Santa Cruz has long been known as an industry trendsetter. With so much success backing past designs, there has been some significant hype surrounding their new 135mm Tallboy carbon and aluminum 29ers. Have a look at Brice Minnigh's initial thoughts in here to see if SC's rep is in trouble...
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By Brice Minnigh
Courtesy of Bike Magazine
Truth be told, I was sold on the concept before I even got to ride Santa Cruz’s new long-travel 29ers—the aluminum Tallboy LT and carbon Tallboy LTc.
For starters, the company’s first stab at a full-suspension, 29-inch-wheeled bike—the Tallboy—was the first wagon-wheeler I really loved, from the moment I first took it for a shred around Whistler’s Lost Lake trails back in October 2009. To my mind, Santa Cruz had been the first bike maker to truly crack the 29er code, dialing in the geometry to make a big-wheeled beast that was somehow eminently maneuverable. I remember applauding the Tallboy’s ample standover and comparatively short chainstays and thinking, “Shiiiit, these 29ers might turn out to be really fun bikes after all.”
I wasn’t alone in my admiration. Within weeks, our meager editorial ranks were consumed by competition, with each editor jockeying for position, calling imaginary dibs on the test bike and trying to curry favor with Santa Cruz’s overwhelmed marketing manager, Mike Ferrentino. No sooner had I reviewed the bike, one of our sales managers confiscated it and claimed he was going to buy the frame and shock from Santa Cruz immediately. The Tallboy suddenly became a scarce commodity, and it probably was a good half-year before two members of our staff were actually able to buy the frameset.
Given our team’s enthusiasm for the original Tallboy, our collective excitement over the prospect of a longer-travel version shouldn’t have come as a surprise. I mean, it’s no secret that Bike’s humble hacks are amazingly amenable to longer-travel bikes—if for no other reason than they make tough trails easier and more fun for the everyman to shred into oblivion. So the idea of a Tallboy with 135 millimeters of rear-wheel travel designed to run 130- to 150-millimeter forks pretty much had us sold from square one.
After my first rides on the alloy and carbon versions—at a cloak-and-dagger press camp in Sedona, Arizona, that was wonderfully inundated by the rough-and-ready UK mountain-bike press corps—my astoundingly favorable predisposition for the bike was vindicated.
Simply put, the Tallboy LT is sick—especially the carbon version, which weighs just 5.3 pounds for a large frame with shock. Believe it or not, that’s 0.3 pounds lighter than Santa Cruz’s 26-inch Blur LTc. The bike’s lightness and stiffness is bolstered by sensible all-mountainesque geometry, with a head angle that is 1.5 degrees slacker than that of the Tallboy and a seat angle that is almost a half-degree slacker.
The bike wasted no time in putting abundant trail under its big wheels, eating up steep and technical climbs with ease before barreling straight down through the chunder on the other side. For the better part of a week, the Tallboy LT and LTc—equipped with the 140-millimeter-travel Fox 34 fork—munched up mile after mile of sweet Sedona singletrack. By the time Ferrentino had dropped me off at the Phoenix airport for my return home, I missed the bikes already. It sucked to leave.
Of course, upon my return I immediately begged for an alloy LT to be sent to our Southern California headquarters for ‘longer-term testing,’ and that bike has already been sent to Bellingham, Washington, to be put through its paces on some steeper, burlier terrain.
For the more complete ‘dual-tester review’ of the Tallboy LT, check out the July issue of Bike magazine.
Tallboy LTc
Features:
-M, L, XL sizes
-Proprietary onepiece carbon fiber layup
-Tapered headtube
-142x12mm rear axle
-Replaceable derailleur hanger (optional Shimano direct mount rear hanger available)
-ISCG05 mount
-135mm travel, 7.875×2″ shock
-Customtuned Fox Float RP23 Kashima shock
-Collet axle pivot hardware
-Offset lower link (better chainguide clearance), recessed grease ports
-Continuous cable, dropper post routing
-Leather seatstay, chainstay, downtube protector
-Threaded bb shell (as in the paragraph above, our feelings are still the same. This is a good way to do a bottom bracket.)
-Available complete with R/AM spec for $4399 or SPX/AM spec for $5299
-Colors: Matte Carbon/Orange, Solar Yellow/Black
Tallboy LT
Features:
-M, L, XL sizes
-Hydroformed top and downtubes
-Tapered headtube
-Replaceable derailleur hanger
-ISCG05 mount
-135mm travel, 7.875″x2″ shock
-Custom tuned Fox Float RP23 Kashima shock
-Collet axle pivot hardware
-Offset lower link (better chainguide clearance), recessed grease ports
-Continuous cable routing, dropper post routing
-Threaded BB shell (we think this is still the best, most userfriendly, widely compatible, globally serviceable way to install a bottom bracket.)
-Available complete with R/AM spec for $3,199 or SPX/AM spec for $4,299
-Colors: Gulf Blue/Orange,Gloss Gun Black/Black
For more details visit Santa Cruz Bicycles
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