Santa Cruz Tallboy long-term test bike: Final report
It’s hard to believe it has been close to four months since our long-term Gloss White Santa Cruz Tallboy CC XX SL AXS RSV landed in our gear shed. It’s been fun, has gone fast, and has also been quite frustrating, although that had nothing at all to do with the bike. The Tallboy’s arrival coincided with the worst winter we’ve seen in Sydney for many years. Heavy rainfall across May and June, and all the way through August, saw this gleaming white rig stay pretty shiny and clean due to the blanket track closures across and around Sydney. The ride-time on this schmick rig has been lower than we’d like but, following on from our initial report online back in early June, we still have been seriously impressed with this trail-loving machine.
As most MTBers know, Santa Cruz has long dubbed the Tallboy as “the downhiller’s cross-country bike”, and as much as we usually cringe at marketing-speak like that, in this case, it is dead-accurate in reality: this bike rocks in terms of capability on most XC/trail terrain and, if you’re focused, you can dip its wheels into more gnarly all-mountain riding as well.
Design
This fifth incarnation of the Tallboy retains the then-radical geometry changes of the previous generation Tallboy, released in 2019. That was when Santa Cruz provided a new take on what a short-travel bike could be, shoehorning enduro-style, long and slack geometry into a bike with 120mm rear travel, and 130mm of squish up front. At the time, the Tallboy was lauded as an ideal bike for close to 90 per cent of the riding population, in terms of what types of trails most of us ride. This latest version received a few subtle tweaks to geometry and suspension kinematics, proving Santa Cruz’s designers got it pretty close to right with the previous-gen. And, it still comes with that excellent lifetime warranty (as does the Reserve wheelset).
We scored the top-tier model for our long-termer, and it is, literally, covered in all the conceivable MTB bling you can think of in regard to specs, hence all those acronyms. A Rockshox Pike Ultimate fork provides 130mm of travel up front (you can opt for a Fox 34 Float Factory with Grip 2, if you wish). A lower-link driven Factory Fox Float DPS works with Santa Cruz’s Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) suspension system to offer 120mm of rear travel.
The beefy looking frame is available in two carbon lay-ups – C and CC – with the CC frame (as featured in our Large tester) being lighter in weight, but with both offering the same strength. It features proportional geometry, ensuring each frame size has the appropriate seat-tube angle (it steepens as the frame size goes up) and optimised rear centre for each size, as well. Sizes range from XS to XXL (a rarity in the MTB world, these days, but appreciated). The frame has Boost 148mm spacing, a maximum tyre width of 2.5-inch, and you can increase fork travel to 140mm if you really think it’ll make a difference (more on that later). For those Luddites among us (yes, me included) there’s a threaded bottom bracket, and the frame comes with a lifetime warranty. Finally, there’s a Universal Derailleur Hanger (UDH), as well as Santa Cruz’s take on in-frame storage, dubbed the Glovebox.
Adhering to the long, low, slack theory, the Tallboy has a 65.5-degree head angle and a low bottom bracket height of 335mm (when the shock’s adjustable flip-chip is set to HI; it is 332mm when set to LO). Our Large size tester has a 76.8-degree seat-tube angle and 1227mm wheelbase, with 475mm of reach and there is 698mm of standover (all these figures are when the flip-chip is in HI).
Befitting this top-tier model’s heady price tag – and explaining those acronyms – there is no expense spared on this bike’s fit-out, with SRAM’s 12-speed XX SL Eagle AXS Transmission pushing your leg power to a set of carbon-fibre Reserve (RSV) 30SL wheels, fitted with Industry Nine Hydra hubs and rolling on Maxxis tyres (on our tester: a Dissector 29×2.4WT Maxx Terra EXO/TR front; Rekon 29×2.4WT Maxx Terra EXO/TR rear).
Stopping power is provided by SRAM’s Level Ultimate Stealth 4-Piston brakes (180mm discs front/rear) while, perhaps surprisingly, the dropper is the cable-operated OneUp V2, rather than SRAM’s wireless AXS option. The bike weighs in at around 12.9kg.
For Tallboy 5, Santa Cruz fiddled with the bike’s suspension kinematics a bit, endeavouring to provide a bit more traction via reducing the anti-squat, while a changed leverage curve allows a bit more ‘wiggle-room’ (read: less push through the travel) when the suspension is really challenged on those bigger hits. Yep, that’s an impressive list of specs and tweaks, but does all this bling and those changes work in the real world, on the trails? Well…
Long-term test wrap-up
As we mentioned in our first report (after only one month of riding) some folks may have laughed at Santa Cruz’s claim of this being the downhiller’s XC bike but the Tallboy’s performance across these four months, on a variety of trails, confirms that description’s accuracy. That burly frame withstood all this ham-fisted, aging, rider could throw at it across the Northern Beaches’ (in)famous sandstone and rock-littered trails. The short travel measurements only became obvious in genuinely gnarly terrain and even then, it just put the onus back on the rider to pick lines more carefully. I reckon upping the front fork travel to 140mm may help slightly, and you could do this without pushing too much into the Santa Cruz Hightower’s (160mm front/150mm rear) all-mountain/enduro remit. For most of the Tallboy’s test tenure at Aus Geo ADVENTURE, it’s been the go-to rig for a ride. The tweaks to the VPP suspension seen over the past few incarnations have made a notable difference to traction and momentum on the sharp-edged rock ledges often encountered on Aussie trails.
In fact, the more the bike was ridden, the more I thought how hard it was to remember a bike as ‘comfortable’ as this. I put this down to a combo of suspension kinematics, robust frame and those excellent Reserve 30SL wheels. For me, these are the best spec part on what is a high-spec’d bike – they impressed me so much I am trying to scrape together some cash to buy a set for my bike. These wheels offer a blend of directness and suppleness in the transferral of impact and power, thanks to their ability to soak up uneven terrain and deflections without pushing the bike off-line.
The SRAM AXS Transmission drivetrain works seamlessly and it copes well with panicked gear shifts under load. One thing I could never get used to was the feel of the SRAM Level Ultimate Stealth 4-Piston brakes. They worked well enough, so I think it could simply be due to me being so used to Shimano brakes, as all my bikes since I was a wee tacker have had those. That is one nit-pick, with a small other on the slightly low bottom bracket just meaning you have to be careful on rocky terrain (or get shorter cranks). Neither of those two points would stop me buying this bike if I was in the market.
The final word on the Santa Cruz Tallboy
The Santa Cruz Tallboy CC XX SL AXS RSV has performed with aplomb. If pushed, we’d still lean toward classifying it as a trail bike, but with a potentially wider breadth of capability; fitting beefier rubber for an enduro race, or entering a marathon XC event as-is, are possible with this bike. I am hoping to ride in the seven-day BC Bike Race next year and this rig would be an ideal candidate for such an event.
Yes, this particular model is expensive – although no more so than other boutique MTB brands’ top-tier offerings – but the fact you can score that same frame, geometry and suspension kinematics across the Tallboy range at lower prices means you can still live the dream of riding what we consider one of the most versatile – and bloody fun – MTBs on the market.
RRP: from $6999 to $16,999 See Santa Cruz for full details of the Tallboy range.
