Smooth, slack, confidence inspiring. These words can be used to describe both the Santa Cruz Tallboy and the Specialized Status 140. The question is, which bike is better? Our head to head test found the answer to be the Specialized Status 140 because of its slacker angles, longer travel fork and extra stability at speed.
Head-to-head:
Specialized Status 140
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Aggressive geometry and slack head tube angle
- Playful and agile
- Stable at high speeds
- Low bottom bracket
- Plush suspension with plenty of travel
Cons:
- Longer wheelbase can reduce maneuverability
- A bit heavy
The Specialized Status 140 is an excellent trail bike that can handle just about anything you may want to throw at it.
Build and performance
The Status 140 is built with aggressive geometry, including a very slack head tube angle of 63.7 degrees on the bike’s low flip chip setting. This geometry inspires confidence, especially on steep descents and when going over features and uneven terrain, and makes the steepest trails you ride feel a bit less steep.
The bike is quite stable at speed. This is thanks partially to its long wheelbase, and partially to its low bottom bracket. The Status 140 feels controlled and has a quiet confidence when it picks up speed.
The long wheelbase does reduce the maneuverability of the Status 140 in tight spaces, however Specialized seems to have compensated for the longer wheelbase by keeping the chainstay length shorter, which results in the bike still having a playful and agile feel to it.
Smoothness of ride
Suspension
The bike has plush suspension with its 140mm Fox Float 36 Rhythm fork up front and a Fox Float X Performance shock in the rear. Both the fork and the shock do a great job of soaking up all the bumps your trails have to throw at you, and they’re excellent at reducing the impacts from poor line choices and less than perfect landings.
Drivetrain
The SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain on the Specialized Status 140 keeps your pedaling feeling smooth, and shifts smoothly and efficiently between gears.
Weight
The Specialized Status 140 is a bit heavier than some other trail bikes on the market, but it is not the heaviest.
Climbing ability
While the Status 140 doesn’t climb extremely well, it does do a good job for a full suspension bike of its size. The bike tracks the trail quite well on climbs and pedals fairly efficiently for a full suspension model.
Santa Cruz Tallboy
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Modern aggressive geometry
- Plush suspension
- Low bottom bracket
- Adjustability
Cons:
- On the heavy side
- Can be sluggish on long climbs
The Santa Cruz Tallboy is a quality mountain bike that is a ton of fun to ride.
Build and performance
It’s built with modern, aggressive geometry making it well suited to going downhill and over features like drops. The slack head tube angle of 65.5 degrees on the low flip chip setting helps to give you a balanced feeling and promote good body position even on the steepest trails you ride.
The Tallboy, like that Specialized Status 140, has a flip chip allowing you to tailor the bike’s geometry to suit your preferences. While the adjustability is nice, the changes between the low and high settings on the Tallboy do not make a very big difference in how the bike feels or rides.
The Tallboy gives you a stable, low feeling when you ride it thanks to the low bottom bracket height. This helps to keep you feeling confident at speed and when approaching features like jumps and drops.
Smoothness of ride
Suspension
The Tallboy also features plush suspension that helps to keep the ride feeling nice and smooth. The bike comes with a 130mm Rockshox Recon RL fork up front and a Fox Float Performance DPS rear shock. The bike’s suspension works well to keep the harsh impacts at bay and helps to keep your wheels tracking the trail when things get rough.
Drivetrain
Like the Status 140, the Santa Cruz Tallboy also features a SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain that keeps both pedaling and shifting feeling smooth and easy.
Weight
The Santa Cruz Tallboy is a bit on the heavy side, coming in at 32.48lbs.
Climbing ability
The Tallboy does an adequate job of getting to you to the top of the hill and climbs about how you’d expect for a FS bike of its weight.
Biggest differences
Stability
The Specialized Status 140 has a longer wheelbase (1254mm) than the Santa Cruz Tallboy (1211mm). This increases the Status 140’s stability at speed, and it does feel slightly more stable compared to the Santa Cruz Tallboy.
With that being said, having a shorter wheelbase makes the Tallboy feel a bit more nimble in tighter spaces as compared to the Status 140.
Maneuverability
The shorter chainstay length of the Status 140 of 426mm does help to make up for its longer wheelbase, allowing it to still feel quite agile.
In comparison, the Santa Cruz Tallboy chainstay is slightly longer at 436mm. Given the overall length of the bike the Tallboy does still feel a bit more maneuverable compared to the Status 140, but the difference isn’t huge.
Descending, features and climbing
The Specialized Status 140 has slacker geometry than its Santa Cruz counterpart. The Status 140 has a head tube angle of 63.7 degrees at its low flip chip setting, compared to the Tallboy’s head tube angle of 65.5 degrees.
This helps to make the Status 140 feel a bit more confident on the steepest trails and drops compared to the Tallboy.
You might expect the slacker geometry would make the Status 140 less capable on climbs, but we have found that not to be the case, and that it climbs fairly well for a slack, full suspension mountain bike. We found it even edged out the Tallboy by a hair on climbs, despite being slacker.
Front suspension: Rockshox Recon RL 130mm vs Fox Float 36 Rhythm 140mm
The front forks on both the Specialized Status 140 and the Santa Cruz Tallboy provide for a plush, smooth ride that soaks up most of the chop you’ll hit on the trails.
The Rockshox Recon RL 130mm on the Santa Cruz Tallboy is smooth and responsive, and does a good job keeping your front wheel tracking the trail. On the biggest impacts, such as when you mess up a landing off a jump, you may be a bit more apt to bottom out Rockshox Recon RL fork given its got a bit less travel at 130mm.
The Fox Float 36 Rhythm 140mm that comes standard on the Specialized Status 140 is another rock-solid fork, which is also reliably smooth and responsive. It’s equipped with more travel at 140mm which provides for a bit more forgiveness if you happen to make a mistake or have a hard landing, and this makes the fork less likely to bottom out.
While the feel and responsiveness of both forks are similar, we give the edge to the Fox Float 36 Rhythm on the Status 140 for the added travel it provides.
Rear suspension: Fox Float Performance DPS vs Fox Float X Performance
The Fox Float Performance DPS on the Santa Cruz Tallboy and the Fox Float X Performance on the Specialized Status 140, while slightly different, perform very similarly.
Both the Float Performance DPS and Float X Performance shocks feel plush yet supportive, and do a good job of soaking up even the chunkiest terrain you will come across. They also both are adjustable so you can find the right setting for you.
These rear shocks allow both bikes to be as fun on your local trail network as they are at the bike park, and they both inspire confidence.
Because of how similarly well these shocks perform on the respective bikes, we consider the difference between them negligible and wouldn’t base our purchase decision on the rear suspension of these bikes. At the end of the day, which you like more will come down to your own personal preference, but we expect you’ll be happy with either.
Weight
The Specialized Status 140 weighs in at an even 32lbs, compared to 32.48lbs for the Santa Cruz Tallboy. Both bikes are a bit on the heavy side, but the Status 140 does have the Tallboy beat by a hair in this department.
Frequently asked questions
32.48lbs
32lbs
The Specialized Status 140 is a trail bike with 140mm travel in the fork, whereas the Specialized Status 160 is an enduro bike with 160mm of travel.
Mountain bike review criteria
When reviewing mountain bikes, these are the things we look for:
- Frame quality
- Component quality
- Bike weight
- Bike style and aesthetic appeal
For a detailed breakdown of how we assess each of these criteria, see How We Review Mountain Bikes.
Conclusion
Both the Specialized Status 140 and the Santa Cruz Tallboy are awesome trail bikes that are a blast to ride. They’re both smooth, confidence inspiring rides and to be honest, you couldn’t go wrong with either. When putting both bikes head to head, the Specialized Status 140 is our choice for its stability, slacker geometry and extra travel in the fork compared to the Tallboy.