Flip Chip (B) and beefy Pivot Axles (C) to virtually eliminate lateral flex.

Upper Link assembly
Santa Cruz only use the highest quality Enduro MAX or TPX sealed, radial bearings (A) and premium fasteners (B) for our linkage assemblies. They’re easy to properly torque and maintain, plus we offer free replacement bearings for life.

One-piece swingarm
VPP suspension utilizes a one-piece swingarm that eliminates the need for pivots on the stays, creating a stout, bulletproof rear end for accurate tracking and superior performance.

C and CC Carbon
Santa Cruz offers two grades of carbon—top-end CC Carbon and value-minded C Carbon. Though they have the same stiffness and performance, CC is lighter and comes paired with more premium suspension.

Carbon mastery
The Sag Window (A), Glovebox (B) and internal cable tunnels (not shown) demonstrate Santa Cruz’s expertise at combining practical function with carbon design and manufacturing artistry.

The Sum of the parts
In isolation, all these things are great—together with fanatical suspension tuning, a premium build spec, and a meticulous attention-to-detail, they’re transcendent.

VPP™
VPP™ suspension can be optimized to strike the right balance between pedaling efficiency and all-out bump chomping prowess. That means wherever you see “VPP” you know it’s tuned to perform exactly how it should for the purpose it’s designed for.

145mm VPP travel
Looking for something good at climbing, and downhill, and going round and round your local trails? Say hello to Hightower. 145mm in the rear paired with 150mm up front is your perfect combo.

Suspension sensitivity
Compared to the last Hightower, we reduced the anti-squat in the first 40% of travel. This noticeably improves suspension sensitivity in both climbing and descending scenarios due to reduced chain influence on the suspension.

Suspension consistency
Hightower’s leverage curve is relatively straight, with added progression towards the end of the travel. This provides improved bottom-out resistance with more consistent damping and support.

Glovebox
Place your ride essentials securely beneath a new high-quality latch and panel in the Hightower’s downtube. The Glovebox comes with a fitted Tool Wallet and Tube Purse, tailored for the frame to keep your tools close to hand.

Sag window
A window allows easier suspension sag and setup. The details are completed by a neat mud flap to protect the rear shock plus tidy cable routing within the frame and swingarm, and rubberized DT protectors to shrug off strikes.

Flip chip
In the Low position, the shock rate becomes more progressive, particularly at the end of the stroke, and there’s some bottom-out resistance to be gained. In the High setting, the bike rides a little higher in its travel and supplies the rider with more mid-stroke support. Tweakers and finicky shredders can adapt the suspension feel to their needs and desire.

Proportional geometry
Chainstay length and seat angle is matched to the frame size so every rider, no matter their height, gets the same balanced geometry. Across all sizes however, the headtube angle has been slackened to help stability at speed, lowered the bottom bracket to compliment the better supported suspension, and increased stack in favor of modern handlebar setups.

29-inch wheels
Hightower features fast-rolling, bump-easing 29-inch wheels front and rear. On high-end builds we spec Reserve 30|HD carbon rims laced to premium hubs, which are built and hand-tuned in our Santa Cruz, Calif.

Flip-Chip
The Hightower also has that certain something that intensifies your biking experience. Santa Cruz calls it the Flip Chip. In the low setting, the rear triangle becomes a little more progressive, especially at the end of the stroke for more support in front of the bottom-out. In the high setting, the bike stands a little higher and offers the rider more support in the mid-travel range. All tinkerers and sensitive shredders can adjust the suspension to their riding style and preferences.

Santa Cruz carbon frame
The CC carbon frames use the best materials and the latest manufacturing processes. They have the same stiffness and stability as the C frames, and are even lighter. CC frames are used for the top models.

Santa Cruz don’t just use carbon to build bikes because it looks cool and everyone is doing it. We pioneer advanced materials and production methods to build the most durable and high-performance bicycles because it’s the way to ensure that riders can just enjoy riding their bike. Our experience with carbon production allows us to build bikes that are extremely reliable.

They design, test and prototype their carbon technology in Santa Cruz, CA. Their carbon lab gives them the capacity to research carbon layup optimization that they can apply to their production frames, and research and test new manufacturing processes and techniques.

The frames are manufactured in their exclusive factory (Skybox). They founded this manufacturing facility themselves because they wanted to be able to control how our designs were produced, to ensure quality control, and to make sure the advancements they design remain proprietary to them.

Window to SAG
A small window in the main frame makes it easy to adjust the suspension. Other nice details are the mudguard that protects the shock from dirt, a neat cable routing in the frame, and the rubberised down tube guard.

Glovebox
Pack everything you need under the solid flap in your down tube. Including your fine gloves. The bike comes standard with “Tool Wallet” and “Tube Purse”, two high-quality pouches that keep your things safe and practical.

Configuration