Built for Downhill, Big Drops, and Whips: Santa Cruz Bullit X0 AXS RSV E-Mountain Bike Review

Is the bike going to explode? I didn’t know, but I was about to find out. In September, I was riding the Santa Cruz Bullit X0 AXS RSV electric mountain bike, and following Kurt Sorge, three-time Red Bull Rampage winner, into the new double-black feature — a 30-foot wall ride — on Obsidius trail at the RED Bike Park.

I was curious to find out how the new Santa Cruz Bullit would handle such a large drop — I’d never hit one that big on an e-mountain bike.

Zoning in, I followed Sorge’s speed and mimicked his pop onto the wall. The wood feature is an on-off box with two options: a flat deck or a 36-degree wall ride. There’s a 15-foot gap on and a 30-foot drop off. After the steep landing, the trail goes into a 30-foot step-over jump into a right-hand 30-foot step-down jump.

As we rode in sync, I popped onto the wall with ease. A half-second later, I launched off the other side. When the bike hit the dirt, it felt seamless. The Bullit was buttery smooth, taking the massive impact with ease, proving to me that it’s a wildly capable downhill e-mountain bike that can comfortably handle the largest features and big hits.

In short: The 2025 Santa Cruz Bullit X0 AXS RSV ($12,349) is a downhill-oriented, full-powered e-mountain bike that comes with a 600Wh battery. The factory configuration includes the Bosch Performance Line CX with 85 Nm of torque and 600 W of peak power. Using the Bosch Flow app, I updated the firmware to the newest, current version — increasing the power output to 100Nm of torque and 750 watts of peak power. Built with a high-end carbon CC frame and carbon wheels, the bike is lightweight for its class, settling in at 48.4 pounds.

Santa Cruz Bullit X0 AXS RSV E-Mountain Bike Review

Testing Conditions

While the Bullit has previously been in the Santa Cruz lineup, this model is fundamentally a new bike for 2025. This ride has a new suspension, motor, and frame design. There are two independent flip chips: one on the upper linkage adjusts the bottom bracket height, and another on the lower shock mount adjusts the suspension.

I primarily tested this e-bike at the RED Mountain Resort bike park, where I was the lead builder and site manager for Gravity Logic for the past two summers. We machine-built the ski area’s new bike park, which opened in June 2025, including blue and black jump lines: Lapis and Obsidius.

These jump lines have wood features, shark fins, hips, step-ups, step-downs, and tabletops up to 30 feet. I also podiumed with this bike in the closing weekend Whip Off competition.

Beyond the park, I rode this bike on several mountain and alpine rides ranging from 10 to 20 miles, with a cumulative 9,000 feet of climbing. The trails ranged from easy-flowing machine-made greens to hand-built, rompy and loamy blacks, plus drops and jump lines.

As an expert biker, I can hang with the pros and enjoy local competitions. I’m 5’11”, weigh 165 pounds, and rode the large frame size, which suits bikers ranging from 5’9″ to 6″. While the bike is compatible with a Bosch PowerMore 250Wh range extender, I didn’t test one.

Downhill-Oriented Build & Suspension

Not many full-powered e-mountain bikes are downhill-oriented, which sets this build apart. The Bullit is paired well with a Fox 38 Float Factory fork, which I love, and the new Float X2 Factory shock. Built with 170mm of front and rear suspension, the suspension is smooth and absorbent.

My Scott Ransom e-Ride 910 e-mountain bike, which is also full-powered, has the prior iteration of the X2 Factory shock. In comparison, I found the newer version to be more supple and lively, where the older design felt dead, especially in steep, bumpy, expert downhill terrain.

This build also has a new four-bar, Horst-link rear suspension design, which replaces the classic Santa Cruz VPP (virtual pivot point) layout.

This bike eats up the 30-foot wood drop on Obsidius without bottoming out. It takes big hits well and has really good absorption of small bumps. So, when flow trails develop washboard, it rides smoothly while maintaining grip without chatter. The Bullit feels planted.

I’ve never ridden a bike with a dropseat that sits so low when it’s fully dropped, which is another detail that sets the Bullit squarely in the DH category. It’s really nice to have the seat extra low, keeping it well out of the way in steep terrain when my center of gravity is back over the bike or mid-whip.

Lightweight Carbon Frame & Wheels

Being on the lightweight end of e-mountain bikes at 48.4 pounds, the Bullit feels very maneuverable and whippable in the air. I prefer a bit more weight in a bike for stabilization. That’s one reason I’m happy using my full-powered e-bikes as a hybrid at the bike park. The Bullit is on the lighter end of that heavier spectrum, which makes it feel playful without losing the groundedness.

The wheels are carbon, too. After a month of downhill rides and bike park shredding, the wheels are in perfect true. The spokes are tight. After heavily clipping the back tire once while jumping onto the Obsidius wood wall ride, the wheel is still like new. There are no flat spots or cracks. This can’t be said for the aluminum wheels on my Scott Ransom e-Ride 910, which are super-loose and wobbly after every ride.

As an MX (or “mullet”) setup, I initially wondered if the 27.5 rear wheel would slow the roll speed on the flow trails and jump lines compared to a full 29er e-mountain bike. I found that it was really great — it didn’t slow the bike down at all. It was still super-fast, even catching up to riders in front of me. The shorter back end makes the bike more flickable and playful.

The mullet really shines on rompy, steep downhill singletrack. The smaller 27.5 rear wheel results in a shorter rear chain stay, so you can maneuver the bike quickly and easily around tight corners. That setup lets you put the bike in the pocket, so to speak, keeping the bike in control through fast, aggressive turns and bumps.

Downhill Geometry

I rode the bike with the flip chip in low mode. For climbs, I preferred clipping the climb switch on, as it reduced bobbing and created a more solid platform. For being a slack downhill bike, the geometry felt easy to ride uphill.

The geometry also helps the bike excel in steep terrain with a head tube angle of 64 degrees. Downhill bikes are typically 62 to 64 degrees, landing the Bullit in that range. As a result, the bike feels more upright during the descent, versus being parallel to the slope, which is confidence-inspiring.

For moderate to mellow terrain — like when I rode the 17-mile Cedar Trail with 2,230 feet of vert — I was running the rebound all the way out, as I wanted the bike to feel more playful. I found that a bit challenging, as the bike is very downhill-oriented. Even with the rebound maxed, I wasn’t able to get the bike as playful as I wanted.

That said, the terrain I was on was mellow. That’s where a bike with a steeper head tube and less travel would excel.

It can feel a bit sluggish in mellow terrain. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable to ride on more rolling, cross-country terrain. But the Bullit is built to take big hits and ride at speed.

Full-Power Motor & Battery

The Bullit is outfitted with the Bosch Performance Line CX motor and Bosch PowerTube Battery at 600 Wh. The battery is on the lower end of watt-hours when it comes to full-powered e-mountain bike motors. Santa Cruz took this route to help keep the weight down while still enabling the bike’s significant riding range.

However, I did find that the battery drained fairly quickly in higher-powered modes on the climb.

When I rode the 21-mile Friendly Giant trail, the battery dropped 20% from a full charge within 1 hour. At a 9.2% grade, that segment covered 4 miles and 1,500 feet. I was riding in eMTB+ mode, which is the level below Turbo, the highest output. To help conserve the battery, I dropped down one mode to Tour+. At the top of the ride, 36% of the battery life remained.

Throughout the ride, it was easy to modify the available modes using the Bosch Flow app on my phone. I could toggle them on and off, and then select the setting on the bike’s integrated display.

From a motor perspective, my older Scott Ransom e-Ride 910 has the performance-line CX motor. I noticed that the new motor is much more tuned to a natural mountain biking pedal stroke. Meaning, the more you pedal, the more the bike puts out, making it more intuitive.

The power delivery is much smoother than the prior version and less jerky. That makes it easier to ride in technical uphill terrain.

While I appreciated the new output style, I did miss the ability to pedal slowly in a high gear and let the motor do most or all of the work! I’m not a lazy rider, but I like to conserve my energy for the downhill.

Critiques

I didn’t really like the shifter lever — the SRAM AXS Pod Controller Rocker Paddle. It felt ergonomically awkward and was easy to accidentally double-shift when riding if I hit a bump because the lever actuated so easily. It’s a sensitive click button rather than a squish button.

The paddle also has an extended wing, which seems to add additional surface area for shifting. However, I couldn’t figure out an orientation for the controller that made the wing functional or ergonomic.

As I mentioned, I was surprised at the rate of battery decline while climbing in higher power modes. Granted, the bike was running the updated software version, which increased the power output to 750 W and 100 Nm of torque.

Who It’s For

I absolutely love this e-mountain bike, but it’s definitely a tough pill to swallow when you can buy a KTM 450 SXF dirt bike ($11,649), which I own, for less. In the summer, I primarily e-mountain bike on singletrack throughout the region and downhill at the RED bike park.

When I consider owning one e-mountain bike, the Bullit is a solid choice that checks the boxes for all of my riding, with the exception of some commuting on the occasional cross-country trail. That said, it’s still enjoyable to pedal on cruiser trails.

The battery power helps you hammer as many laps as possible to work on style and technique to improve your riding. It may be expensive at this build level, but a lower-tier build would be a good choice for anyone getting into aggressive riding.

The Bullit is for anyone who wants to shred downhill. This e-mountain bike is made to boost big jumps and drops.