The Santa Cruz Tallboy is one of the most eagerly anticipated new bikes of all time. Not only does it mark the long-awaited entrance of Santa Cruz into the 29er market, but it also--on design ambition alone--catapults them directly toward the top of the 29er world.

The frame is carbon fiber--the same impeccable carbon fiber construction we've already seen on the Blur XC and Blur LT, and the same attention to detail in pivots and rocker design, including grease ports and creak-free locking pins, is here.

But let's cut to the chase--how does it ride? Having spent the last decade on 29ers, and put in considerable time on 2nd generation Virtual Pivot Point bikes, we had high hopes for the Tallboy, but even those expectations didn't prepare us for the combination of noticeably lighter frame, big wheels, and a very active suspension system that knows how to behave under power.




Like all bikes, it is possible to generate suspension movement under power on a Tallboy, but you almost have to concentrate on doing this in order to make it happen. The bike floats over everything. In fact, like the Blur XC Carbon (only more so), the most unique challenge to riding the Tallboy was getting used to how light it was. Even thrown together as a passed around demo bike, we weighed this burly, XT 15QR Tallboy at 26.2lbs with our Crank Bros. Candy pedals. Most importantly, the weight factors into the ride. A quick bike with the rollover speed of big wheels that can also be flicked around particularly easily, is, as you might suspect, pretty damn wonderful.




It doesn't hurt that the Tallboy is among the absolute stiffest 29ers we've ridden; this frame does not twist. The effect is one of confidence--the bike just feels incredibly solid. Again, we first encountered this bizarre combination of light weight and confidence in the Blur XC Carbon, but the larger wheels of the Tallboy add even more technical and high-speed confidence. It actually takes some time to adapt to the bike, largely because it's so unique to find light weight and solid in the same place at the same time like this.




Stay tuned . . . we're working on bringing a long-term test Tallboy home with us.