Santa Cruz Heckler

metalpossum

Retro Newbie
Here's my current project which I thought I should share with you all. It's an early Santa Cruz Heckler, I believe the 1996 model due to the shape of the dropouts and pivot bracket (fixed at both the downtube and seat tube). Originally purchased directly from Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz, and travelled around the world a few times. Belonging to a customer at my shop, he originally offered to loan it to the shop to be hung up, but was more than willing to trade it in for some new pedals, shoes, and a helmet instead, setting me back around $250 NZD. I don't put a price on things like this that I appreciate, I don't really care what it might actually be worth, and I made it clear to the guy before he agreed to pass it on that it was a cool bike and might fetch a lot of interest in the local market here.

The fork is an early Z1 Bomber with twin Formula disc mounts (a worthy upgrade at the time by the original owner) and the rear shock is a RockShox Super Deluxe, claimed to be at least the 2nd or 3rd replacement shock this particular frame got. Both stanchions on the Bombers were severely beaten on their back sides, and I wasn't able to find a decent pair of replacement stanchions (yet), so I bodged the old ones back into service by removing any burrs and doing my best to fill in any deeper chips/scratches, rebuilding them with a new pair of ugly looking Enduro seals. I know this method is usually only acceptable for one or two minor scratches but so far they're not leaking and I'm more than willing to rebuild them again at a later date if the correct parts are available to me.

The bike was also fitted with a White Industries chainset, mismatch wheels, Avid SD 1.9 brake levers, Tange headset, XT M737 Parallax rear hub, (my favourite Shimano hub so far due to how perfect the cups, cones, bearings, and seals were after 20+ years of abuse and neglect), and some cheap mismatch V-brakes that were probably fitted some many years later.

I'm currently in the middle of negotiations for a set of red Magura HS33s, and then it's a matter of buying a matching front hub and deciding what rims to lace onto them, followed by trims such as the saddle and hand grips. Any suggestions for these last three are welcome, I've been reading and researching as much as I can, looking for popular brands etc. of the era, but it's still a bit overwhelming with how much crap they shovelled too.

I'll get some more photos shared once I'm closer to completion, I'm still waiting on the replacement pivot bearings to show up before I can get the rear shock mounted again, and then the rest will happen over the next few months (winter, when the shop gets dead quiet and I need something to do). I'm definitely not trying to build the perfect bike here with new paint and graphics, I'm just building something that I or my older brothers would have appreciated back when I was on 20" wheels and observing all the oddities at the local mountain bike races (as a spectator).
 

Attachments

  • Santa Cruz Heckler.jpg
    Santa Cruz Heckler.jpg
    48.7 KB · Views: 1,143
  • Santa Cruz Heckler Dirty.jpg
    Santa Cruz Heckler Dirty.jpg
    71.1 KB · Views: 1,143
I just tracked down a pair of NOS stanchions for the Z1 bombers. I'll order some NOS seals now too, since I don't need to worry about destroying them in just a few hours of use. The pivot bearings should be here any time now, and I've ordered a suitable bottom bracket (Shimano UN55, nobody will see it). Then it's just brakes and wheels and something to stop the seat post going up my fart box.
 
Got to love a Heckler. Mine is red. :LOL:

24307678218_37ca8da9d0_b.jpg


Good job finding the Bomber spares. Don't suppose you have a source for replacement bushings do you?
 
Definitely a bike worthy of those Bombers. Any reason for the black swingarm?


I didn't ask about bushings, I'm not sure if I'll need them or not. The guy who sold the stanchions to me is a fellow retrobike user, goes by the name "kraeMit" and has very reasonable prices. He had a post up well over a year ago about it, I just happened to try my luck and scored. ebay is not currently a suitable place for Z1 spare parts, annoyingly, and if they are available, they're also very expensive or in poor condition.

Hopefully he can help you out too, I really should have enquired about bushings, as I know they are prone to wear, and it's a new set of seals at the same time if they need to be replaced. That's where Enduro seals are handy. Disposable seals until you get the fork just right, then whack in the NOS OEM replacements I guess.

I've become a bit of a Marzocchi snob, they really were a revolutionary fork, and I can't help but look at anything else of the era in slight disgust.
 
Re:

Looks good, here is my custom build which I bought new in 97, I still have the z1’s it was built with and the hope big un and the pre standardisation hope brake that fits the forks as well.



I have also recently bought a slightly newer one that has rear disc mounts that I’m going to modernise with different cable routing and 1x drive train.
 
Re:

I just picked up a red 1996 Z1 Bomber this weekend. I there any way to reduce the travel/height? 470 mm is pretty tall for the era.
 
Re: Re:

M952":oc41nbfc said:
I just picked up a red 1996 Z1 Bomber this weekend. I there any way to reduce the travel/height? 470 mm is pretty tall for the era.

Sorry I cannot help with the travel question, just be aware that if your fork has disc mounts they probably won’t be “is” standard.
 
Hope number 4 or formula fit for the 96/7 Bombers

My Heckler is sitting on the wall, it’s a Mk2 window drop out variant and I’m powdering it Yellow and adding DHO’s Big Uns and some M950 parts - should look rather tasty....
 
Re: Re:

M952":146jz3tf said:
I just picked up a red 1996 Z1 Bomber this weekend. I there any way to reduce the travel/height? 470 mm is pretty tall for the era.

The Z2 bomber was the same as the Z1 but with reduced travel (80mm rather than 100mm).

The heckler is a great bike. I have a 96 with a blue frame and polished rear triangle. Unfortunately I broke the derailleur hanger last year and I haven't tried to repair it yet.
 
boxxer":2bbp3qqp said:
Hope number 4 or formula fit for the 96/7 Bombers

My Heckler is sitting on the wall, it’s a Mk2 window drop out variant and I’m powdering it Yellow and adding DHO’s Big Uns and some M950 parts - should look rather tasty....

Mines a mark 2 aswell only an early one with no disc mounts. Dident know that about formula and hope no4. My caliper doesn’t have a number on it so dident know what it was.

I have just acquired some junior t’s And going to build up my red frame as a bit on a mild down hill/free ride machine.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top