Just when we thought we’d probably seen everything that the bike industry had to offer for 2007, along comes Santa Cruz with an all-new Bullit. The original Santa Cruz Bullit was one of the first “all-mountain” bikes, in the sense of long travel (6in at the time) but not ridiculously heavy and OK to pedal. Over the years it sprouted more travel and various gussets, but now it’s been completely redesigned and relaunched.

Despite the fact that there isn’t a bit of it that’s the same as the old Bullit, the new bike still manages to look like it in profile and general stance. It’s still a single-pivot bike, thus splitting SC’s suspension line neatly into VPP (V10, VP-Free, Nomad, Blurs various) and single-pivot (Superlight, Juliana, Heckler, Bullit).

So what’s new? The front end is built from custrom drawn double-butted tubes and features a 1.5in headtube – Santa Cruz says “put whatever the hell kind of fork you want up front”. The new, stiffer swingarm runs on oversize bearings (with a lifetime guarantee) and a huge 20mm pivot axle. At the back there are interchangeable dropouts, letting you run either 135mm QR or 150mm through-axle wheels. There’s also an optional floating rear brake kit if you want such a thing.

Travel is 178mm (7in) and the whole frame is designed to be easy to work on. You can take the whole thing apart with just 4, 5 and 6mm Allen keys with the exception of the pivot bearings, which use a Shimano external BB tool. SC has neatly sidestepped the full-length or split housing cable routing question by offering both. And of course there’s a whole range of powder coat or anodised finishes.

Claimed geometry is 67.5° head/70.5° seat across the three sizes (Small, Medium and Large, or 15in, 17in and 19in), with 17in chainstays, 14.3in BB height and top tube lengths of 21.5in, 22.8in or 24in depending on frame size. Obviously fork choice will affect several of those numbers, but you get the idea of what kind of shape it is. There’s no claimed frame weight, but SC reckons that complete bikes will range from 32lb to 44lb.

UK pricing is to be confirmed, but expect to pay somewhere around the £1,000 mark for a frame. Keep an eye on www.santacruzbikes.co.uk for details.