Santa Cruz Heckler: Everything You Need to Know

The Santa Cruz Heckler on the brand’s US collection page is still the 2024 carbon bike, not the Heckler SL. The cards show 160 mm up front, 150 mm in the rear, and a mixed wheel: 29-inch front, MX rear. They print a 720 figure next to the builds. EMTB Forums’ Heckler 2024 page reads that as a Shimano EP801 motor at 85 newton-meters and a 720 watt-hour battery. A French test of the same generation says the EP801 is 250 watts nominal, 85 newton-meters, and 600 watts at peak, with a Darfon 720 watt-hour pack. Sale prices on the US board run from $5,449 to $9,199. The regular prices on those same cards run from $6,999 to $11,499. The Heckler SL is a different bike. The row on this desk’s list links here.

Two Hecklers, one name

Do not average those batteries. Seven hundred twenty watt-hours is the full Heckler. Four hundred eighty, or the older 430 line, is the SL. The motors are not the same part. EP801 is a full-power Shimano. Fazua Ride 60 is the light-assist motor, 60 newton-meters, and the pages that print a peak say 450 watts. Both are mid-drives. Neither card this desk read offered a throttle. A 20 mph US assist cap, where a listing actually prints Class 1, is the law of that bike, not a menu you open on the trail. The class page is the three-class chart. A Heckler is in it only if the sticker says so.

What one ridden loop actually was

VTTAE’s test of a Heckler XO AXS RSV, published December 2023, used a 69-kilogram rider on technical trails. In a mix they described as 45 percent Eco, 50 percent Trail, and 5 percent Turbo, the Darfon 720 watt-hour pack did 48 kilometers and 1,290 meters of climbing in 2 hours 45 minutes. That is one rider and one mode mix. It is not a 720 watt-hour promise. On a 720 watt-hour pack, 48 kilometers is about 15 watt-hours a kilometer, which is arithmetic, not a second test. EMTB Forums’ Heckler SL page cites a different log, about 77 kilograms: 19 miles and 3,600 feet used 88 percent of the pack in Rocket mode. That is the 480 watt-hour Fazua bike. Do not put the 48-kilometer Heckler ride on the SL, or the 19-mile SL ride on the Heckler.

The US board still says Heckler, 2024, and a sale tag. The SL is the other carbon bike, with the smaller motor and the smaller pack. The name is doing too much work.

Who it is for

Buy the Heckler if you want the 720 watt-hour bike and the 85 newton-meter Shimano, and if a dealer carbon frame at a sale price beats waiting on a new model year. The builds are not one price. The R is the $5,449 sale, from $6,999. The S is $6,349 from $8,349. The GX AXS is $7,599 from $9,499. The X0 AXS RSV and the XX AXS RSV were both $9,199 from $11,499 on the cards this desk read. Carbon C is the lower frame. Carbon CC is the RSV frame. Read the card for the shock and the fork. Those change with the build. The geometry pages talk about a flip chip. That is a setup, not a second bike.

Buy the Heckler SL if the number you care about is the 44-pound class and you can live with 60 newton-meters and a pack that listings have printed as both 430 and 480 watt-hours. Do not pay Heckler SL money and expect the 720 watt-hour tank. The Canyon Spectral:ON is the other full-power trail bike on this list, and the 2026 one is an 800 watt-hour Shimano, not a Fazua. Neither bike is a cargo rack, and neither one is a 28 mph Class 3 just because the motor can make 600 watts for a moment. Peak watts are not the class sticker. The watt-hour page is how to read 720 against 480. The cart is the price.