The first of the Santa Cruz analogue offerings to drop VPP, the Tallboy drops weight and gains travel for those modern day trail situations.
Pete stated that Santa Cruz would have to fight him to get the previous Tallboy back, so this sixth gen machine has a lot to live up to.
Photos by Pete Scullion.
Key features:
- RockShox Pike Ultimate 140mm fork
- RockShox Deluxe Ultimate shock
- Shimano XT Di2 12-speed drive
- SRAM Motive Silver brakes
- DT Swiss 350 hubs on Reserve 30SL AL rims
- OneUp dropper
- £6,999.00 RRP
- SantaCruzBicycles.com
Yes, this Santa Cruz is not a VPP. The new Tallboy sports a 4-bar link which has served several brands very well for aeons, so why not the Californians too? Rear wheel travel jumps to 130mm from 120 and the fork does similar, 140mm from 130. 300g lighter than the outgoing model is the claim, with the Di2 model seen here coming in a hair under 30lbs.
The aim behind the move to the 4-bar is low anti-squat, that offers pedal kickback on square-edge hits, and they remain active while going along and up. Anti-rise characteristics for charging hard when the going gets rough is also something Santa Cruz felt they could do better with a 4-bar. You also now only get the Carbon CC option. A flip chip allows 0.3 degrees of head angle adjustment.
Santa Cruz’s usual frame refinements exist on the Tallboy too. Neat cable routing, Glovebox storage, an under top tube mount for a tube, chainstay protectors… All backed by the usual impressive warranty. You can only get the Tallboy in Carbon CC now, much like the other Santa Cruz offerings of late. The move to 4-bar also makes setting up the shock and getting at the pivot hardware that much more straightforward.
Two models and a frame will be coming into the UK. The Tallboy CC 90 at £5,299.00 and the bike here, the Tallboy CC XT Di2 at £6,999.00. The frame will set you back £3,299.00.
Geometry
The Tallboy comes in XS, S, M, L, XL and XXL sizes.
Reach on the M in Lo is 452mm with a seat tube of 400mm. Head tube angle is 64.8 degrees with a seat tube angle of 77 degrees. Rear centre is 435.5mm with a wheelbase of 1212mm.
As soon as I turned the wheels on the new Santa Cruz Tallboy, I knew I was going to love this bike. Any concerns I had about the racey tyres vanished as I quickly became addicted to the speed this bike could offer in all directions. On the fast, flowy trails where an enduro bike feels sluggish and heavy, the Tallboy chewed them up and spat them out.
That’s not to say that the Tallboy can’t do a bit of chunder. The updated kinematic, especially with lower anti-squat and anti-rise means that the bike stays quite composed when things start getting interesting, and really smooths out the chatter on those traversing sections where pedalling isn’t sensible.
Whilst the geometry changes are minimal, they do also help keep you centred in the bike, and grant you a feeling of supreme confidence. The SRAM Motive brakes are every bit the anchors this bike needs and the alloy wheels and OneUp cockpit mean that there’s stiffness where it’s needed, without it being harsh.
A steeper seat tube angle and a 180mm dropper on the size M means that you can easily make work of all but the most heinous of climbs. Whether in or out of the saddle, the lower anti-squat helps the back end stick like a limpet, making the most of your inputs.
Despite being a better charger as the outgoing Tallboy, that doesn’t mean that taking the smoother line, hopping the rough stuff or pumping the ground doesn’t immediately return dividends. The faster you go, the more this bike goads you into go even more so.
It’s worth mentioning that I was lucky enough to never ride this bike in the wet, and there was a considerably amount of the most sublime loamers in effect. I can’t speak for the traction offered by the Forekasters when even an iota of moisture is present but this bike just wants to go, I can’t imagine it’ll be terrible in the damp.
Reliability-wise, this bike has been flawless. This has to be, in part, due to the fact that it hasn’t had to suffer the usual grinding crud that most bikes have to go through on the west side of Scotland. Rallying a bike in the dry does put a different kind of strain on a bike, and it simply hasn’t put a foot wrong.
You can check out the new Santa Cruz Tallboy over on their website here.
