Santa Cruz Vala

[Valkolainen]

Bit of a bad news for the ones who have ordered vala xl in europe. I ordered the vala in october and it was estimated to arrive in february. Bike is now 2 months late and my bikeshop contacted santa cruz factory and they told that they have no idea when they will get xl frames and cant give any estimation when the bike might arrive which sounds quite worrying to me.

There is also new specs available for the vala with new sram groupsets and maxxis tires.

 

[Geew]

Mauvaise nouvelle pour ceux qui ont commandé le Vala XL en Europe. J'ai commandé le Vala en octobre et sa livraison était prévue pour février. Le vélo a maintenant deux mois de retard et mon magasin de vélos a contacté l'usine de Santa Cruz. Ils m'ont dit qu'ils n'avaient aucune idée de la date de livraison des cadres XL et qu'ils ne pouvaient pas donner d'estimation, ce qui me semble assez inquiétant.

De nouvelles spécifications sont également disponibles pour le Vala avec de nouveaux groupes Sram et des pneus Maxxis.

J'ai commander le miens ( en XL ) en France en Octobre , reçu en Décembre et déjà 50kms au compteur... Bizarre. tu as commander quel montage et quel couleur ?

 

[Geew]

 

[ckkone]

The more bikes that get released the more I feel like the Vala and Bullit are tough to beat, just so damn sexy for a full power EMTB.

As much as I hate the look of the range extender, I'll happily use that on the few rides I need it versus riding some of these new heavy bulbus manatee looking things all the time.

 

[Geew]

Je ne vais vraiment pas te contredire !!! Je l'aime vraiment ce bike !

 

[mehukatti]

Got a message from Santa Cruz factory that they are not able to deliver my Vala X0 AXS RSV (XL) at all. I pre-ordered in September before the bike was even released, so this is a really really strange outcome. They must have some big troubles in their supply chain. So the end result is that I'm switching to Bullit with the hope that they are able to deliver that instead.

 

[FastFR]

The only thing I don't like on my Vala are the Sram Maven brakes. They did a pretty decent job at the beginning, but since few weeks they do not work properly. Even after a maintenance stop by my dealer (piston's massage + purge of the systems), my rear brake is worse at every ride. I'm gonna replace them by a pair of Hope Tech4 V4 as soon as possible

 

[LautSprecher]

Not sure if tan is a yes or a nono.

 

[Andeh]

The only thing I don't like on my Vala are the Sram Maven brakes. They did a pretty decent job at the beginning, but since few weeks they do not work properly. Even after a maintenance stop by my dealer (piston's massage + purge of the systems), my rear brake is worse at every ride. I'm gonna replace them by a pair of Hope Tech4 V4 as soon as possible

I have 3 pairs of Mavens, and while I like them a lot, I have noticed that they are one of those brakes that are susceptible to front/rear feel imbalance. The root cause seems to be dragging or feathering the rear brake as opposed to hard lockup pulls, but also to a lesser extent just the typical pad wear imbalance front vs. rear.

You can compensate for pad wear imbalance by using the contact adjuster (on Silver / Ultimate models) - ideally after a fresh bleed and fresh pads, start with both contact adjusters fully inward. Then move the rear brake's contact adjust outward to balance feel. By the end of a set of rear pads' life, the differential between my front and rear contact adjusters is probably over 20 clicks.

There can also be a front/rear feel imbalance caused by the pistons not advancing in line with pad wear, due to dragging the rear brake. My tips for addressing this are always run sintered pads in the rear (they wear slower), and before each ride, pull hard on the rear brake lever and hold for 5 seconds a few times. This will cause the pistons to advance & reset based on current wear levels.

I'm pretty picky about having my front and rear brakes feel the same, so at this point will not run any brake without a contact point adjust specifically for these reasons. My last brakes were Dominions and it was a nightmare trying to keep them feeling balanced. I basically was doing the pull & hold piston advance thing every lap with those.

 

[FastFR]

I do have a more important problem on mine. Despite what I mentioned the shop did to solve the problem, my rear brake, in pretty steep downhill with strong braking, after4-5 seconds the lever is going nearly to touch the bar. Absolutely no consistency.
Even when the were working "fine", you're right the feeling between front and rear were not similar, and never liked the feeling that I find too hard and not enough progressive.
So I really prefer to get back to a pair of Hope Tech4 V4, which I loved on my previous bike as the are really tunable to your own preference and never had issues of power, reliability, power and feeling.

 

[Andeh]

Lever pulling to the bar is 100% bad bleed. Tell the shop to start over and take their time, use lots of gentle vacuum. Keep going until no more bubbles.

 

[TheMirrorVision]

Lever pulling to the bar is 100% bad bleed. Tell the shop to start over and take their time, use lots of gentle vacuum. Keep going until no more bubbles.

100% agreed. If your local bike shop is following SRAM’s process and Is still having issues they should be submitting your brakes for a warranty claim.

 

[salko]

Lever pulling to the bar is 100% bad bleed. Tell the shop to start over and take their time, use lots of gentle vacuum. Keep going until no more bubbles.

Would not agree on that 100% ... is pretty close, but defenetely not 100% bad bleed. It can also be damaged/leaking seals on the piston inside the lever or like in my case, an internally leaking hose (warning! boring video!):

 

[WatermanJim]

Quick fix for sram brakes- dont take the wheels off or brake pads out. just attach the QR syringe filled 1/4 with fluid to the caliper. pull out a little and let the air bubbles rise then squeeze hard until its totally full. twist it closed while still applying a mild pressure. you can not press hard enough with the syringe to move the piston so dont worry about that. if its too tight try again and close with less pressure. There is a little more to it but play with it and you will see that you can set feel as tight as you want. The sram brakes are inconsistant i found mostly because of temperature changes and they somehow just lose fluid magically. anyway the quick fill technique works great and i even taught my LBS how to do it.

 

[FastFR]

Thank you for all your advises, but my decision is taken. I’m replacing those Maven by the Tech4 V4. The Hope upgraded with Trickstuff Power+ pads are in another league in terms of braking

 

[KKe]

Got a message from Santa Cruz factory that they are not able to deliver my Vala X0 AXS RSV (XL) at all. I pre-ordered in September before the bike was even released, so this is a really really strange outcome. They must have some big troubles in their supply chain. So the end result is that I'm switching to Bullit with the hope that they are able to deliver that instead.

Guess the frames are made in China, and bikes assembled in USA? Then the 145% customs can be too hard to swallow.