The Tallboy is a short-travel bike with long legs. Our perennial 29-inch bike has gone on a diet and bulked up the amount of travel to fit the kind of rider looking to maximize power hours or just ride all the hours. It’s light and efficient enough to climb with the best of them, yet punches way above its weight class as soon as the trail turns down.
Excellent suspension, big wheels, thoroughly-tuned carbon layup and rock-solid reliability let you go as hard as you want.
DID IT FOR THE GRAMS
DO MORE WITH LESS
Tallboy has always been fun and capable, but we felt it was time “light” joined the mix.
We tuned a lighter, more compliant carbon layup to make it more forgiving on the legs and the ankles, while remaining precise and confidence-inspiring. And while we have saved a bunch of weight on this Tallboy, we didn’t cut any durability corners to do so.
MILLIMETRES MATTER
GO HARDER WITH MORE
The sixth generation Tallboy has its biggest makeover. Now with four-bar suspension, as well as going up in travel (140/130mm). It hasn't just put on muscle though. The kinematics – lowered anti-squat and anti-rise – provides a lot of traction and bump-beating power. While the short-travel nature keeps it playful, there's a lot of control and stability, which results in heighten confidence anywhere.
Why four-bar?
Four-bar systems can easily achieve a low anti-squat, which means minimal pedal kickback on square-edge hits and they remain active while pedaling up and across rough, technical terrain. They exhibit fantastic performance while braking on steep, rough terrain, isolating the rider from harshness of and maintaining traction at all times. Which means the bike (and subsequently, the rider) can be consistently composed while riding the hardest trails.
We used a four-bar layout on our ebikes initially, to make the bikes ride the way we wanted while fitting a full-power drive unit. For the Tallboy we really looking for a very different feel than the previous versions, and we were able to fine-tune the kinematics to get what we wanted: a moderately progressive suspension that eats bumps while being spritely and sporty. The low anti-rise and lower anti-squat result in a bike that's very controlled under braking, and allows you to pedal through roots and rocks without causing any hiccups or losing traction. On top of that, it allowed us to reduce weight and improve seatpost insertion. Big wins all around.
Why VPP™?
The perfect suspension curves on paper are useless if you constantly have to work on your suspension, which is where VPP™ comes into play. The short, stout, counter-rotating links connect the front and rear triangles to create an extremely robust chassis, adding durability and stiffness. Simple linkages contain collet axle pivot hardware to prevent slop from developing over time, grease ports make them super-serviceable, no speciality tools are needed, and large-diameter axles and bearings (free lifetime bearing replacement) means a Santa Cruz bike is made to last many lifetimes.
Why Superlight?
Hold onto your bidons, it's about to get nerdy. Instead of relying on a high anti-squat number, we looked to the shock leverage curve to provide more support and control for the Blur. This concept results in a consistently low average leverage, allowing us to reduce anti-squat, and therefore how much pedaling input affects suspension. This gives the rear tire more traction and sensitivity in both climbing and descending scenarios, but also produces a much more efficient forward drive. The overall package results in a supportive, efficient suspension without relying on platform-style damping or proprietary shocks that are associated with compromised traction and sensitivity—not only making you more efficient but giving you more traction too.
