The Santa Cruz Skitch e

Oct 31, 2023

(Image: Santa Cruz Bicycles) Photo: Santa Cruz Bicycles

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Santa Cruz Bicycles has released a fourth electric bike to its lineup. Called the Santa Cruz Skitch, their latest model takes the recently-updated Stigmata that Keegan Swenson rode to victory at SBT GRVL 2023 and adds a bit of assistance courtesy of a Fazua Ride 60 drive unit.

While the California-based brand has three other electric bikes in its lineup, this one is positioned quite a bit differently: one for gravel and one for the streets. For them, the Skitch is as much about having fun on the bike for them as it is a way to ride your bike more and drive your car less.

Perhaps most interesting of all, Santa Cruz Brand Manager Garen Becker even says this should’ve been the first electric bike they made. Here are the details below.

Santa Cruz’s first electric bike was the Heckler, a big bike that was positioned much more for aspiring Danny MacAskill types than the everyday commuter. Think big batteries, big suspension, and a singular mindset toward being a shuttle replacement for your next day on the mountain. The Skitch, then? It’s still a replacement for the van, truck, or car in your life, just for your daily routine.

Like every other bike, Santa Cruz says the Skitch is the electric bike that they want to ride. As such, they aimed for a platform that was lighter and more nimble-handling than the average electric bike, having based the Skitch loosely on the updated Stigmata gravel bike.

While I don’t agree with Santa Cruz saying the Skitch is “like drafting a Ferrari,” this mindset of building a lightweight, fun, and commute-supplementing e-bike is a worthwhile development.

At the center of the Skitch is a frame made of their CC-grade carbon. While adapted to fit a 430 Wh battery in the downtube, the Skitch otherwise follows a similar playbook to the Stigmata: a larger fork and rear end to fit a 700c x 50 mm tire, protection around the downtube and drive-side chainstay, and the ability to run a dropper post as an option.

While Santa Cruz does a great job of avoiding proprietary parts, the Skitch is designed with Boost rear hub spacing out back, a rarity among electric gravel bikes and electric hybrid bikes alike. It won’t change your day-to-day usage of the bike, but finding a new wheelset may necessitate a custom build unless other manufacturers adopt this standard.

The Fazua Ride 60 motor offers up to 60 Nm torque, splitting the difference between the competition. Against the lighter Mahle X20, the Fazua motor offers more power and the ability to have a larger battery in the downtube. And compared to the ever-popular Bosch Performance Line Speed, the Fazua motor is lighter and feels much less draggy in the real world. It isn’t the perfect drive unit but is a good choice for Skitch’s end goal.

Top speeds are different depending on where you find your bike. In the U.S., the Skitch is a Class 3 e-bike offering assist up to 28 mph (45 kph). The Skitch is limited to 20 mph (32 kph) in Canada and elsewhere.

Santa Cruz claims a range of 60 plus miles (~97 km); in my personal experience, I’ve gotten closer to 40 miles (~64 km) on similarly-equipped Fazua Ride 60 bikes. Charge time is a claimed 3.5 hours.

Like many other Fazua-equipped bikes, the Skitch offers three levels of assist. Santa Cruz, however, has lovingly named each assist level Breeze, River, and Rocket. Assist is controlled either with a top-tube mounted button or a handlebar-mounted controller.

The Skitch follows the same five-size run as the Stigmata with a few small changes. Notably, while fit geometry is largely the same, the head angle is about a half-degree slacker, and the chainstays are about 7 mm longer across all sizes. Wheelbase measurements are slightly longer as well. But the key takeaway is that, like the Stigmata, just about every size is designed with a 70 mm stem in mind.

Like other Santa Cruz bikes, there is a lifetime warranty on the frame as well as the Reserve wheels.

Four builds of the Santa Cruz Skitch are available with just one matte olive green colorway.