All the marketing hype in the world won't make a poorly designed bike handle well. Likewise, all the 3-D modeling software and metalworking technology in the world won't amount to much unless the people directing it are serious about building truly great bicycles.

Call us misguided, but at Santa Cruz Bicycles we believe that to build a good bike, you have to first really love riding bikes. That's an asset we have in spades here. Our engineers are mighty good at working Pro/E, but they are riders first and foremost. Our builders can rail dirt better than most. Our painter can catch more air than you can. Our sales office is filled with bikes that get ridden every day. From the people packing bikes into boxes to the owner of the company, our main obsession and our common bond is riding.

Ranging from our sophisticated VPP downhill weaponry to the Spartan simplicity of our new cyclocross frame, the bikes in this catalog are the bikes that we ride. They reflect our passion for riding, and they stand as a testament to our ongoing desire to make our rides better. We're damn proud of them, and we hope you like riding them as much as we do.