First Ride Impressions
There are bikes that require a lot of good PR to stand out, get accepted and become mainstream. They might have avant-garde features and ideas built into strange, draconian shapes. There might be unique ride characteristics that appeal to a certain rider looking for something most others find bizarre.
Then there is the Santa Cruz Tallboy. In the ice cream shop of bikes, the Tallboy has never been vanilla. What was originally Santa Cruz’s first 29er is in its 6th generation. While a lot has changed since 2009 with the ‘first 29er that wasn’t a compromise’, the Tallboy stayed true to its original goal: be a damn fun trail bike aimed at the clearest segment: mountain bikers.
Not the silhouette we are accustomed to from Santa Cruz. Like the Bullit and Vala, the Tallboy is now a four-bar.
Rocker link No. 15. The kinematics and shock tunes were considered carefully.
Geometry
The Tallboy 6 reveals some major suspension layout revisions. There is a laundry list of reasons why that happened. Depending on who you ask at Santa Cruz or long-time lovers of the brand worldwide, you’ll get a variety of answers.
- The suspension kinematics were reaching their limits of tunability with VPP – at least for shorter travel trail bikes.
- The frame was too heavy for the amount of travel it had.
- It wasn’t supple enough, especially for smaller riders.
- Seatpost Insertion was limited by the shock tunnel.
All valid reasons to revise a platform and improve it. But I imagine there will be two camps on this:
- Those who will praise the uniqueness of the last VPP Tallboy 5; and
- Those who are ready for a change
The geometry of the new Tallboy is not too different from that of the well-loved V5: slightly slacker head angle, a smidge steeper seat angle, a lower seat tube, and it is now 300 grams lighter. Travel bumps up 10mm per end with 130 rear and a 140mm fork. This is starting to look more like a modern trail bike. I’ll ride a 160-170mm travel bike all day long, but something about the uphill response and the downhill thrills you get from shorter travel bikes is really hard to beat. With a little more travel on tap and a four-bar suspension, the Tallboy V6 will make a lot of friends. This is the first non-eMTB to rock the four-bar layout from Santa Cruz.
Not much has changed, but all the changes support a more fun bike, both uphill and down.
SC Director of Product, Josh Kissner, seen here on a non-production colourway. I hope they bring some fun colours next year.
The Tallboy 6 climbs well. The suspension is supportive and generates uphill traction.
First Ride
I have one ride on the new Tallboy. One 4-hour ride. Santa Cruz decided that the media camp for their new trail bike should happen in the trail-laced woods of Bellingham, WA. About an hour and a half drive from my door, this was hard to resist, despite my personal border-crossing ban for the last year or so. On the foothills of Galbraith Mountain, Santa Cruz brand and product bosses, Seb Kemp and Josh Kissner, set themselves up for a week of hosting at a sick little compound called the Galby Gateway, the perfect rental property for an event like this. They brought along some heavy artillery in the name of Ben Hildred and Tobin Ortenblad. Ben is no stranger to saddle time. Having knocked off a million feet in 100 days, he is a superhuman climber with the biggest smile in the world.
Tobin is a reformed gravel racer with movie-star hair and trail speeds that make seasoned downhillers envious. With some sweet cameos from our SRAM friends and our own Cy Whitling, Pete, Hailey, Dan, and I were in really good company. I hoped we brought our legs for this one!
Absolutely epic riding conditions for the media day. Hailey nailed this shot!
El Diablo went down just fine on the Tallboy.
The bikes were easy to set up. 30% sag and recommended pressure in the fork, a few tire squeezes, and we were off to the races. The size medium I landed on felt familiar and safe. We took a few pedal strokes, and it was immediately evident this would be a spritely ride. The Tallboy climbed the flowy trails of Galbraith quickly. There wasn’t much huffing and puffing on the new rig. We stopped for photos frequently. Hailey was smitten with the foggy sea of green ferns that surrounded us.
The increased dropper post insertion of the new Tallboy is welcome. While my medium came with a 180mm OneUp post, a 210 would be a breeze to fit. On the descents, the Tallboy took input well and showed us what biking with a few friends on exactly the same bike is all about. Something we don’t get to do that often. There is nothing more revealing of a bike’s versatility than to hand 12 people the same platform and go for a ride. You get a glimpse of the group’s personality as it comes pouring out in everyone’s riding style.
Sturdy and should be easy to work on.
Motive brakes are winning me over the more I use them. Definitely a step up from Codes.
The Pike Ultimate 140mm might be the best short-travel fork out there.
All the Santa Cruz luxuries can be found in the new Tallboy. The downtube diameter is smaller, but the opening remains the same.
While four hours in Bellingham does not paint a complete picture of how a bike rides everywhere, we found no faults with the new Tallboy’s table manners. Some North Shore riding will reveal the rest of the picture in no time, I imagine. Even Pete, with a bummed hand, who made a million excuses not to ride beforehand, was having a good time on the Tallboy. It’s a comfortable ride with a side of confidence. I found myself NOT shying away from some of the riskier moves on Galbraith. There is ample anti-squat built into the rear end of the Tallboy. Santa Cruz engineers made about 15 versions of the new Tallboy rocker link, starting with a high leverage ratio and dropping it low just to end up somewhere in the middle. The new bike doesn’t require crazy shock pressures to achieve sag. While it can run a coil shock, an HBO( hydraulic bottom out) circuit is recommended for optimum performance. I like linear suspension platforms as they feel very predictable throughout the stroke, and the Tallboy 6 proved that to be true.
The Tallboy is for people who like side hits.
OneUp cockpit and SRAM Motive brakes make for a comfy setup.
Build Kits
There is a Tallboy 6 for everyone out there. From cable-actuated Deore and Eagle 90 builds to X01 T-Type, carbon-wheeled whippets. There is also a limited edition Top Tier build coming out later this year with a special colourway and RockShox’s Flight Attendant suspension. While all our test bikes were of the X01 variety, I appreciate that the CC Carbon models from Santa Cruz all include cable ports once again. Like the Nomad 7 I have been testing, Santa Cruz corrected their mistake with this generation of bikes.
This is the chart where everyone makes their own conclusion about value. For me, the RSV X01 needs nothing, and the XT Di2 is damn near perfect, too.
The cast and crew for this Tallboy Media launch.
The only non-eMTB from Santa Cruz to wear the four-bar suspension badge could be an important bike for years to come. As longer travel bike sales move towards electrified options, it looks like shorter travel trail bikes will become more important for selling pedal bikes. There is nothing obviously wrong with the new Tallboy, and it rides like a dream in so many situations that if you were looking into a new ride with a rock-solid brand, really, look no further.