Santa Cruz pairs modern, aggressive geometry with its signature virtual pivot point (VPP) suspension design to deliver a superior downhill and XC mountain bike in the Santa Cruz Tallboy. The ability to customize the Tallboy with a variety of frames available, adjustable geometry with the flip chip design, and a responsive fork and shock make it a do-it-all mountain bike that many riders will love. Read more about what our team thought about this fun bike in our Santa Cruz Tallboy review below.
Bike Specs
(For large size frame with R Kit)
Frame
Aluminum, Carbon C and Carbon CC models available
Geometry
| Tallboy Flip Chip Setting | High | Low |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 470mm | 468mm |
| Head tube angle | 65.7° | 65.5° |
| Seat tube angle | 76.4° | 76.2° |
| Front center | 781mm | 781mm |
| Bottom bracket height | 335mm | 332mm |
| Bottom bracket drop | 38mm | 41mm |
| Standover height | 706mm | 703mm |
Suspension
Front Fork
FOX Rhythm 34, 130mm
Rear Shock
FOX Float Performance DPS
Brakes
SRAM level
Drivetrain
SRAM NX Eagle Rear Derailer and Shifters
Tires
Front Tire
Maxxis Dissector 29″x2.4, 3C, EXO, MaxxTerra, TR
Rear Tire
Maxxis Rekon, 29″x2.4, 3C. EXO, MaxxTerra, TR
Bike weight
33.06lbs
Handling and overall bike impression
Santa Cruz has pointed out that short and mid travel bikes, like the Tallboy, would normally get ridden slower than long travel bikes, and according to conventional wisdom would need to have steeper and more conservative geometry. Santa Cruz has turned that on its head with the Tallboy and mimicked the geometries of its longer travel bikes like the Hightower and Megatower, with a slack 65.5 degree head angle, along with a larger front-center measurement and a short offset fork. All of these work in the rider’s favor allowing you to be more aggressive in your riding style and making the bike a composed and competent descender.
The Santa Cruz Tallboy also comes with Flip Chip, a feature that allows some adjustability in the geometry. The flip chip allows you to switch between HI and LO mode and will allow you to adjust certain aspects of the bike’s geometry by 0.2 degrees, which translates to adjusting the bottom bracket height on the bike by 3mm. Given the flip chip doesn’t make huge changes to the bike’s geometry, some consider it to be more of a marketing gimmick from Santa Cruz than anything. While we acknowledge it doesn’t make a huge difference, the flip chip is a nice touch that allows you to fine-tune the bike to your preferences – just don’t expect it to cause radical changes to how the bike rides.
Climbing
With its burly tires (Maxxis Dissector up front and Maxxis Rekon in the rear, both 29″ x 2.4″), the Santa Cruz Tallboy does a good job of gripping the trail during climbs.
The seat tube angle of 76.2 degrees is quite steep, putting the rider’s weight more forward and helping to keep the front tire weighted and tracking your line on the way up the hill.
The Tallboy isn’t the lightest bike in the world at 33.06lbs. Some may find it a touch heavy, and if you are someone who will notice this it will most likely be something you notice while climbing. It can get a bit heavy and sluggish feeling on long climbs to the top.
The Santa Cruz Tallboy is still much better and more well suited to climbing than heavier-duty, longer-travel enduro and downhill bikes.
The bike has good travel with 120mm of travel in the rear and 130mm up front. This helps to keep things smooth, and it allows the bike to be better suited to climbing and all-around trail riding when compared to heavier, longer-travel bikes.
Part of the reason for this is with less travel in its suspension, there is less energy loss as you pedal. This will allow you to get up to speed quickly pedaling and maintain momentum better on the uphill portions of your ride as compared to long-travel downhill bikes.
VPP Suspension Design
In addition, the Santa Cruz Tallboy uses VPP or virtual pivot point suspension. The point of VPP is to eliminate unwanted compression from pedaling without preventing the suspension from absorbing bumps. Basically, on most full suspension bikes, the force on your pedals will cause the suspension to compress, and result in energy loss. VPP bikes on the other hand use a link configuration and axle path to apply some pulling force from the chain to counteract the downward force from pedaling, which results in a bike that can still absorb bumps but avoids much of the energy loss from pedaling, especially on climbs.
This feature also avoids having to manually lock out your rear suspension for climbs, which is an added bonus.
Descending
Santa Cruz bikes are known for being superior when handling gravity and serious downhill riding. The Santa Cruz Tallboy lives up to that expectation – and really comes into its own and delivers a confident, playful riding experience on the downhills which makes it such a fun bike to ride.
Whether it be a downhill section of your local trail system or even a lift-access bike park, the Santa Cruz Tallboy feels right at home while descending.
Related: Santa Cruz Chameleon Review
Geometry built for descending
While it’s not equipped with the largest suspension and couldn’t be considered a long-travel bike, you would almost think that it is based on how stable and composed the Santa Cruz Tallboy feels while descending.
Part of this comes from the geometry the Tallboy is built with. Santa Cruz has kept similar geometry to their longer-travel bikes and put it on a shorter-travel bike in the Tallboy. Conventional wisdom says that a shorter-travel bike will need to have a steeper head tube angle due to it typically riding at lower speeds, whereas the Santa Cruz Tallboy has a slacker head tube angle of 65.5 degrees which gives the bike a feeling of stability at speed. The more aggressive geometry helps the bike feel composed and competent when hitting those steeper, gnarlier descents.
For comparison’s sake, the head tube angle on the Tallboy (65.5 degrees) is slacker than that on competitors like the Ibis Ripley (66.5 degrees) and the same as that on the Marin Rift Zone.
Suspension and handling for downhill
The Tallboy is a short travel bike that can venture into long travel bike terrain and come out the other side no worse for wear.
On firm dry trails with lots of chop, the bike handles admirably. The suspension paired with the geometry allow the bikes wheels to maintain good contact with the trail even over rocks and roots, giving you better traction and allowing you to throw caution to the wind and really let it go on the downhill sections.
The rear shock (FOX Float Performance DPS) which makes use of the VPP suspension system does a good job of isolating the impacts from the rider on the downhills, all while not compromising the force generated from pedaling. This makes the VPP suspension, which is used on most Santa Cruz full suspension models, a real performance booster for this bike.
Jumps and Drops
Jumps
The Santa Cruz Tallboy has no issues with getting airborne with confidence. The VPP suspension design allows for a stable feeling coming into the face of jumps, and it along with the 130mm FOX Rhythm 34 provide for plenty of forgiveness should your landing be less than perfect. Where on some other bikes casing a jump can be catastrophic, the Tallboy’s rear suspension does a good job of soaking up unwanted impacts from your mistakes.
The steep seat tube angle helps to keep riders in a more forward position, which is ideal when approaching features like jumps and drops.
The low bottom bracket on the bike helps riders to feel low and confident on approach, allowing you to get into an athletic position as you prepare for takeoff. The sturdy build of the Tallboy means that it will probably not be the limiting factor as far as what types of features you can hit – that will come down to your own skill level and confidence.
Drops
The aggressive head tube angle is helpful on downhill sections, and even more so on drops. It makes steep drops feel less steep, and the bike handles surprisingly big drops while remaining stable. A common theme with this bike is it holds its own in long-travel bike territory even though it is a shorter-travel bike, and again we believe the VPP suspension design is quite helpful in this regard.
The position the steep seat tube angle puts you in is ideal when approaching features like drops. It gets the rider’s weight forward and allows for maneuverability and for you to move your weight back to keep the bike in balance when things get steep.
Cross country
While the Santa Cruz Tallboy certainly isn’t a dedicated cross country mountain bike, it works great for XC riding. Many pure XC bikes do not have full suspension as the Tallboy does, and a key reason for this is pedaling efficiency (as there is typically a power loss from pedaling on full suspension bikes).
Santa Cruz has a good solution to this with its VPP suspension design, which reduces the amount of energy loss from pedaling. This makes the Tallboy great at getting up to speed in a hurry from pedaling, especially compared to other full suspension bikes. While XC-dedicated bikes are often hardtails due to the added pedaling efficiency, the Tallboy gives them a run for their money in this regard.
Beyond that, the suspension allows your tires to stay in firm contact with the ground even when things get choppy and will allow you to pick more aggressive lines than your hardtail-riding friends on XC trails. You will find yourself going over obstacles like rocks and roots more than around them on the Tallboy.
Looks
The Santa Cruz Tallboy not only performs well but it looks the part too. The aggressive geometry and suspension set up on the Tallboy gives you the feeling that it is built to be ridden hard which is confidence inspiring.
Color Options
Beyond its geometry and suspension, the Santa Cruz Tallboy comes in some very cool color schemes, “Flatte Earth” and “Gloss Aqua”, shown below:
What we like about the Tallboy
Pros
- Modern, aggressive geometry inspires confidence on descents and technical features
- VPP suspension system keeps the bike composed over chop while allowing for good energy transfer while pedaling
- Plush fork and shock provide for smooth, fun riding experience
- Low bottom bracket inspires confidence when hitting features and on descents
- Options provided on grips and saddle allowing for a level of customization to rider preference
- Flip chip allows you to fine tune the bike’s geometry to your preferences
What we don’t like about the Tallboy
Cons
- The bike is a bit on the heavy side
- A bit sluggish on long climbs
Frequently asked questions
The Santa Cruz Tallboy is a great bike for all-around use. It’s perfect for cross-country rides, downhill racing, and even dirt jumping. Plus, its lightweight frame makes it easy to maneuver in tight spaces.
If you’re looking for a versatile mountain bike that can handle a wide range of terrain, the Santa Cruz Tallboy is definitely worth considering.
According to Santa Cruz, the frame sizes correspond to the following rider heights:
Extra small (XS) – 4’8″ to 5’1″
Small (S) – 5’1″ to 5’5″
Medium (M) – 5’5″ to 5’9″
Large (L) – 5’9″ to 6’1″
Extra large (XL) – 6’1″ to 6’4″
Extra extra large (XXL) – 6’4″ to 6’7″
As with anything, the size of frame for you will depend on your personal preference in addition to your height.
No, the Santa Cruz Tallboy is not a dedicated downhill bike. It’s more of an all-around mountain bike that is well suited for cross country, climbs, and as with most Santa Cruz bikes, downhill. The Tallboy’s design makes it able to handle a variety of different terrain types, including trails with steep hills and descents. So, if you’re looking for a bike that can handle downhill riding while still being fun for cross country and other riding, the Santa Cruz Tallboy is a good option.
While not purely a cross country bike, the Tallboy more than holds its own on XC trails. Its VPP suspension provides for better pedaling efficiency than typical full suspension bikes, allowing you to get up to speed quickly on flat ground. It also provides for more forgiveness than dedicated XC bikes as it has plush front and rear suspension that allows riders to take more aggressive lines through XC trails.
The Tallboy (size large, R kit) weighs in at 33.06lbs.
Different frame options including Aluminum, Carbon C and Carbon CC are available. Different kit options are also available, including D, R, S, XT, X01, and X01 AXS RSV.
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
If you’re looking for a solid do-it-all full suspension mountain bike, the Santa Cruz Tallboy is definitely worth a look. The Tallboy is versatile enough to handle just about any terrain, including cross country, downhill, jumps and drops, and still does a respectable job climbing. Beyond that it is just plain fun! The confidence and stability it provides on descents will allow you to take your riding to another level. It is an excellent option if you do a mix of different trail and terrain types and are looking for a bike that is up to the task.
Check out the Tallboy’s head-to-head comparison with the Specialized Status 140 here.