Santa Cruz Tallboy

This thing just makes the trail come alive.

Borrowing inspiration from its gravity line-up, the 2020 Santa Cruz Tallboy now gets the Lower Link VPP suspension system with 120mm of travel to improve big-hit performance, as well as improved geometry and a 130mm fork plugged into the head tube.

While it’s composed, it still feels light and poppy so it’s really easy to boost off of every little thing on the trail. You know you’re on a short-travel bike, but for all the good reasons.

It’s a hard bike to describe, I guess Santa Cruz nailed it when they called it the downhillers XC bike.

It climbed wonderfully. It was super fun on trail riding situations.

This bike reminds me a lot of the version one Hightower. The one that does not have the lower link. It does not seem as kind of snappy as it, but it’s very close. It feels just as capable.

The updated Tallboy looks like long-travel geometry glued to a short-travel bike. But it works brilliantly.

For some riders this ‘just enough’, ‘less is more’ approach will be appealing, in the same way that riding a hardtail can be liberating; less suspension travel equals more rider involvement and a more direct connection with the ground beneath your wheels. There’s nowhere to hide on a short travel bike, and that forces you to up your game. If you fall into that category, then you’ll love the Tallboy.

The Tallboy seems to beg for more than our local trails can offer. We have a taste, now it’s time for a bigger meal.

While the Tallboy truly came to life after some suspension twiddling, new cockpit, winter tyres and some fresh bearings, I can’t help but think that I’d be a bit miffed if I’d had to pay for essentially a fork and shock service; new brakes, BB, headset and front wheel bearings had I dropped over seven thousand pounds on the bike some months earlier.

Technically, the Tallboy fits neatly in the short-travel 29er class—those in the 120-millimeter travel range, give or take a centimeter—a niche that’s alive and well, albeit a little directionally challenged.

The Santa Cruz Tallboy isn’t perfect at any single discipline but it’s a great bike nonetheless. Having ridden all of the trail and enduro bikes in the American brand’s portfolio, it turns out their diminutive 120 mm travel 29er is our favourite.